KAWASAKI Z650RS

HAS A RETRO MAKEOVER ENHANCED THE Z650’S OVERALL DYNAMICS OR SIMPLY ITS AESTHETIC APPEAL?

- CHRISTOPHER CHAVES

Type 649cc, paralleltwin, liquid-cooled

Max power 68PS@8,000rpm

Max torque 64Nm@6,700rpm

OD Rating

Fuel tank 12 litres

Price ₹6.72 lakh (ex-showroom)

+ Looks, ergonomics, ride quality

- Can’t think of one, honestly

Ever since I got wind of the Kawasaki Z650RS gracing Indian shores last year, I couldn’t have been more thrilled. And chances are if you’re the sort who favours bike designs from simpler times in the past, you’d be equally excited as well. Man, just looking at this machine takes me back to a time when I found some posters of the Yamaha XS650S and Kawasaki B1 in one of my uncles houses. I couldn;t take my eyes of them. Both were gorgeous bikes back in the day. And now, seeing a bike that pays hommage to the bike from that old poster of the old B1 is quite trippy. This machine looks very much on point.

Like the Z900RS which the Green Team have on offer in markets abroad, the Z650RS is a modernistic machine that pays tribute to the B1 of yore. And although it’s a couple of cylinders short of the old bike, Kawasaki appear to have really got this bike spot on in terms of balancing its new-age/old world charm. If you’ve just fallen out of a melted glacier, you won’t know that the Z650RS is a retro-styled middle-weight motorcycle that’s based on Kawasaki’s latest 650 platform. It shares much of its underpinnings with the Z650 like the engine, chassis, gearbox and suspension. It’s pretty much the same bike, but it’s different.