Road Test: Kawasaki ER-6n

Kawasaki prefers not to mess around. Other manufacturers might make lighter bikes, prettier bikes, or bikes that are easier to ride, but Kawasaki - quite rightly - sticks two fingers up at such sentimental softness and consistently delivers red-blooded motorcycles with more power and higher top speeds than anyone else.

So it's a bit of a surprise to find the mean, green Kawasaki machine offering a bike designed entirely from the ground-up for beginners. The new ER-6n is "aimed at the full spectrum of riders, from first-timers, to returnees to motorcycling, experienced riders and ladies," says Kawasaki UK's Martin Lambert at the launch in Austria. A Kawasaki built for girls? I nearly spilled my Pinot Grigio down my shirt.

The design of the ER-6n was a big deal at the launch and a bold step. "Kawasaki wanted a 360¡ design so the bike looked unique from every angle," continued Martin. Apparently the front of the bike is based on Japanese fighting masks. I thought it looked great when I first saw it, now I'm not sure. It's certainly very busy, and comparisons with Benelli's TnT will be unavoidable, while the under-slung exhaust will doubtless be referred to as 'Buell-style'. One thing is for sure, it's hard to ignore the ER-6. From the metallic anodised chassis to the laid-down rear shock and bug-faced headlight, the design of this bike is like Marmite. People will either love it or hate it.

Which, for £4500, is good going. For it is a relatively simple thing to produce a budget bike. Rummage around at the back of the factory, find some engine and frame parts that are less than 10 years old, bolt them together and off you go. But to make an affordable motorcycle that is contentious to look at and fun to ride, well, that's another thing altogether. Suzuki struck gold with their evergreen SV650, Ducati continues to churn out 620 Monsters, and now the ER-6n is pitching in for a damned good scrap.

Sit yourself down on the ER-6n, and it feels tiny. The fuel tank is slim, the reach to the ground is short and anyone who's just passed their test or actually has legs will be able to ride this bike. The seat height is 785mm, which is 15mm taller than a Monster and 15mm shorter than an SV650. My girlfriend is 5ft 3in and, while the Suzuki was just a bit too tall for her, the Ducati was "just too slow and common", so this would suit her literally down to the ground. Conversely, this does mean that long people (those over six foot) look a bit daft on the ER-6, especially from behind. The bike is perfectly comfortable for lanky buggers, your knees fit against the tank fine, but you will look like a giraffe mounting a monkey, and on an entirely aesthetic note I wouldn't recommend it for tallies.

The engine whispers into life at the touch of a button, and as it's a 649cc parallel twin it likes to rev. Scurrying around the Austrian mountain passes and A-roads where the ER-6 was launched, the under-slung exhaust was so quiet that all the engine noise came from the airbox. And true to 180¡ parallel-twin form, it sounds and feels exactly like a small V-twin engine rumbling away beneath you. Kawasaki have never made a sports V-twin and they didn't want to start now for fear of having an identity crisis, but this is the nearest thing to it. It's a flexible little motor, as happy to pull top gear from as low as 40mph as it is to rev all the way to its 11,000rpm redline, and there's useful power to be had pretty much everywhere. Kawasaki claim 70bhp (sounds about right), while 130mph came up on the digital speedo with my chin buried behind the oval instrument binnacle, and it got there fairly smartly. For a beginner's bike that's plenty of performance, and puts the ER-6 right on a par with the SV650.

The gearbox is a slick little number, although the ratios are widely spread and there were times where first gear was too low and second too high. Whether you use the clutch or prefer clutchless-shifts, every ratio drops in sweetly and you can hammer down the gearbox on the way into corners, the rear tyre hopping and squeaking across the Tarmac as the Kawasaki scrubs off speed. The accent is on 'fun' with the ER-6, and you can ride it like a total half-wit and it just thrums along underneath you, eager to please. If it were a dog, it would be a Labrador. Albeit one with strange fur.

There are no surprises in the way the ER-6 makes its power or goes round corners, and you would have to be high on crack cocaine with a dustbin bag on your head for anything untoward to happen to you while riding it. It is deeply rider-friendly, allowing the novice - or more experienced riders - to quietly get on with learning what makes a motorcycle tick. The suspension is a little crude, especially when dealing with bumpy corners, but that's as bad as it gets. Turn up the wick and the ER-6 gets on and deals with it, no mess, no drama.

The brakes - superbike-style wavy discs, no less - are a little wooden, but nothing that a change to aftermarket pads wouldn't fix. And like most new bikes these days, the ER comes with a selection of catalogue parts. The colour-matched top-box and crash bungs are likely to be the best sellers.

There isn't anything that the ER-6n is particularly bad at. It's not the most thrilling of bikes, but Kawasaki has succeeded in its goal of producing an entry-level bike that is fun to ride in the hands of more experienced riders. And any argument about the suspension being cheap, or the finish being a little tacky, is entirely offset by the price. I have absolutely no doubt that it will sell like hot cakes in more traditional naked-bike markets like France and Spain, but whether it sells well in the UK or not is more down to our sports-orientated tastes than anything else. We shall see.

VERDICT

Definitely different looking, easy and fun to ride, and cheap too. Kawasaki could be onto something here. Watch out SV650

SPECS

TYPE - NAKED

PRODUCTION DATE - 2005

PRICE NEW - £4500

ENGINE CAPACITY - 649cc

POWER - 71bhp@8500rpm

TORQUE - 48lb.ft@7000rpm

WEIGHT - 174kg

SEAT HEIGHT - 785mm

FUEL CAPACITY - 15.5L

TOP SPEED - 130mph

0-60 - n/a

TANK RANGE - n/a

Kawasaki prefers not to mess around. Other manufacturers might make lighter bikes, prettier bikes, or bikes that are easier to ride, but Kawasaki - quite rightly - sticks two fingers up at such sentimental softness and consistently delivers red-blooded motorcycles with more power and higher top speeds than anyone else.

So it's a bit of a surprise to find the mean, green Kawasaki machine offering a bike designed entirely from the ground-up for beginners. The new ER-6n is "aimed at the full spectrum of riders, from first-timers, to returnees to motorcycling, experienced riders and ladies," says Kawasaki UK's Martin Lambert at the launch in Austria. A Kawasaki built for girls? I nearly spilled my Pinot Grigio down my shirt.

The design of the ER-6n was a big deal at the launch and a bold step. "Kawasaki wanted a 360° design so the bike looked unique from every angle," continued Martin. Apparently the front of the bike is based on Japanese fighting masks. I thought it looked great when I first saw it, now I'm not sure. It's certainly very busy, and comparisons with Benelli's TnT will be unavoidable, while the under-slung exhaust will doubtless be referred to as 'Buell-style'. One thing is for sure, it's hard to ignore the ER-6. From the metallic anodised chassis to the laid-down rear shock and bug-faced headlight, the design of this bike is like Marmite. People will either love it or hate it.

Which, for £4500, is good going. For it is a relatively simple thing to produce a budget bike. Rummage around at the back of the factory, find some engine and frame parts that are less than 10 years old, bolt them together and off you go. But to make an affordable motorcycle that is contentious to look at and fun to ride, well, that's another thing altogether. Suzuki struck gold with their evergreen SV650, Ducati continues to churn out 620 Monsters, and now the ER-6n is pitching in for a damned good scrap.