Rolling on the Autobahns. Review on Kawasaki Ninja 650R

Prologue: In mid December 2012 I had an opportunity to visit some friends I made in Amsterdam during my visit there some time ago. It was supposed to be just Christmas & new year celebrations and nothing more. As always we ended up in a night club named Panama or something close to that on the 26th. We got talking to a couple of biker girls and guys and allegedly had such a good time, I woke up the next day afternoon at my friend's place trying to remember how I got back or what exactly happened after a couple of shots of brain cell killing tequila. After an hour I heard some really loud motorcycles outside and my friend informed me in a matter of factly way that we have to leave in 3 hours to Nuremberg in Germany. Thought we were all flying there and asked my buddy what's going on. The explanation he gave me was that we promised to join the motorcycle gang in Nuremberg for some event organised to test out new rides. I still don't remember talking about Germany though. But oh well I told him I am good with the visa and asked him if we are flying easy jet. He did look funny at me and said he's riding with the gang and I am supposed to join their tech crew driving behind the bikes in a van. I was more than happy to do that till I saw what rides they had. My eyes popped out when I saw 3 Honda CBR600RR's and a ninja Zx6. I couldn't resist asking for a short test run on those bad boys. Mind blown and almost jumping in excitement, asked them if they had anything I could ride along with them. Came out a well used ER-6F (they call it 650R in India and Australia) from the van. It's owned by the guy driving the van he wasn't all excited about letting me ride it though. I was a little disappointed that I am on a "sissy" bike and my new found buddies are riding crotch-rockets. I was definitely in for a surprise! Now read along for the review :-)

Everybody can google for the model's specs and figure out the engine capacity, torque and pretty much everything else. The review is more about my personal experiences on this motorbike for just 700 kilometers.

Looks: It was a 2011 model it seems and was not bad at all! The 650R looked like a cross between the lil one 250R and the ZX series. The seat was a bit a higher for me since I am just 1.75 m tall, but my buddies jacked it down and was quite comfy compared to the CBR and the gauges looked fantastic. All digital with a clock too! The exhaust was under the bike rather than behind it. Not sure why Kawasaki did that, but I ain't complaining. The orange color compared to the all black CBR's was quite striking. I guess nobody on the highways can miss looking at me since I also had matching orange green jacket and helmet.

Performance: I think the 650R is a beginner to mid range motorbike when it comes to power output. It had some 65 BHP pumping out of the parallel-twin engine on 6 gears. And more than enough torque to do a nice quarter kilometer wheelie (just kidding, don't do that on a highway!). It definitely can't keep up with the CBR's and the ZX6, but can hold it's own when it comes to highways with speed limits and city streets. I felt the first gear to be a little shorter than my expectations, but felt the torque was perfect for the amount of throttle to zip off real quick. Do remember to be easy with the throttle. This bike may not be a racer, but it has enough power to go from 0 to 80 Km/h in around 3 seconds. I noticed the torque fading away slightly on the 5th gear and on the 6th I felt like I may not have enough torque in some situation. Guess this bike is made for mid range torque. But nothing to worry about that though. when hitting the 5th gear I was already past 160 Km/h on the speedo and I managed to hit close to 249 Km/h on a long stretch of empty highway.

One thing I noticed was how easy it was to handle this bike in city streets and in heavy traffic. I had no trouble at all, but the CBR's were struggling with engines heating up dangerously with not much air flow into their radiators. I suppose this bike was made with daily commutes in mind. Besides I got to show to the racers how cool I am in traffic beating them :-D

The ride: The guys planned to take the E35 from Amsterdam till Frankfurt and hit the another highway which I can't remember to Nuremberg. The total distance was 700 kilometers or something close to that. As I said the bike handles very well in city traffics, but once we hit the highway and enter the section with no speed limits, the CBR's just flew past this little guy. I did try to keep it above 200 Km/h most of the time, but the fairing was not adjusted properly and the wind was blowing straight into my helmet. Not one of the best feelings when icy cold air pretty much numbs your face in 30 mins. The bike is very stable at speeds below 175 Km/h, but starts feeling like you are sliding straight on grease beyond that and gives you thoughts of crashing into the next truck you pass. Maybe it was just my mind playing safe with me and I was imaging the greasy sliding sensation. And the vibrations on the foot peg and handle bar were not nice at all. After an hour of high speed riding, I felt like my feet and hands were numb. The one thing I dreaded much on this bike was the feeling the cross winds might blow you off the road! It does weigh a cool 200 kilogram, but it wasn't giving me the confidence about the cross winds. Now for the brakes. The bike had this optional ABS brakes. They do their job very well, but sometimes, it feels like the ABS might make you crash. Maybe it's just me since I never rode any motorcycle with ABS. The gear shifts felt pleasurable to say the least. The clutch was not too soft or too hard. Just the right amount. this is an individual preference I suppose. I was comfortable with the clutch release close to letting the lever go all the way out. The exhaust sound is not bad, but could've been better. The guy still had the stock pipes on them and it was more like a muffled up CBR600RR sound. I really didn't care about that though. The fuel economy was not bad either. I could do close to 450 kilometers on a full tank pushing the bike beyond 180 Km/h most of the time!

Would I recommend this bike? Yes I would. I might get one myself too if I could just stop thinking about race ready CBR's. If you like riding, but don't want to get those dangerously fast super sport bikes, this is a good one to stick with. Maybe on Indian roads it's not possible to ride too fast, but atleast you will have more than enough power to go faster than pretty much everything on the highway. If you are fuel conscious I don't think this bike would do you justice. Lets face it, the engine's almost the size of those 800cc cars and won't run on just fumes. Also if you prefer keeping your speeds well below 100 km/h, I don't think this bike would be suitable. It may not be made for races, it's not made for slowness either. According to the owner the bike's performance is exceptional if speeds are between 150 km/h and 190 km/h. Besides riding at 60 would be on the low end of the 3rd gear and that's not fair on the bike!

P.S: I know this review was not from experiences on Indian roads, but this is all I can come up. About the event, it ended up being a boring one with everybody showing off their bikes and cars, but did get free beer ;-)