What’s more British than a Bonneville? Besides warm beer and putting leftovers in pies?
Kawasaki dared to suggest their W650, first built in 1999, as a way to capture the café-cool nostalgia of the old Bonneville, two years ahead of the new one’s rebirth. Those who lived through that era might think: what’s more Japanese than a knockoff?

Of course, Japanese motorcycles have always been accused of shamelessly aping the competition’s past. Look at almost every metric cruiser, for example. But there haven’t been too many attempts at going for that part of the nostalgic brain that viewed Tunnel of Love as a documentary. The Honda GB500 is the most tantalizing example that comes to mind—if you can find one that is, parked in the Amber Room at the bottom of Lake Toplitz, Elvis sitting astride its solo seat fingerpicking a banjo with JFK. It could happen.
Just as Justice Stewart knew it when he saw it, you’ll know it too—just look at the thing, dammit! Check out that flat seat, bordered with white piping, the knee pads on the tank, the fork gaiters, the dual-colored parallel twin engine and two black gauges that eerily mimic Smiths units. The peashooter pipes are straight as arrows, and it even has a kickstart! (Ironic that Japanese motorcycles were the ones that negated them with their standard electric starters.) The biggest difference between the bikes is the W650’s unique bevel drive system, guiding the single overhead cam and its 8 total valves without the need for a cam chain, tensioner, and related guides.
In comparison, the Bonneville looks tall and clunky, its contoured seat and over-proportioned tank not doing it any favors. The Kawasaki looks more like a classic Meridien Bonneville T120, or even an earlier TR6 Trophy, than the new example. Stylistically, Kawasaki had out-Triumphed Triumph.
If you’re a purist, presumably you’ll have choked on your kidney and ale pie by now. Please seek first aid.
But Kawasaki also had an answer for the Bonneville back in the 1960s: the W1, their first major overseas bike, aped the British BSA with a lovely chrome tank and a 650cc twin engine that was, at the time, Japan’s biggest motorcycle engine. That, then, is their retro link to the past. Does it work?

Those who rode the W650 praised its midrange power, despite being 20 horses down on the Bonneville. Motorcycle Cruiser Magazine believed the Bonneville to be “functionally the better bike, more powerful and comfortable,” with better brakes (dual discs instead of the Kawa’s oh so retro! rear drum), harder front forks, and a smoother engine. “OK, so it’s not what we’d call fast,” says Motorcyclist Magazine. “Take comfort in the fact that 90 mph at the end of a 14.2-second quarter would beat a ’60s Bonneville, but just.” Dynamically, and on paper, the W650 seems just that—a pale imitation of a revived British classic.

Yet, ironically, both reviewers found disappointment with the Bonneville for being less like an old Bonneville than the W650 was. Turns out, the Bonnie is sometimes too smooth, too modern to successfully target the 60s-motorcycle demographic. Motorcycle Cruiser: “the W650 is a much more faithful recreation of those old Brit bikes and what it was like to ride them.”
The W650 might be rougher, and down on power in comparison, but you know what other bike was? The early Bonnevilles! And that is certainly the W650’s selling point: “Kawasaki isn’t betting the farm on the W650, so it can afford to be a more- convincing Bonneville—even if that means it’s a less-capable motorcycle.”
“The total package left me a bit cold,” says Andrew Cherney of Motorcycle Cruiser. “If the Bonnie is a fast and fun ride, the W650 is my pick for clown prince of the road, generating a few more smiles for my miles.”
Damn. Never mind the bollocks, the W650 is more British than the British. May God save the Queen.

Production of the W650 ended in 2003, and finding one in America is a hilariously frustrating experience at best. Kawasaki may have beaten Hinckley’s Triumph to the game but they squandered a golden opportunity, failing to effectively market the bike to the type of Baby Boomers who seem to go nutso for this recapturing their childhood business, right in the beginning of the retro vehicle boom. Measley sales forced Kawasaki to pull it out of the North American market, and most of their sales have been in Europe and Japan. But Kawasaki has introduced a successor, called the W800, which is already on sale in Europe.

Will the Green Machine bring it to America? There are more retro standard motorcycles to contend with now, such as the Moto Guzzi V7 Classic, the Suzuki TU250, a used Ducati SportClassic, and when Honda of America decides to recover from their collective head injury and regains their rational thinking capabilities, the CB1100F. There’s also the matter of, say, the entire Triumph range.
Not that it matters. Bonneville riders are like Harley riders, albeit svelte and (hopefully) less prone to own an Officially Licensed pool table—they’ll be loyalists to the end, and their minds are made up. Switching to a W650 is tantamount to treason, subject to a stint in the Tower of London. But for those who are looking for an alternative as a while still capturing the look, trendy urban types in Europe sure are spoiled for choice. Will it still out-British the Brits? I don’t know, but by God, I’d love to get the chance to find out.

Image sources: [cotaro70s, Motorcycle Cruiser Magazine, Super Streetbike]