How much power in a motorcycle is enough? The obvious and dramatic answer quite simply is: too much is never enough. But then, who are we kidding? Shortly after the Indian market got flooded with litre-class beasts on two wheels, there emerged a rather practical school of thought that simply wanted motorcycles that were more manageable in the Indian context — where roads aren’t always butter-smooth, and potholes and hill-sized, cliff-faced speed breakers are an everyday reality. Let’s not even get started on traffic snarls and the general lack of driving sense.
What you need then are exciting-looking motorcycles that are more ride-able than powerful, more forgiving than razor-sharp, and most importantly, affordable enough to graduate to, without having to sell a body part on the black market for. Well, that’s exactly what Kawasaki’s 650-duo were all about, but the Ninja 650 and the ER-6n both had their flaws.
Evolution
Come 2017, and the older 650s from Kawasaki have now given way to two new models. While the faired version of this middleweight tribe retains its name as the Ninja 650, the naked ER-6n has been replaced by the newest member of the Z family – the Z650. In a market that makes you starve yourself to afford the rest of the more-enticing middleweights, these Kwackers are not only easy on the pocket, but extremely proficient in everyday scenarios.
Well-thought-out tweaks on the same chain of thought that brought the older Ninja and ER into existence in the first place have made a world of difference to the newer machines, and they’re evident at first glance. The Ninja 650 has shed its ‘I’m such a loveable teddy bear’ styling to make way for a meaner persona, heavily borrowed from the mighty Ninja ZX-10R. Coupled with some really snazzy graphics all over, the 2017 Ninja 650 sure is quite the attention-grabber.
Naked motorcycles, with their unabashed display of all the mechanical components that make them tick, don’t always turn out very attractive — case in point being the outgoing ER-6n. With its replacement, the Japanese bike-maker has brought in all the sharpness of the bigger Z range of motorcycles into a smaller capacity machine, while still retaining that very approachable character. The Z650 also has the unique touch of lighting up its tail lamp in a ‘Z’ pattern.
Mechanicals
Under all that bodywork, the new Ninja 650 and the Z650 are essentially similar. Bolted on to a newer light-weight trellis frame is the same 649cc liquid-cooled, parallel twin motor from before. However, with some fine-tuning to cater to BS IV emission norms, the new 650s make lesser power now — 67.2bhp @ 8000rpm. This drop in power of about 2bhp is absolutely insignificant though, because the bikes have also shed quite a bit of weight through clever engineering. The Ninja 650 is now 18kg lighter at 193kg, while the Z650 tips the scales at 186kg. With torque figures going up to 65.7Nm @6,500rpm, these bikes now accelerate even quicker than before.
What’s more important though is that the extra bit of torque also allows the 6-speed transmission to effortlessly power the motorcycle out of speeds under 50 km/h, even in the top three gears, so you won’t be struggling with as many upshifts and downshifts in heavy traffic any more. Also, the softer suspension settings mean that super-sharp turn-ins and flickability are a tad compromised, but then again, you don’t land up on a racetrack everyday, so that is forgiven.
Affordability
The 2017 Kawasaki Ninja 650 and the Z650 do have competition, in theory. Trouble is, that those challenging these Kwackers from a price perspective are just not exciting enough, and the ones that have the performance and appeal are easily a couple of lakh rupees more expensive. For now, that essentially makes these two green Japanese 650s the kings of the middleweight segment for the practical, experienced and involved biker, especially when the Ninja 650 costs just ₹5.69 lakh and the Z650 is even cheaper at ₹5.19 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). After all, would you rather spend more and use less of a motorcycle’s potential or spend less and use more?
