Kawasaki Z650: The one I've been waiting for

[dirt road_imp]

I agree . And that may be one of the reasons for the slow sales. The bike has excellent "driveability" , but at my age I better think twice. I'll test drive a couple of the new 650/700 twins. That Z650 looks better every time I look at it (except the frame color). PLUS it weighs less than a KLR650 !

[Ulvetanna_imp]

I agree . And that may be one of the reasons for the slow sales. The bike has excellent "driveability" , but at my age I better think twice. I'll test drive a couple of the new 650/700 twins. That Z650 looks better every time I look at it (except the frame color). PLUS it weighs less than a KLR650 !

I had four of those KLR's. The best one was a mid 1990's model, and the KLR250 was also a great bike, kick-start only, it lit up every single time, even after sitting for weeks.

The last one I had was a 2008, it just seemed very uninspired. Not like this Z650 appears to be.

[Cormanus]

Review of the Z650— http://www.motorcycle.com/manufacturer/k...eview.html

[Ulvetanna_imp]

I just purchased this bike yesterday. As I'll mention in another thread, the CB1100 was traded for it. There's not much reason to review the Z650 in any detail, but just a few fast facts (thanks to Arthur Coldwells for coining this term):

1. The motorcycle is built in Thailand; many Triumph motorcycles, among them the Street Cup, are made there also.

2. The build quality is superb, and I state that without hesitation. All the details of manufacture are admirable, the components of excellent quality, the design first-rate. The bike has adjustable levers, an eminently readable display with all the requisite trip computers and extras, and an exceptionally good ergonomic design with a generous seat and passenger seat, a real toolkit with the tools you actually need, and a large under-seat storage area. The swingarm is aluminium, with threaded bosses welded in place to accept spools for a paddock stand, a pretty clear nod to the track day and club racing contingent. Nothing has been left out, really.

3. The engine is superb, the cornerstone of this machine. It pulls cleanly and strongly right off the bottom, with generous midrange torque peaking around 5000 RPM. Unlike the HT 900 Bonneville engine, the Z650's mill keeps pulling hard to redline, peaking at 10 HP more than the Triumph. But the High-Torque 900 feels just about as fast, because it makes a lot more torque at only 3250 RPM. The bikes are very similar in overall intent but the sporting capabilities of the Z650 are clearly much higher. The Z650 is genuinely fast for its class, it's very lively and willing to rev, pulling strong and clean everywhere.

4. Driveline lash is what one might expect at this price point. A smooth hand on the throttle is needed, but it's perfectly manageable; I compare this bike here to the superb, CV-carb-like fueling on the Street Cup, with its ride-by-wire system, the best fueling I've experienced on any fuel-injected bike thus far. Contrasted with other bikes it its class, the fueling is good and needs nothing more than a smooth hand, typical of almost any EFI bike these days. The engine will make this bike very competitive with Yamaha's FZ07, which makes a few more horsepower and is a few pounds lighter.

5. Kawasaki seems to have played a little trick on us with the seat height. I observed the bike to handle very, very quickly, more so than I would have expected for the weight, wheelbase, and rake and trail numbers. It was really almost nervous, but not quite; 100 mph on the freeway for a brief moment proved it quite stable as delivered. But I noted the forks were raised in the triple-clamps by about 1/4". I believe Kawasaki figured out what the bike could stand and still be stable, in order to get that seat height below the all-important 31" number. It comes in at 30.9". I moved the fork tubes to where the cap is flush with the upper triple and will work with the handling to get it where it is optimal. A further clue pointing to this tactic was that even after lower the shock to the minimum preload setting, the bike still felt nose-heavy and overly quick-steering. All of this is great news for those wanting to track this bike or tune it for sport riding, because Kawasaki obviously built in a lot of adjustability to the chassis. The shock is connected with a "back-link" system very similar to what is used on the ZX-10R, and can be easily replaced with something better for those interested. The brakes are quite powerful, even with the twin-piston calipers, and have pretty good feel, but could be improved as with any machine by different pads and stainless steel lines.

6. The design strategy, as I interpret it, for both the new Triumph line and this new Z650, is to use computers from the clean-sheet stage. Both of these machines, though one is of British design and the other of Japanese origin, exhibit a very efficient and effective "density" of purpose, an extreme degree of mass centralization, and a very high quality of build for each and every individual part. That's one reason why some riders begin to rotate the stable a bit after three or four years; particularly now, when computers are obviously being used to great advantage for both performance, reliability, and cost-effectiveness.

[rboe]

Has some nice data points; but I can't get over the looks. I'll pass. Or perhaps its the world passing me by.

[Capo]

Cool bike! I like the faired version as well. My hunch is that this and its ilk will replace the Supersport 600 class as sporty, tractable, reasonably priced road bikes that can be modified or tracked without losing usability as a street machine. And grassroots racing- friendly as well. Nice choice, not as a CB replacement, but as another tool in the shed. Good.


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[RockHop_imp]

Ulve-

Just wondering if you considered the Triumph Street Triple 675 R? Admittedly, it retails at $10,400, but with the 2017 Street Triple 800 (765?) debuting on Jan 10, there might be some bargains. The current Street weighs in at 370 and 106 hp.

My son had one that I rode occasionally and it was real easy to move around in the garage.

[Stichill_imp]

[Ulvetanna_imp]

Cool bike! I like the faired version as well. My hunch is that this and its ilk will replace the Supersport 600 class as sporty, tractable, reasonably priced road bikes that can be modified or tracked without losing usability as a street machine. And grassroots racing- friendly as well. Nice choice, not as a CB replacement, but as another tool in the shed. Good.


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You called it on the money. After a couple of good rides on this thing, it's very obvious that's exactly what Kawasaki has in mind. The Ninja version is going to make an excellent racebike in the middleweight superstock twins category for club racing.

The engine is super-lively and responsive and this bike is not slow by any means. It feels to me like 70 HP or maybe more.

The narrower rear tire really helps with agility and these can be had in the 160/60 size in a Dunlop Q3 and I figure quite a few other track-oriented brands. I am really looking forward to riding this bike with Q3s.

Lowering the forks back to what I guessed was the standard position made exactly the difference I'd expected. The bike was still very agile but was now stable mid-turn. I bumped the shock preload from minimum to the second setting, haven't ridden it yet but I think that's going to be a good setting as long as I retain the stock shock, which I hope will be replaced with something suitable down the road.

KHI went to a lot of trouble with this redesign, they clearly had to lengthen the swingarm to accommodate the horizontal back-link shock configuration. The swingarm's aluminum, already threaded for spools, which I picked up yesterday. The frame is excellent, quite stable at decent cornering speeds.

This is the future of the middleweight sportbike class, I think. These may grow into a 750cc twin pushing about 90 HP without gaining much weight. That would be a very tractable bike, a 750 twin of about 425 pounds, maybe able to see 100 HP with mods, and better suspension and brakes at least as an option.

The chassis is already sorted, it was derived from the H2 and H2R and it works brilliantly. Very good feedback even with the stock Dunlops.

[Ulvetanna_imp]

To expand on Capo's comments...

I rode the Z650 pretty well today, after dropping the forks and setting the shock to #2 preload position. That put the handling exactly where I wanted it, very agile but still stable enough not to be twitchy. Even with the stock Dunlop 214 tires the bike was amazingly good. Not just for what it is, but amazingly good. Broad powerband, strong right off idle (the first two gears are almost certainly timing-retarded with the stock ECU flash) and very strong all the way to redline. The power never falls off, with torque peak around 5500 RPM or thereabouts. It would surely be possible to power-wheelie this motorcycle with an ECU reflash that would remove the restrictions in the first two gears.

The engine is pure racebike twin right from the git-go. It works fine trolling around town but operates best above 6000 RPM, it loves to be up there where there is plenty of control. This engine has got to be experienced to be believed, truly. Very responsive, free-revving, and powerful. Not the slightest glitch in fueling either, except for the expected low-speed slop, never an issue on the track or for hard sport-riding.

The brakes have come in and they are really stupid strong, way more powerful than I would have guessed for twin-piston calipers. They're not mushy, either, a marvel for an ABS-equipped bike. The lever is tight, short travel, plenty of feel. And very easy to get the ABS to intervene with two fingers, but one finger is all that's needed for almost all conditions. One finger is perfect for trailbraking into a turn and this bike does that brilliantly, better than any bike I've ever owned or ridden. It's fantastic on the brakes, you can get the rear tire almost unweighted and still have incredible control and feedback from the contact patch under very hard braking. It's very stable at higher lean angles and quite neutral on/off throttle and brakes.

I would wager this is the best middleweight twin sporting chassis ever built on this kind of commercial scale. I expected it to be good, but this is way beyond good. The closest thing out there to this chassis is the late-nineties FZR400, which had phenomenally legendary handling. The chassis dimensions are nearly identical in many respects but the Z650 does several things differently which put it way out in front of the FZR.

First thing I noted was the swingarm is much longer than the Yamaha's. That's one reason why it's so good under hard braking with the rear tire unweighted, you can still feel the rear contact patch, very important as you set up the turn and get ready to crank up the juice. Also Kawasaki has used a "horizontal back-link" shock setup, just like the ZX-10R, which has a string of WSBK titles to its name now. And it works. Even with the low-end budget shock supplied the back end of the bike is very controllable and pretty compliant. I am eager to see what it'll be like with an Ohlins or Penske but could certainly live with the stock unit until it wore out.

The other big difference between the Z650 and FZR400 is the steel chassis. The FZR has an aluminium Deltabox chassis, a great design, but stiff. In the last few years it's been possible to make steel-framed bicycles that weigh about the same as titanium, but are much more compliant. Steel is a great metal to use in construction because it is very easy to temper in myriad ways. Many different kinds of steel can be used, and the tube section and wall thickness can be very easily manipulated to provide very precise results. The steel chassis on the Z650 is of the same design as the Kawasaki H2/R and they have really got that right. It's light, strong, well-designed, and well-tempered to work exactly right under the kinds of stresses encountered in hard, high-performance riding.

I predict Kawasaki will expand the use of this design and it is very likely the philosophy will be seen on other manufacturer's machines in the next couple of years. The new Z900 uses exactly the same basic design, a steel trellis/box frame. That bike is only $1000 more than the Z650 which tells me that most of the extra cost is in the larger four-cylinder engine. The frame on the Z650 is of very high-quality and most of the cost is there. But the Z900 comes in at only $7999 non-ABS, very inexpensive. It's somewhat heavier than the FZ09 but makes more power and without a doubt, the chassis is going to be so far removed from the two-piece bolt-together minimalist design of the Yamaha that the two bikes will be worlds apart on a fast twisting road or at a track day.

Steel works better for most chassis, it's much less expensive to handle than aluminium, and makes for a better motorcycle for almost every application except at the very top of Superbike or MotoGP.

I think the Z650 and Z900 are going to knock the door flat when the reviews emerge.