Kawi2strokes.com Forum

Yep...Not only does it look like a "vintage" Brit bike, but it really does ride like one. The only thing the on the W650 that feels modern is the front brake...and the lack of oil puddle underneath where you park.
I read that Kawasaki actually engineered "just a bit" vibration into it when designing the counterbalancer.

IMHO, this is probably the best "RETRO" bike any manufacture has ever built, although Honda's GB500 is pretty cool. Basically, all of the old school character with build quality/reliability of modern Japanese engineering.

I actually like the big fairing and matching painted rear box on this thing. I feel it "balances out" having the side bags but can understand not wanting all that extra bulkiness aside from the very useful side bags.

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"Only cheat the cheaters, boy - you can't cheat an honest man!" Mordecai Jones - The Flim Flam Man.

One of the shops I worked in had Kawasaki and BMW motorcycles sales/service, Champion Motorcycles, 1980 Harbor Blvd, Costa Mesa, California, and I am still a certified BMW tech.

I can attest to these bikes not breaking. The first Beemer I ever worked on, surprized the heck outta me. It was a 1955 R50 twin. It had the barrels off when I got to it, owner took it apart for bore/pistons/rings. I looked closely at the condition of the parts, and bores (still had better than reasonable cross hatch in the bores), measured, came to the opinion tolerances were on the tight side of the spec, and that all it needed was gaskets and a new set of rings for both sides, so, that is what I did. Bike ran like new when finished. I asked owner why he was doing a full top end with only 56K miles on the bike, because I had heard you simply couldn't wear one of these out.

Come to find it didn't have just 56K, it had 256K miles. Bike was still extremely nice.

One salesman there was a strange fellow, Douglas Pushak. He was a captain at a Sunday brunch at one of the Newport Beach eateries, sold bikes during the week with us. He had an R90S, fully decked out, with a special 9 - 1/2 gallon tank that extended down the sides of the engine. He always told us he could ride the bike continuously the entire distance it would go on a full tank of fuel, we doubted that, but, he rode it everywhere. Because of the tank size, we called the bike "The Texaco Tanker".

Although the K models are nice, Boxer's are a lot more fun to ride, and, they just never break.

Nice bike, Cody.

Nikasil plated cylinders, I assume.

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If it surges, that's normal, upshift.

In 1955, no, just good German liners cast into the aluminum. I remember seeing the same sort of longevity in a lot of Mercedes and DKW cylinders, you just couldn't wear them, nor the pistons out. The early 216 Chevy I6's, and also GMC I6's also had cast iron pistons, 235's had aluminum. Couldn't wear the cast iron pistons out, either.

Although Nik-A-Syl is a touch alloy, it is too thinly applied to have a great longevity when used as today's cylinder liners. Same occurred with hard chroming and WESC in Kawasaki cylinders, eventually, needs to ge stripped and redone. Good stuff, but, long ago, there was better. Thrust loading and rpms also have a direct influence in life span of any liner/piston, older stuff was just cruising compared to the high rpm levels, and high to extreme thrust loading, from everything from rod angles and rod/stroke ratios we see today.

The Nikasil lined aluminum cylinders in Guzzis are known for going 100,000+ miles with negligible wear. Well, actually the possibly slightly different Nigusil is what Guzzi uses.

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If it surges, that's normal, upshift.

very nice (on a beemer) btw still searching the vetter fairing done specially for earlies H1

since we are on the topic of non-triples i have to admit that ive been wanting this bike for a while now.. but with a baby on the way and stuff i dont think ill be able to afford one.

I'll counter by saying I think it looks much better w/o the fairing and rear box.

I looked at buying one last year, my buddies hot neighbor inherited one.
Her asking price was unrealistic.

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H2B..... H1E..... Z1B ..... RD350...... X6 Hustler..... TS250.... CB750 ..... CB550...... and a Bomber!!

Sverre, as long as you're dreaming, you might also look at the Moto Guzzi V7 II scrambler, which is 87 lbs lighter with an almost identical power/weight ratio:

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If it surges, that's normal, upshift.