In a nutshell, this WK650 is a Chinese copy of Kawasaki’s ER-6n, bought in by BiKE Magazine for a Dyno run. And do you know what? We could be critical, and mention the shoddy levers and nastily-plated nuts and bolts but, it made 2bhp less than the ER-6n, and according to the BiKE boys it feels just like an ER-6n to ride. The general consensus of opinion was thus; if you bought one as a commuter bike, which is its intended use, you’d get 5/6 years out of it no problem, and it’s considerably cheaper than the bike it’s a copy of.
Give it another few years and these Chinese brands may well be right there. Remember, a lot of parts (and all manufacturers do this to greater or lesser degree) are made in China anyway. Young Andy in the workshop couldn’t take his eyes off it; “That’s my bike, I could afford that…!” he pronounced. And he could. Taking a longer view, this is no different a situation than the Japanese and British bike manufacturers in the 60s. They came, they copied, they got better, they grew. Be interesting to see a WK in 5 years time…
Cheerful, and certainly cheap – the WK650 maybe a ER-6n copy, but it's a good (enough) one...
