Scoop: Kawasaki launching W800 soon in India

Kawasaki is gearing up to launch their first modern-retro bike in India – the W800. The launch is expected to occur early next year. 

The Japanese manufacturer has already imported one unit of the W800 from Japan. But this could be the homologation model as the W800 is powered by a 773cc parallel-twin engine. All the bikes under 800cc displacement needs to go through homologation process in India. 

There has been a growing demand for the classic and modern-retro bikes in the country in the last couple of years. It looks like good sales of the bikes like the Triumph Street Twin and Bonneville prompted Kawasaki to bring the W800 to India. It’s still not clear if the Japanese manufacturer will get the W800 as a completely-built-up (CBU) model or a completely-knocked-down (CKD) model. Currently, all Kawasaki bikes under 800cc are assembled in India. So there’s a high chance the company would assemble the W800 in India to have a competitive pricing. 

The W800 is powered by a 773cc parallel-twin engine that produces 47bhp at 6500rpm and peak torque of 60Nm. This motor is mated to a six-speed transmission. The suspension duties on the W800 is taken care of by 39mm telescopic fork at the front and twin shocks at the rear. The brakes are not fancy as we see on the other Kawasakis. It gets a single 300mm disc with twin-piston caliper at front and 160mm drum at the rear. The bike tips the scale at 217kg and with a seat height of 790mm, it is accessible to shorter riders as well.

While the main competitor of the Kawasaki W800 is the Triumph Street Twin, we don’t think it’ll be priced anywhere close to that. In fact, expect a very competitive pricing considering the fact that the W800 doesn’t get any fancy equipment. Kawasaki might try to price the W800 very close to the Harley-Davidson Street 750 or even lower. 

Stay tuned to BikeWale as we get you more information on the Kawasaki W800.

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