My Wife's bike
2000 Kawasaki W650
My Wife's bike
The last weekend of August 2004 my wife Charla passed a motorcycle rider training course and received a motorcycle endorsement. I had two bikes in the garage for her to try and ride. First the too tall KLR650 and second, the too big and heavy Concours. Neither were going to work. Char and I wanted a bike that would be both manageable for a new rider and able to "keep up" as she becomes more experienced. Charla didn't want a cruiser or a sport bike. She likes traditional looking bikes. Chrome fender and spoke wheel sort of stuff. Most importantly, the bike had to work right every time. No projects. I've become a Kawasaki fan. Other than a Toyota pick-up truck I once owned, my other two Kawasaki's have been the most reliable transportation I've ever had.
I also like the chrome fender and spoke wheel stuff. I liked the W650 when it was new to the U.S. in 2000. Its unfortunate the W650's stateside release coincided with the release of the Hinckley Bonneville. I'm familiar with the history of the original Kawasaki W bikes and view the machine as more than just a wanna-be Triumph. The poor two year sales run in the U.S. indicates most riders viewed it as a wanna-be and passed on it since a modern day version of the "real thing" was available. Luckily, Kawasaki did sell enough of them that they aren't too hard to find used. Furthermore, its still not a hot commodity so they don't cost much. Back to the Triumph thing for a minute. All summer long, if someone walked up and gave me $8K and said, "you need to go buy a motorcycle today." I would have headed straight to the nearest Triumph dealer with a Black Thruxton 900 on the showroom floor and ridden it home. I love everything about that bike. When I think W650, I see a bike that can be transformed into a fantastic cafe racer. Check out this site.
I stumbled across this bike in Washington a few hours to the north. Charla and I drove up after work to swing a leg over it to confirm fit and see if this particular bike was a candidate for purchase. It fit and Charla loved it. The Corbin seat played right into my cafe racer dreams. The bike had just under 6100 miles on it. Summer was over and the Washington plates had expired. The owner wanted to move it. I brought cash, we struck a deal and I rode it home. Its maiden voyage was two hours on the freeway, after dark dodging rain showers. By the time I was home I was hooked. This is a great little bike. While motoring along at 75mph it is smooth and balanced. The wind on your chest is also quite tiring. As I rode down the freeway I thought to myself that some Ace bars, or even better, some clip-on's, would solve the wind in the chest problem. I also thought to myself that Charla isn't going to go for that and I tried to guess how long it would be before she asked for a windshield. Well, I was correct that she isn't going for the clip-on's and it only took four rides, just one at speed for any period of time, before she asked for a windshield, damn.
Charla has been kind enough to let me ride it to work. She has been taking it out after dinner as time allows and booting around. Its light and nimble. Its not loud, but has a cool exhaust note. The bike is very tame, but quick enough when you want it to be. As much as I'd like to make some changes, it works really well right now. That said, I will keep telling Charla things like, "If you scratch those pipes we'll need to replace them with some loud upswept conical exhausts" or "if anything happens to the stock steel tank we'll need to replace it with an sporty aluminum unit with a monza quick fill gas cap..."
Parts and Mods
Char and I put 2000 miles on the bike during Sept and the first week of October before the rain set in. The W is not a garage queen, but we have better bikes to ride in the rain. While getting to know the bike I couldn't ever decide if the tires were out of balance or not quite "round". I also drew the conclusion the stock tires were hard as rocks. I've never been accused of trading in a tire too soon. Well, at 8200 Miles there was still plenty of life left in the stock Accolades, but they had to go. I loved the looks of the 1960's tread pattern but wasn't about to buy another set. I went back and fourth between a set of Michelin Macadam and the Bridgestone Battlax. My Concours in on its third set of Macadam's and I've been very happy with them. Variety is the spice of life so I chose the Bridgestone's for the W650.
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Mileage Counter As of: 9-16-2008.
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