LONG TERMERS
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minor but worthwhile improvements.
Keep in mind, too, that the Himalayan
is not the only bike in this category
and that other, mainly Japanese, bikes
will often respond well to the same
work we’re doing on this machine. If
you have, or are thinking of buying,
a Yamaha Tenere, say, a Kawasaki
Versys or KLR650, a Suzuki DR650 or
V-Strom or any of Honda’s adventure
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this series of articles.KAWASAKI Z650L
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Our Kawasaki Z650L has not long
come back from MotoGP at Phillip
Island which you’ll read about soon,
but before it went on this excursion the
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exhaust. Being a parallel twin cylinder
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fast exercise. Allow yourself around 30
minutes to remove and replace with
the new system, maybe an hour with a
couple of beers.
The Akrapovic exhaust saves a heap
of weight by shredding 4.1kg off an
already light 186kg (wet) motorcycle and
is claimed to increase power by 3.1kW
and torque by 5.7Nm. The sound is only
just noticeable. A deeper beat comes out
of the super sexy titanium underslung
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the increase in power and torque is very
noticeable. To put it into perspective
the front wheel now heads for the sun
under acceleration whereas it would stay
gripped to the bitumen before.
The Akrapovic full system features
high quality stainless steel headers
and mid-pipes, beautiful welds, air-
tight quality controlled production
(meaning there’ll be no leaks),
high-quality silicon-shielded stainless
steel exhaust springs, optimised lean
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requires no fuel remapping.
To grab one of these super sexy
exhausts for your Kawasaki 650, see
your local dealer. SW D