Kawasaki and Honda seems to be at battle since quite some time now, although neither are vocal about their fierce rivalry. We all know how Kawasaki was enjoying monopoly in the 250cc segment with the Ninja 250R, a bike which was the world’s best selling 250cc for 20 years, unchallenged. Honda spoiled Kawasaki’s party with the CBR250R and Kawasaki is now responding with its own single-cylinder 250cc motorcycles. The company recently unveiled the Ninja 250 RR Mono (also called 250SL in some markets) and has now patented the naked version of the same motorcycle.
Kawasaki’s naked 250cc motorcycle was spied quite sometime back (January to be precise) and now the company has applied for a design patent for their upcoming single-cylinder street-fighter in Europe. A close look at the motorcycle reveals the similarities with the Ninja RR Mono. Most parts are identical to the RR Mono like the instrument cluster, wheels, brakes, frame, seats, engine, etc. The naked styling of this single-cylinder 250cc motorcycle is quite muscular although not as striking as the Z250 which is Kawasaki’s naked 250cc bike but with a parallel-twin engine.
This Kawasaki bike is expected to be called the ER2n although the Japanese company hasn’t revealed any details yet. The 250cc engine uses fuel-injection and DOHC, producing 28 PS of power and 22.6 Nm of torque. While the Ninja RR Mono weighs just 151 kgs, the street-fighter version will be lighter. If Kawasaki launch this bike in India, we can expect it to be priced under Rs. 1.75 lakhs, competing directly with the KTM Duke 200 and soon to be launched Hyosung GD250N. This bike can surely get Kawasaki good volumes.
