India-bound 2022 Kawasaki Z650RS launched abroad

Kawasaki has rolled out yet another middle-weight motorcycle that's based on the 650 platform abroad, and the latest bike, called the Z650RS, comes filled to the brim with retro styled goodness. Best part is, we expect the motorcycle to come to India later this year.

Like the bigger Kawasaki Z900RS, the Z650RS too takes some of its styling takes cues from the Kawasaki Z650-B1 which came out in the late seventies, but as you would expect, the under all that old-school garb lies some modern hardware. We just love the touch of class the golden alloy wheels add, they are like this modern take on the older spoke wheels. The round LED headlamp, the twin pod cluster, all look smashing!  And that exhaust configuration and the sleek tail design is just brilliant. The engine powering the Z650RS is the same reliable yet unit found in the latest Kawasaki Z650 and Kawasaki Ninja 650 bikes, albeit with some revisions made to it this time around that should make the new bike a lot livelier in terms of low- and mid-range response. Peak power figures are said to be the same as before - 68PS and 64Nm. Kawasaki appear to have steered clear from messing with the existing engine-chassis formula of the older naked and sport tourer 650 bikes, with a much of the underpinnings from those bikes being carried over onto the new retro-styled motorcycle.

Like it's the other 650 siblings from the green stable, suspension duties on the new Z650RS are managed by a 41mm fork up front and Kawasaki's horizontal link rear shock with pre-load adjustment. The Kawasaki Z650RS features the same size disc brakes as the older bikes as well - just that the new bike gets round disc rotors instead of the petal discs on the Z650 and Ninja 650. The bike also gets two-channel ABS.

The Kawasaki Z650RS is expected to go on sale in markets, both abroad and in India, by November 2021. In the UK, the Z650 has been priced at £7,549 (which works out to around Rs 7.59 lakh) for the all-black version, while the bike with the fancier Metallic Moondust and that gorgeous Candy Emerald Green will set you back by £7,699 (approximately Rs 7.74 lakh for both colour schemes).

We expect the bike to be priced roughly around the Rs 8 lakh mark when it comes to our country, and in terms of competition, the Z650RS will go toe-to-toe with the Triumph Street Twin.