[sreenath13]

My plan was to get the RE Thunderbird for cruising, then stumbled up on the street 750. Didn't like the knees up riding posture and soft seat, won't fit long journeys well. While reading reviews of HD 750, vulcan S was mentioned, I am hooked ever since.

The bike looks awesome, proven motor, hopefully priced aggressively. I am holding off booking my thunderbird till this one comes out.

How is the Kawasaki service network ?

[narula123]

The pricing of the 636 will be massively crucial (assuming its coming to India). Anothing above 12 lakhs ex-showroom its bang in the territory of the Daytona 675R. The tona R comes with Ohlins, Brembos, CF bodywork, Quikshifter and Supercorsa SC2s. In comparison, the only kit advantage the 636 has is its traction control which for a track rider anyway doesnt change too much deal on a 600. Ofcourse, the fans of Japanese quality, like myself, will take the Jap origins as an advantage too.
The only way one will opt for the 636 over the tona is if the 636 is priced at par with or lower than the stock 675. Anything even remotely closer to the 675R and its bye bye Kawasaki.

[sadsack]

Let me add to the confusion. At the launch of the Kawasaki showroom in Hyderabad, I got to speak to some of the top brass of India Kawasaki Motors. None of the three bikes that are shown as coming to India in the title of this thread are coming any-time soon. Kawasaki first wants to strengthen its reach through its own showrooms. It now assembles CKD kits from Thailand and some from Japan but still cannot price the motorcycles at the point to the equivalents from other manufacturers since it does not have its own factory. Kawasaki pays rent to Bajaj to assemble their products at Akurdi which is no longer used by Bajaj.

Apart from that the rent for the showroom and the workshop in every city are paid for by Kawasaki themselves and the dealer is simply entrusted with marketing, selling and servicing of their motorcycles. Kawasaki's products despite being CKD kit assembled do not match the price points of other manufacturers is this. Given this scenario, they believe that launching the Z 250SL will be hara-kiri since it will draw direct comparisons to other single cylindered motorcycles like the Honda CBR250R or the Duke 200 but will be considerably more expensive. The ZX- 6R (636cc for non-Supersport homologated bikes and 599cc for the Supersport homologated ones) is a pure track oriented machine and that means that there will not be so much demand for them exactly like the ZX-10R which does not sell in droves simply because they do not lend themselves to city riding. The Vulcan is a possibility as is the Versys 650 but they too will not come down any-time soon. I guess we all should hold our horses.

I suppose we will do well to remember that Kawasaki uses the Ninja sometimes with ZX and sometimes without the ZX. In Europe the Ninja 650 is called the ER-6f indicating that it is the faired version of the ER-6n which is the naked. The ZX-14R is the ZZR-1400 in Europe. The Ninja without ZX nomenclature is used in the USA, South East Asian Countries and India now. The last ZX Ninja of over 1000 cc was the vicious but glorious ZX-12R in Europe. Now they get only the Ninja ZX-6R and the Ninja ZX-10R, while we get the Ninja 650, Ninja 300, Ninja 1000 the last of which is the faired version of the older Z1000.

[mshooli]

There seems to be no news on the launch of the Vulcan S. Is there any credible information now about the launch of Vulcan S in India? I have started my hunt for my next bike which I plan to buy sometime next April / May. Was wondering if we will see the Vulcan in India by then !!