WK 650i Road Test

After having covered a fair amount of miles on our WK650i demo bike, I have to question whether Phil West was riding the same model in his review in this week's MCN. Without exception, every customer who has ridden it has been extremely positive both about its ride and build quality. The thing that he calls a “crude, fake cover” on the exhaust is what is known as a heat shield: it keeps clothing away from hot exhaust pipes and often covers the area where the downpipes meet the silencer. Take a look...most bikes have them.  On the subject of the silencer; it is nothing like an ER6N exhaust which he says it’s trying to mimic: it’s actually very similar to a late model Honda Hornet 600. He goes on to say “the horn is just tacked on to the frame downtubes”. It is actually bolted onto a bracket, which is welded to the frame: again, just like any other bike. Why is this a bad thing on the WK, but it’s fine for every other manufacturer? Finally, £4299 is not cheap enough? Come off it; it’s over £1600 cheaper than the Kawasaki and you get £200 worth of gear with it! I get the impression that if this bike was priced at £100. Mr West would say it should be £50. Anybody who wants to read a fair and unbiased review of this bike should read Alan Cathcart’s article which can be accessed via the WK website, or even better, come and try our demo bike and see for yourself. Gavin Nightingale, Nightingales Motorcycles, Rugby

We use a fleet of Kawasaki ER6n's in our training Centre at GEG Motorcycle Sales & Rider Training Centre at Bromborough on the Wirral, and are now working with WK Bikes to introduce the WK 650i to our customers & fleet as we have been very impressed with its reliability, smooth operation and significant value for money factor within our hard-used fleet services. To date we have nothing but praise for this machine - its no cheap copy of an ER6 - its a good value alternative in a very competitive market space. Ian Jamieson, MD, GEG MS & RT, Wirral International Business Park.

Alan Cathcart suggested in his article that the bike would hit UK shores with a price tag under £4000. I wonder if, rather than give away clobber with the bike, you simply reduce the price to make it more attractive..?

I hope the WK650 succeeds, but we live in a society where 'labels' count for everything, and you're going to have a hard time convincing people of the bike's benefits simply because the name doesn't fit.

And talking of names, why change the name of the bike? Surely it's a CF Moto 650i, so why change the name for something that makes little more sense?

'WK Bikes' is the just the brand name used by the UK distributor. Their range of motorcycles and scooters are manufactured by several different factories, so rather than have several different brand names, it makes sense for them to have one which gives them a stronger brand awareness. You may have read the press articles about WK Bikes entering the first Chinese made bike into this year's IOM TT races. If it does well, it can only have a positive effect across the entire range, including WK scooters.

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