Kayo seems to have an entry level bike for everyone. These are their 300 four-strokes…
It’s a sunny winters day. The junior members of our team are on school and varsity break, and looking for stuff to do. Luckily for them, we know people and a call to the Kayo importers produced two gleaming motorcycles for them to go and ride.
Provisio: Tell us what they are like.
Two models, the more utilitarian air cooled T4 And the more performance oriented, liquid cooled Kayo K5.
Just look at em!
Well appointed and pretty good looking… that’s important for any bike.
The T4 in our opinion is especially pretty with the red, white and black finishes. The attention to detail is very impressive; red fuel cap, grips plug lead and suppressor. Red rim tape on black wheels. Foldaway levers, anodised shock caps… man it really is pretty gorgeous.
And all of this on the more inexpensive model. Take a look at the carbon look brake guards – they would work on any bike.
It’s all complimented by a stainless steel pipe, complete with a resonance chamber. “What’s that?” We hear you ask. We’ll tell you all about them in a story soon.
The K5 is pretty in white with simple decals. It shares the black wheels, brakes and other components, but is not quite as “In your face” as the T4. It’s liquid cooled and comes standard with a cooling fan.
We like the black anodising on the forks, the gripper seat and all the cool little components fitted as standard.
The Ride:
Boys, take a bike, do a lap, come in, swap, take a lap, come in, swap and let’s compare notes.
Off they went, in typical Foley fashion unsure of which direction, but we eventually had them going the same way. A fast, windy lap through the farmlands, back to where we waited for feedback.
Now, we need to tell you this, in the interests of honest journalistic integrity…
The boys might be young, but they are really experienced, both having ridden just about every bike that has arrived at our place. They both ride 250 enduro bikes, so they know exactly what they are talking about.
We expected them to be a bit disparaging about an entry level machine like this, but that was not the case.
It was interesting to see how each of them gravitated towards the bike they liked best, Tristan kind of latched onto the liquid cooled, while Kyle stuck to the T4.
We expected it to be the other way round, because Kyle is generally the speedmeister with Tristan preferring slower, more technical terrain.
Kyle:
The T4 actually reminds me a lot of our 230 (CRF), in the way that it makes power. It feels so similar, but it has improved brakes and suspension and it’s just really easy and fun to ride.
The K5 feels a bit stiff to me, a harder ride and…. although it’s faster than the T4, the red bike just feels more fun.
Tristan:
The K5 is faster and more motocrossy from the bottom to the top. It has stiffer suspension, which I prefer and goes really well when you open her up. The T4 is probably the bike I’d buy for the farm. Kyle is quite right, it is a bit more plush and easy.
Can we pinch some of the bits on it for the K5?
We headed from the flat track out to the bridge where we have some steep slopes and jumps and let the boys loose. The bikes handled the terrain easily and both lads were happy with the performance overall.
Kyle:
If you consider what you pay for the bikes, they really are quite capable, and really good fun to ride. I expected the suspension to bottom out but it didn’t, we actually had a lot of fun. The T4 power is so similar to the 230, it makes climbs and things really easy.
Tristan:
On cheaper bikes, you always worry that something might not quite work… will it stall on the steep hill, will the brakes fail (it has happened to me), will there be an electrical gremlin…
Climbing and jumping is fun and we had no issues.
Ergonomically, both boys are more than 6 foot so reaching the ground is no issue. “The bikes are slender and all the controls, pegs, handlebars are well placed. Most riders will be perfectly comfortable, even tall riders like us.”
From the jumps, we headed along, to our local rocky koppie via some of the river crossings. It’s the perfect spot to try sillier stuff and to test a bikes torque and ground clearance.
We do know all the lines and the boys were reminded that these are not trials bikes and to take it easy.
“No issues. Ground clearance for the normal rocky stuff is good and both bikes make good enough power to climb without abusing the clutch. Both bikes are a little bit heavier than ours, so you adjust your riding style to match.”
The T4 is the better of the two for low down lugging, you can make mistakes without stalling. The K5 prefers to rev and run… and needs more input in tight terrain and she can stall if you don’t keep the revs up.
Both bikes have electric start, so firing up again is simple and the bikes started easily every time we rode.
Conclusions:
Mainline importers no longer have entry level bikes available. Bikes like the Honda CRF 230 and Yamaha TTR are no longer imported because of the costs involved and other things like South Africa’s homologation laws make bikes like these a thing of the past.
As entry level bikes go, these really are a lot of fun – and let’s face it, they really are quite good looking.
Our boys are suitably impressed:
“This is a lot of bang for your buck and lots of fun!”
Parts are inexpensive and are readily available with a great dealer network.
The red T4 costs: R42995
The white K5: R46995
www.kayomoto.co.za
