Kawasaki W175: Small-Bore Retro Series, But Not For North America

[advrider]

If you want something that looks retro, but with modern mechanical reliability, and with a widespread dealer network—then Kawasaki has what you want. But, you’ll have to travel to Asia to buy it.

Behold the Kawasaki W175, the pint-sized counterpart to the W800, which itself is the counterpart to the W650 … which was the 1999-2007 homage to the 1967-1975 W1-W2-W3 series. There’s a lot of history here.

But, the W175 is a very modern bike, introduced in 2017. Like many of the small-cc models sold by Japanese companies, it’s actually made in Southeast Asia, in Indonesia. The bigger W-series bikes have parallel twin engines, but the W175 has a simple air-cooled four-stroke 177cc single-cylinder engine, running off a carburetor. They have 33mm telescopic front forks and adjustable-preload dual rear shocks, with 17-inch wheels. They’re supposed to be capable of 110 km/h, which works out to 68 mph.

Very cool, and even more cool when you see the scrambler and cafe racer variants below:

Kawasaki W175TR, the scrambler (sort of) version. Photo: Kawasaki

The Kawasaki W175 Cafe. Not a fast bike, but pretty sharp-looking. Photo: Kawasaki

Note the small rims on that TR scrambler model. Obviously not made for hard enduro! It looks like all three of these bikes share the same frame and wheels, along with their shared engine.

Not for western markets

Unfortunately, cool as the W175 series is, there’s no indication they’re coming to North America. Frankly, Kawasaki doesn’t need the hassle of bringing them here—they’re selling piles of them in Indonesia, which is one of the world’s hottest motorcycle markets.

However, it does show Kawasaki is willing to extend its W series aesthetic to its lower-priced models. Could that mean a W-take on the Z400/Ninja 400 series someday? Maybe, if we don’t see the Z400 RS we’ve already been told is coming.

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