One mean looking naked Kwacker

Street fighter style, naked muscular motorcycles have remained the preferred choice for a vast majority in the Indian market place. It’s not so much a question of being part a certain segment, because this preference is evident across categories. The FZ over the R15, the Duke over the CBR250R and so on. Kawasaki has had the semi-faired version Ninja 650 for a few years, but given preferences, they too have decided to get a street fighter alternative to the already comfortable Ninja. Is it still as good or have they improved the 650 even further?

Unabashedly naked Naked motorcycles tend to be all about style and masculinity and the ER6N comes up trumps here. The headlamp with its own little fairing gives this Kwacker a mean face, good enough to play one of the main Decepticon baddies. The fuel tank is all muscle and has lovely matte finish accents to make it look even cooler. The off-set monoshock at the rear in shocking red works well in the overall scheme of things too.

Moreover, the exposed radiator and the twin exhaust pipes winding their way down the front further exaggerate the aggressive naked styling. Instruments are pretty basic with a large analogue tacho and a small digital display adjoining it with all the relevant data.

Performance Like the Ninja 650, the ER6N uses a 649cc, parallel twin with identical power and torque figures. Low and mid-range torque is excellent as the 64Nm is delivered in full force at 7,000rpm and the 72bhp is its peak power available at 8,500rpm. You can ride around all day in traffic comfortably, as long as you keep the revs below 5,000rpm. Wring the throttle and get the tacho past that and waves of power catapult you forward.

Flat out acceleration is very impressive and you can sail past 150kph even on short open stretches. On the downside, the Kwacker heats up real quick. Even on an early morning ride with barely any traffic, the ER6N kept working the radiator fan hard. A hot summer afternoon, in traffic will surely not be a pleasant experience.

Thankfully though, ride comfort is pretty good and the straight up riding stance is pretty relaxing and the suspension set up isn’t too harsh. It works pretty well in the urban jungle and the telescopic forks at the front combine well with the monoshock at the rear to make for good cornering ability. The fat 160 section tyre at the rear provides fair amount of grip along with the 120 section tyre at the front sitting on 17-inch rims. When you need them, the dual disc set up at the front hauls speed in rapidly with the single petal disc at the rear. But, you need to be careful in case you like downshifting while braking too as the lack of a slipper clutch makes the rear wheel shimmy. It can be pretty unnerving initially, till you learn to anticipate it.

Bottomline With the ER6N, Kawasaki has added a very capable twin at a price point that is within the reach of a fair number of motorcyclists. At ₹ 4.78 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), it will appeal to a number of bikers who are looking to upgrade beyond the current crop of performance machines. Hopefully, Kawasaki can sort out the heating issues to make it a more comfortable ride and more importantly include ABS to make it really succeed at pulling in more enthusiasts.

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