Four Pots, 250cc, Plenty to Love
The demise of many of 250cc motorcycles from the market has confounded me for a while now. There seems to be plenty of small 125cc machines out there and even more machines with displacements over 300cc, but the 250cc size that served so many riders well has somewhat fallen by the wayside. Leave it to Kawasaki to bring it back in the best way possible—with four cylinders.
According to Young Machine, a Japanese motorcycle website, the company could build a four-cylinder 250cc engine for the Ninja line of sportbikes. I love this idea so much. The publication put together a cool rendering of what the bike would look like.
All that is well and good, but information from Top Speed takes things to the next level. Mr. Michael Tanadhi, Deputy Head of Sales and Promotion PT Kawasaki Motor Indonesia, said to an Indonesian automotive blog that the company is looking to build a 250cc four-cylinder. That in conjunction with the rumors makes it sound like Kawasaki will do it.
This isn’t the first time Kawasaki built a four-cylinder 250cc motorcycle. It had one back in the 1980s. That motorcycle was replaced by a 250cc two-cylinder engine. Now it seems Kawasaki will return to the four-pot design. Of course, nothing is set in stone yet, so we’ll keep an eye out for new information.