Kawasaki Ninja 650: Old Model vs. New Model (Detailed Comparison)

Kawasaki used INTERMOT 2016 as the perfect platform from updating its Ninja series of motorcycles. The ZX-6R and ZX-10R already had the best available designs in their respective segment, flaunting sharp edges and aerodynamically perfect bodies while the Ninja 650 and 1000 were aging with their curvy, blunt designs.

Both of them received a special treatment from Kawasaki, now resembling more of the performance series and even the baby Ninja 300 in the lineup. Here are the major differences between 2017 and 2016 Ninja 650.

Kawasaki Ninja 650: Old Model vs. New Model

# Design

The older generation had a great design for its time, even the one which was sold before the 2016 variant was superb for those years. The 2017 Ninja 650 starts a different league, presenting its sharp personality through updated front and side fairing. The eyes are now much more aerodynamic than ever while even eyes can tell you the degree of sharpness of its side fairing components. The curving front fairing has now been replaced with a flat forehead while those two pipe like structures under the 2016 Ninja’s fuel tank exist no more. Those were the most down pointing feature on both Ninja 650 and ER-6N.

New Ninja 650

Old Ninja 650

# Dimensions & Driving Ergonomics

The 2017 Kawasaki Ninja 650 is 55 mm shorter, 30 mm thinner and 45 mm lower in overall height. The ground clearance and wheelbase has been kept the same at 130mm and 1410mm respectively, while the seat height witness a reduction in value by 15 mm. This will benefit riders with short height to handle the motorcycle much better than ever. Lower weight, lower seat and even more aerodynamics will improve the riding posture and efficiency of the motorcycle by a considerable margin.

New Ninja 650

Old Ninja 650

# Body Weight

As your eyes can guess the sharpness, the new lighter fairing can be felt meters away from the bike. It now feels equally distributed and specially, the section around the headlight look lean and attractive. Technically, the 2017 Ninja 650 weighs 193 kg, which is a considerable reduction from last generation Ninja 650’s 211 kg of kerb weight. The 18 kgs weight loss not only proves better to the eyes, it really affects the pulling power of Ninja 650. When it comes to touring, it offer option of carrying more equipment while when sprinting, it will definitely bring the time down by a considerable margin.

New Ninja 650

Old Ninja 650

# Performance

The body now being lighter than before will perform better with the 650cc, parallel twin engine. Apart from that, the engine was revised with Euro 4 emission norms and saw a drop of around 3.8 HP in power. On the other hand, 1.7 Nm of torque has been gained by the New Ninja. The overall result would be smooth power delivery and lightweight sport as well as touring experience with the Ninja 650. The new design fuel tank is even carrying 1 liter lesser fuel than the old generation Ninja.

Instrument Console (New Model)

Instrument Console (Old Model)

# Instrument Console

The next generation Ninja 650 not just offers more visual pleasure to the pedestrians, it even offers an excellent view to the rider when looking at the instrument console for values. The circular tachometer is surrounded by LED indicators at the left and a divided LCD screen at the right. The portion which stays within the circle includes gear shift indicator and digital clock while the one on the outside has all other values like speedometer reading, trip-meters, fuel and temperature indications and many more. The last gen instrument cluster started showing its age, even before the 200cc Indian bike consoles.