W650 - Days of Future Past

Launched in 1999 - a year before Triumph "re-invented" the modern Bonneville - Kawasaki were arguably well ahead of the retro curve with the W650.

kawaasaki w650

An authentic looking four-stroke parallel twin, the W650 could in fact be easily mistaken for an historic British machine but that was not the real lineage of this highly crafted machine. Somewhat of a “labour of love” for the Kawasaki factory, the W650 harked back to the 1966 W1 which was the first large capacity machine from the Akashi factory and the spearhead of Kawasaki’s initial sales drive into the American market.

But there is more – far more. The W1 was in fact a rework of an earlier machine from Meguro who Kawasaki had acquired in order for them to understand the intricacies of making such small engineering products instead of the ships and aircraft that KHI was globally famous for.

With slightly less than 50 horsepower, the 1999 W650 was a steady rather than surprising performer but, frankly, the customers were not interested in top speed or acceleration preferring to cruise along the back roads revelling in the exhaust note and narrow chassis of the W.

Equipped with shiny metal mudguards, analogue style instruments and even metal side-panels, the W650 exuded quality and, from an engineering aspect, boasted bevel gear driven camshafts that bore an uncanny likeness to a 1930’s Velocette. Settling behind the wide bars and perched on a generously padded seat (complete with colour contrasted piping), adventures on a W650 are relaxing and unhurried affairs owing much to the roots of motorcycling.

Perhaps a little too far ahead of the retro scene for its own good, the W650 is a now a very logical ownership choice and its virtues are infectious. So, if you have a W lurking in the garage under a sheet then unveil it and check the CMSNL web site for parts – Kawasaki’s W650 past could now be your motorcycling future!