If I was buying new it would be the 800; I assume it has no carburetors (I may be wrong) but full marks for spoked wheels and air cooling. It's probably the only bike in this lineup that sounds retro. It's crying out for a kickstart (just for the look of the thing, even if nobody ever uses it) when they've already gone out on a limb with traditional forks and a twin shock rear. I'd even go as far as to suggest a drum rear brake would clean the back up no end (and work just as well). As an old bike rider most retro bikes look like something out of Tron, but the 800 nails it.
Kawasaki looks like the only one who actually bothered trying to make their retro bikes actually look retro, the W800 specifically is a stunner, could easily pass for an old bike. Honda, Suzuki, and Yamaha all look like they put a round headlight on their naked bikes and called it a day.
Most of these newer street bikes have more than twice the suspension travel as my old '75 Honda CR125 Elsinore motocrosser! I prefer bikes with a lower center of gravity for better handling and road feel.
Kawasaki always knocks it out of the park with fit and finish. Only thing I would change on the Z900rs is the radiator!! They put air cooled fins on the motor to look retro but then put bright finish on the radiator?? 😂. And the W800 needs a kickstarter. I’m waiting to see if we get the Ninja ZX4R here in the States and fingers crossed they use a 400cc inline 4 🎉🎉🎉 But ya Honda & Yamaha always deliver great bikes as well. The CL500 peaks my interest!! And also waiting on the Yammy R9 😍
Kawasaki Z900RS is the only one on here I would consider. The rest do not look classic. The Honda CB1100RS was best but is no longer available in the west due to emission regulations. The Honda CB350 Highness was also good but again not available in the west.
Beautifully shot video! My favorite was the Kawasaki Z900RS SE Yellowball. The Katana is beautiful too, but not very retro. The Yamaha XSR700 is completely ruined by that off-center speedo IMO. It would bother me every time I got on that bike.
Nice JPN bikes. You get a lot of bang for your buck with the Yamahas, but my favorite here is the Honda CB. Looks aggressive. The XSR900 seat is still awful and the color scheme needs updated.
The Kaw z900rs se yellow ball is my fav, great memories from late 70’s. WTF don’t they do something about that stupid looking hydraulic reservoir on the handle bar- it really bothers me ! Just hanging out there big and ugly waiting for some douche bag to walk by and snap it off😅- fix it and I’ll buy one if I can find one ☝️ .
Well out all of them, I'd say the W800 is the closest thing here to a true retro bike. The 900RS puts in a good show, but the Z650 looks so out of place, & nowhere near the original 4 cylinder.
For me they are some ugly looking motorcyles. The Kaw 900 is the best of the bunch, but would have looked better (meaning retro) with an air/oil cooled engine, spoked wheels, sleeker tank like the original Z...plus the seat height should be 2" lower....that one suzuki sure had a lot of Bandit cues to it..especially the tank.
