The Kawasaki Ninja 650 was first unveiled in India in 2012 and after almost two years, the company has updated the beast with a new colour shade. The sports bike gets no other updates aesthetically and comes with the same green and black paintjob, but now with a role reversal of sorts. Kawasaki has changed the paint of the panels from green to black and vice versa on the front fairing and the tank of the Ninja 650.
The tank which boasted of a shiny green finish has now been done up in matte black, while the front fairing gets a two-tone finish of matte black and metallic green. The Kawasaki badging too has moved down from the tank to the engine cowl at the bottom, while the tank features the Ninja moniker. The front fairing now carries a 650 moniker for you to distinguish it better from other Kawasakis. The rear and side profile of the Ninja 650 remain the same and do not see any new changes. The twin-cylinder machine measures 2110 mm in length, 770 mm in width, 1200 mm in height; while the wheelbase is 1410 mm.
Mechanically, the Kawasaki Ninja 650 retains the same powertrain of a 649cc, parallel-twin, liquid-cooled engine producing 71.1 BHP of power at 8500 RPM and 62.76 Nm of torque. The engine is mated to a 6-speed transmission for smooth power delivery across the rev range. The power to weight ratio on the Kwacker comes at an impressive 337 BHP per ton. The sports bike gets 6-spoke alloy wheels wrapped around 17-inch tyres, while stopping power comes from 300 mm petal discs in the front and 220 mm petal discs at the rear.
In spite of being a performance monster, Kawasaki has refrained from updating the machine with Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS) that provides stability, especially in the event of hard braking. Considering that the motorcycle is priced at Rs. 5.14 lakhs, ABS needs to be offered as standard. You don’t get it even as an option. With high performance and spirited riding into play, an ABS update would be much appreciated not only on the Ninja 650, but also on the Ninja 300 as well. The Ninja 650’s naked sibling, the ER-6n will be making its Indian debut by the end of this year with the same specifications as the full-faired version.
