Kawasaki W800 Cafe Style
The all-new W800 casual roadster would make an ideal basis for a custom bike, and Kawasaki obviously thinks so too, offering its own range of cafe racer mods
Is Kawasaki trying to beat the custom shops at their own game? Meet the Kawasaki W800 Cafe Style special edition W800, which as the name suggests, has a distinct cafe racer style.
Based on the new 2011 Kawasaki W800 retro casual roadster, which hit Australian dealerships last month priced at a none-too-offensive $11,990, the new special edition W800 Cafe Style appears to be a Japan-only accessory kit at the moment.
Boasting gold spoked wheels, a new front cowl, and a trick-looking cafe racer inspired seat section, the W800 Cafe Style delivers a very different aesthetic compared to its donor bike; there's even a touch of scrambler in there.
Competing against the Triumph Bonneville and Honda VT750S, the dressed-up W800 also has a darker persona, with most of the chrome bits from the standard W800 given a black lick of paint. The front and rear fenders are now black, as are the exhaust pipes and even the engine crankcase, which combine nicely with the gold rims for a neat and tidy classic look right out of the factory.
Kawasaki's Japanese nomenclature claims the new bike "Will surely satisfy even the hearts of owners seeking originality." You heard it here first.
The engine remains unchanged, the 773cc fuel-injected, parallel twin-cylinder engine pumping out the same 48hp (35kW) as the regular W800, with an undisclosed torque figure peaking at just 2000rpm.
While the W800 tips the scales at 216kg, the addition of the new seat and cowling could add a couple of kilograms, but pretty much everything else remains the same, such as the five-speed gearbox, the 300mm front disc brake, 39mm front 'tubes' and dual rear shocks.
Though the Cafe Style package is only available in Japan, the parts are ordered separately as accessories, and there's every chance that if W800 sales exceed Kawasaki's own targets, we could see something like this offered in the future.
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