Re: Z800 or the cbr 650

Kawasaki Z800 is absolutely my recommendation within these two bikes. However, even I went through this dilemma a lot - and despite nearly deciding on Z800, I ended up buying Triumph Street Triple. You can search my thread with words "RED ROSE" in it.

Z800 is the most value for money among all bikes available below 10 Lakhs. I surely recommend it to you. But there is one major pain point - before deciding on the bike, a fairly long test ride is necessary. Kawasaki is not at all friendly and not ready to give test ride beyond showroom premises in most cases. I at least got it on the road but went hardly 3-4 km on it.

So, try to find another Z800 owner and see if he is ready to take you around and give you a bit of chance to ride also - that will give a lot of idea.

Z800 pick-up is insane! I just loved it (please don't compare with 1000 cc super sports - am talking from view point of moving to a super bike as a first time owner of this category) With some amount of effort, handling is also good, even brakes are quite good. Engine is really smooth and sound is really nice at higher RPM - though much better if you get Arrow/TBR/Akrapovic etc exhaust later.

Pillion comfort is non existent - in fact pillion is nearly impossible to carry on this bike unless it is a very thin girl friend ready to stick to you for her dear life during the ride...And she may not ask another ride after first experience!

Turning radius and heavy weight become a bother in heavy traffic - so it is less practical as a day to day bike (in comparison to Triumph as well as Honda).

I find issue of wind blast as important but not a deal breaker - because typically on our highways, you will normally maintain 120 kmph at the most and every once in a while when you see totally empty stretches, you can blast to 200 kmph etc - but that phase doesn't last more than few seconds...You have to frequently drop back to slower speeds anyways...So it is alright...Unless you want to do more than 400 km on a single day. Any naked bike is alright for a trip up to 200 km one way let's say on a Saturday to some place and back 200 km on Sunday to your home - no problems....

I found Triumph much more comfy for rider + pillion - but it is all very subjective.

Honda CBR650F is lacking the oomph performance factor despite ticking all right boxes - it just doesn't feel special - again it is very subjective and others could have different opinion...Z800 will bring that smile to your face once you twist the throttle - you will just want to go on and on and you hit 200 kmph in no time!

Re: Z800 or the cbr 650

Lol your opinion sounds very biased towards the Z, the CBR 650f is a bike only comes alive after 7000rpm , but its is very reliable , and it beats the z on the top speed front even tho the z has better power n specs. The CBR is also way lighter than the z, street triple is a great bike but its detuned form and high pricing and stalling problems makes it a big nono for me.

Re: Z800 or the cbr 650

Friend, I already made it very clear - this kind of opinion is very subjective and others can surely have entirely opposite feelings! So chill!!

I already said - Honda CBR 650F ticks nearly all boxes - yet I personally felt it was lacking something which can't be defined in words - it just didn't feel lively unlike the Z800 or Street Triple...

Also, unless you are a very seasoned super bike rider, let me tell you that academic difference of those detuned horses of Triumph Street Triple matter very less. Due to really light weight, it accelerates really fast - sufficiently so to keep any new comer to this segment entertained at least for few years.
It stops very quickly, and is very flickable from side to side...Very practical in daily use...This is the reason after thoroughly test riding multiple bikes, and despite having NEGATIVE view of Triumph due to detuning fiasco, I still went for this bike.
Also you can check powerdrift video on youtube.com. Street Triple with retuning gets back majority of those lost horses compared to EU spec.

Anyway, exceeding 160 kmph is a task you will achieve only few times a week lasting few seconds each time - if you can do that you are quite lucky and skilled both!!
So, the manner in which you reach beyond that speed matters as much as the actual speed. And that manner in which Z800 achieves, shakes up your brain literally!
That's one thing I liked about that bike so much...You can actually feel the liquid in your skull accumulating towards the back part when you accelerate rapidly...

But with retuned Street Triple is an equal match and in fact brakes even faster..Surely Honda won't match these two on these aspects..

If a rider is more tour oriented, CBR is better - but if you do more short rides, lot of city riding and occasional long tour, then other two are fine choices..

Yamaha had a chance to brake the stronghold of these players but they wasted it by launching MT09 at much higher price when globally these are all competitors in nearly same range.

STALLING PROBLEM of Triumph Street Triple - As my bike is quite new still (ODO around 3300 km now) I have not faced this issue but I hope Triumph being a reputed brand and having started well in India - they will find a solution and may be issue an official recall and take proper action. That is certainly an expectation.

Re: Z800 or the cbr 650

Wat about ground clearance, especially going on big speed bumps I heard the oil container is near the underbelly, and it can get scraped or opened pretty easily.

Re: Z800 or the cbr 650

Street Triple does have an issue of lower ground clearance and it mainly affects when you have someone as a pillion with you. On any sharply rising speed breakers or any other road surface irregularity which is having sudden rise can cause problem for sure.

The bad thing is that there is a radiator coolant storage tank made up of FIBER which is located at the bottom - if you end up hitting that one very hard, it can break and that would cost a bomb to replace (I think above Rs 12000 or even more may be!).

However, ever since I bought this bike, I have been very careful about speed breakers and irrespective of high or low rising ones, I go very slow on them. That has helped and I have so far scraped the bottom only once on my bike when I had a heavy weight pillion rider (I am already 90 kg and he must be also 90 odd kg!!)

But as I was already careful and very slow on the bump, it didn't affect anything.

To some extent changing rear shock absorber settings to harder can improve this slightly but then it can compromise the ride quality that one gets when riding solo with standard factory setting that I got from showroom.

Overall Z800 has a slight advantage in terms of ground clearance - but it is not a huge difference and you do need to be careful about Z800 also.

Basically on Street Triple, you should not ride at very high speed (>120-130 kmph) on unfamiliar roads because if you get lot of smooth road and then one sudden bump, you may not be able to slow down in time and can cause damage to coolant tank...So, hit the speedo limits only when you are on familiar territory and know where the good sections are versus where the bumps are...

Having said that, as my confidence is increasing day by day, I am enjoying the bike more and more...Now able to take better turns (compared to my own self - not comparing to Valentino Rossi!) able to accelerate faster and stop also rapidly...Have hit a max of 187 kmph once and have hit 160-170 kmph many times - of course each such situation lasted only for 3-4 seconds at the most and had to back off owing to other vehicles or people etc..

Can also feel the ABS at work during few sudden stops on somewhat dusty roads of Hinjewadi when people can jump into your way out of absolutely nowhere (or make that "anywhere")...

Re: Z800 or the cbr 650

Any twin cylinder bike over 300 cc I wouldn't advice to go over 70-80 , if u want to go beyond 120-130, highway stretches or the track .Would like to know if you u can get some kind of guard for the bottom? Honestly I love everything. About the street triple, its over my price range, z800 is a bit lesser but the weight is a put off, CBR 650 is ideal then again its also a bit overpriced, realistically I'm looking at ninja 650 n bn 600i... If Honda got the cb650 f its will reign supreme in its category as its light, will be a lakh less than the CBR version, the mid n top range is very strong Because of the inline 4, also Yamaha should have come out with the fz07, but they went for the fz09, which is one of the most exciting nakeds but priced at 10-12 lakhs after tax.