Is it the rumour mill just perpetually churning out similar stories? I still wish for direct injection two strokes, but that ain't ever going to happen, 4 Cylinder 250's have more chance I suppose...
I'm with you, if there was a Kwaka then the others would likely follow suit, 4 Cylinder 250 which takes advantage of decades of advances in metallurgy would likely be quite impressive indeed and have loads of potential for more ZOOM, hopefully they'd incorporate an easily modifiable power restriction
They would have to come in restricted and full power flavours to sell well. I'd love to have a new 4 pot 250cc in the market. It'll only take one of the big 4 to do it, maybe even someone else (triumph? imagine a 250-400cc LAMS triple) before everyone else jumps in
The market is Asia and they wouldn't be restricted by power, the restrictions are financial in the form of insurance and registration costs for big bikes. It is just a question of how much the growing middle class will pay for a 250. I know one thing, if they do it there will be a bunch of people trying to fit the EFI parts or engines into the earlier models. I'll start exporting them as fast as they crash 'em.
i dunno, kawasaki already have both single and twin cylinder variants of the ninja 250/z250 and 300's, i know its a huge market but building a 4 cylinder would have to be a very premium product, im sceptical. but then again i remember being on the cbr250 forum about ten years ago when the first spyshots of the ninja 250 were leaked, and everyone on the forum laughing about it, convinced that some crazy bike builder must have went and made a bodykit for a gpx 250 ........... so i hope im proved wrong.
Kawasaki do whatever they like. They have always been mavericks. Here there are millions upon millions of step throughs. Everyone uses them. Kawasaki get none of those thousand of millions of dollars from scooter sales because they don't do them anymore. The new 250's are a hit with the youngsters and they have money to splash about. The Yamaha R15 and R3 being the popular look. So what is Kawasaki going to do to get some of the pie? I have lived in Asia for 14 years and I can tell you they are not getting poorer.
When you throw in the consideration the new 300 Class in WSBK there is bound to be some developments soon
In the last few weeks Ive spent alot of time in taxis crawling along in heavy traffic here in a big city in the Philippines ... as Mr Green mentions , the stepthru is king .... literally millions of them .... I saw quite a few new ones but its always hard to see wat make they are as they are always covered in people .... I did see alot of new Hondas though , and yesterday while travelling on a bus I noticed a large Yamaha dealership. You rarely see a 'normal' sports type bike .... the third world biking community dont care about looks , power or looking cool .... its pure commuting .... or commuting others to and from work , to school and back , to the public market and back , and as a source of income for alot of guys. Its cheap charlie transport and nothing else. And I think as long as Moto3 is single cylinder 250 then that will be the basis for the general issue bike to the masses ... but the WSBK 300s will be interesting Honda Wave
