A Bike You Would Like to Own, If Only

[SanPete_imp]

Kawasaki W800. If only it was imported into the US. Alas, I would trade 3 (hideous wannabe Harley Sportsters IMO) Triumph Bonneville Americas for one of these legally registered here.
Australians may have funny accents, lousy beer, and drive on the wrong side of the road, but I envy them for having access to this bike.




And here's what a "Triumph" looks like when it wants to look like a Harley triumph.

This bit of cartoonish grotesquery was Triumph's best-selling overall model at exactly the same time Kawasaki decided to discontinue sales of the W650 in the US, due to sluggish sales.
"Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just." -T. Jefferson

This is one of my favorite "Unobtainiums" too. Last year they had a Special Edition with gold wheels and some other goodies that was just gorgeous.

Indian target market are Harley owners. You can stand them side by side and not know the difference. Their motto could be "our bike looks like yours but are better and cheaper". I am not against Indian, just their approach.

Sent from my SM-T217S using Tapatalk

This was certainly true back in the "CMC" iteration of Indian from 06-11. At the time they were using S&S Evo engines that were direct clones of HDs. The IMC versions were somewhat better with the unique "Bottlecap" engines, but they still very much an HD clone, IMO.

Today I think Polaris deserves major kudos for engineering a new Indian bike from the ground up. The Power Plus 103 engine is a tribute to the classic Indian engines in a way very similar to our CBs vs. the original CBs. I've read the engine kicks ass power-wise. And although I don't like the valanced fender, mega cruiser bike style myself, I don't think anyone is going to mistake a Chieftain for an Ultra Classic.
I've changed my mind on the Multi. Now I want one of these:

http://www.ducatiusa.com/bikes/monster_1200/index.do

You may be comparing the wrong two bikes. There was an article last year from motorcycle-usa.com comparing the "2014 Heritage Softail vs Indian Chief Vintage" here is an excerpt from that article. " we pit the 2014 Indian Chief Vintage against the 2014 Harley Heritage Softail Classic. Externally, the two are carbon copies of one another, big classic-cued cruisers clad in chrome, swooping fenders and softail-style suspension." I can't say it better than this. If I had to choose between these two bikes, I would take the Indian. But if I had to choose from all the bikes mentioned here I would probably choose the Kawasaki W800. Now if only Greg could show us a picture of his. A thing of beauty!

http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/10/17171/M...ntage.aspx