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WK 650i: the first big bike from China
By Phil West –
First rides & tests
27 July 2012 16:23The Chinese motorcycle industry has been churning out big, big numbers for a long time – over 50% of the world’s motorcycles are built there after all.
Until now, however, they’ve often been small capacity copies; scooters and learner bikes built for commuters yet dismissed by true enthusiasts as cheap and poor quality.
But one ‘large number’ has eluded them – until now: big cc machines.
This new WK 650i changes all that – and potentially has huge ramifications for the future of motorcycling – particularly as it’s not a one-off: more, larger and better machines are certainly on the way.
Let’s be straight from the outset: the WK 650i is a big, big step forward from the average Chinese lightweight available until now.
The 650i is pretty good looking with most of the right bits in the right places: stainless exhaust, wavy discs, modern switchgear, part-LCD clocks and more.
The trouble is, that’s about as good as it gets. The 650i looks the part, but it isn’t really quite good enough and there’s never any getting away from the feeling that you’re riding a cheaper, tackier, flimsier copy of something else.
I’ll tell you why: the switchgear, though modern looking, doesn’t operate as crisply as you expect – especially the indicators. That ‘stainless pipe’ includes a crude, fake cover, to mimic the stubby shape of the ER-6n’s version. The horn is just tacked on to the frame downtubes.
On the move, it seems eager enough, with plenty of usable midrange, but both the bike and I seem reluctant to rev all the way out. WK claim 71bhp, ie the same as the ER-6n on which it’s based, but I have my doubts.
Part of that doubt is due to my skepticism over the WK’s speedo readings. In short, when the digital speedo was reading 50, 60mph or whatever, it simply didn’t FEEL like it. So we checked it against another bike and a GPS. The WK was over-reading by 8-10mph both at 50 and 70mph. Hmmmm.
The chassis experience is similar. Yes it’s taut enough, steers OK and the brakes are adequate, but none of it is exactly inspiring. The brakes are a little dull, the cheap tyres crude, the suspension on bumpy back roads downright choppy. Maybe little of that matters to first time big bike buyers, but there’s none of the class of the ER-6.
And a interesting (if biased) defence from a dealer who sells the bike appeared on Visor down:
After having covered a fair amount of miles on our WK650i demo bike, I have to question whether Phil West was riding the same model in his review in this week’s MCN. Without exception, every customer who has ridden it has been extremely positive both about its ride and build quality. The thing that he calls a “crude, fake cover” on the exhaust is what is known as a heat shield: it keeps clothing away from hot exhaust pipes and often covers the area where the downpipes meet the silencer. Take a look…most bikes have them. On the subject of the silencer; it is nothing like an ER6N exhaust which he says it’s trying to mimic: it’s actually very similar to a late model Honda Hornet 600. He goes on to say “the horn is just tacked on to the frame downtubes”. It is actually bolted onto a bracket, which is welded to the frame: again, just like any other bike. Why is this a bad thing on the WK, but it’s fine for every other manufacturer? Finally, £4299 is not cheap enough? Come off it; it’s over £1600 cheaper than the Kawasaki and you get £200 worth of gear with it! I get the impression that if this bike was priced at £100. Mr West would say it should be £50. Anybody who wants to read a fair and unbiased review of this bike should read Alan Cathcart’s article which can be accessed via the WK website, or even better, come and try our demo bike and see for yourself. Gavin Nightingale, Nightingales Motorcycles, Rugby
Source: Visor Down
you should have seen some of the bikes that the dealer had where i got Michelles ped from, some lovely looking bikes and the build quality looks ok, and Michelles bike certainly survived a slide down the road and into a hedge pretty damn well, better than my bike would have done I’m sure!
https://speedwaymotorcycles.co.uk/
Doesn’t look too bad.
Although I like to see new additions to the market, I am not keen on a company trying to get in by making a very, very close copy of another companies’ products. It is as if they have leached upon the originator and exploited their hard work. It suggests that they can not do anything original, and expect to gain favour by aesthetic association and direct rip-off design. Very disingenuous in my (sometimes humble) opinion.
My daighter’s Piaggio Zip was manufactured in China, how long befor they start making sports and adventure bikes?
I hope they do, but I want to see them do it on a genuine basis, not like the Geeley Rolls-Royce fake crud. There are enough of them, so there must be some genuinely talented people over there, so all they need is the right financial conditions (currently provided by their government), and an honest mind-set (which currently appears to be lacking). When they wake up to designing it from an original perspective instead of exploiting the design work of others then I’ll line up for a test ride!
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