Kawasaki tie-in gets serious with new Kymco 650 roadster

Published: 26 August 2016

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Kymco and Kawasaki have already been in cahoots to create Kawasaki’s first attack on the scooter market with the J300 and J125 – and now Kawasaki are repaying the favour by helping Kymco take a shot at building full-size bikes.

Kawasaki’s J300 and J125 scooters are based heavily on Kymco’s Downtown 300i and 125i models, and it looks like Kymco’s first big bike will be just as reliant on an existing model – the Kawasaki ER-6n.

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The Taiwanese firm’s motorcycle range currently tops out at 250cc with the Venox 250i cruiser. In comparison its scooters are far more advanced, stretching all the way to the 700cc MyRoad. The patent drawings you see here show how the company will expand its bike line-up to 650cc.

It’s clear that the engine and even the exhaust system are straight from Kawasaki’s ER-6n, assuring that the bike passes emission laws. The swingarm also appears identical to the ER-6n’s.

The frame is a trellis-style design instead of the ER-6’s parallel-tube. It appears to have similar geometry to the Kawasaki’s but the Kymco’s suspension is more sophisticated with an inverted fork, while the brakes are radial-mounted four-pots.

Angular styling and a nose with distinctive wing-shaped headlights set it aside from the ER-6n, too, and the Kymco’s wheels are more heavily styled than the Kawasaki’s.

In terms of performance, the engine is presumably making the same 72bhp at 8500rpm as Kawasaki’s version, with 47ftlb of torque at 7000rpm. Importantly, it will also be easy to restrict it to an A2-licence-friendly 47bhp.

There’s no official word on the bike yet, so it’s not clear how widely it will be sold, but these patents have been filed in Europe, suggesting it’s likely to come here.

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By Ben Purvis