VOL. 52 ISSUE 44 NOVEMBER 3, 2015 P53
AFTER YEARS OF SALES SUCCESS
IN EUROPE AND AUSTRALASIA,
KAWASAKI IS FINALLY LETTING THE
U.S. PUBLIC IN ITS 806CC SECRET.
BY RENNIE SCAYSBROOK
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEVIN WING
I
f you're a motorcycle manufacturer,
you'd be aware of how important the
midsize naked bike sector is. This is
the one area of the market that hasn't
seen massive price rises over the past
15 years and as such is one of the hard-
est places to make a buck. It's a sector
that's seen new bikes popping up like
mushrooms in the Yamaha FZ-09/07,
Suzuki GSR750, BMW F 800 R, Ducati
821 Monster and Scrambler et al, and
now Kawasaki wants a piece of the pie
in the new Z800.
This bike has been available for the
past three years in Europe and Austral-
asia and only now has it finally made
its way to U.S. dealers. But not every
dealer. You won't be able to register
this machine in California next year as
Kawasaki has to remanufacture a new
section of the gas tank to prevent fuel
venting to the atmosphere (Californian
law states the fuel vapor must be cap-
tured), so Cali riders will have to wait
until 2017 before they get their hands
on the Son of Z.
The Z800 is thus a very important
machine for Kawasaki and represents
a potentially huge chunk of market
share. It's not an overly complicated
machine and based largely on the Z750
predecessor that started its life back in
Z
S O N O F
