Ninja 300, or that matter of fact the now discontinued Ninja 250, remain two of our favorite quarter liter dual cylinder motorcycles of the current times. However, despite the fact that they were fantastic in almost all regards, their prices were atrociously high!
The quarter litre territory in the Indian motorcycle market has been getting exciting by the day and with the advent of new competition (and the market), the Japs are also considering moving into the meat of the matter!
As per a report on Autocar Professional, Kawasaki is finally considering its single cylinder Z250SL for our market and the launch may be as soon as this Diwali, to cash in on high festive demand. While they already have a 250 cc twin cylinder Z250 on sale in India the Z250SL will play on the more value-conscious segment and this single cylinder will be brought here via the CKD route.
The Z250, which was doing some decent numbers initially, has started sliding down the ranks, and this can also be one of the reason why Kawasaki is bringing in a cheaper alternate, which will surely be the most affordable Kawasaki in India so far!
The 249 cc liquid cooled fuel injected mill produces 28 PS of maximum power at 9,700 rpm and 22.6 Nm of peak torque at 8,200 rpm. The Z250SL will compete with Duke 200 and Honda CBR 250R. Kawasaki also has the Ninja 250 RR Mono, the full-faired version of the Z250SL and they may also consider bringing it here.
Kawasaki is expected to rework on the bike to make it suitable for our Indian conditions. Internationally it is offered with ABS and we hope, it comes here at least as an option! Expect the Z250 SL to be priced competitively at less than 2 lakhs ex-showroom!
