New (to Me) 2000 Kawasaki W650

EDIT - Links to how-to tutorials buried in the thread:

Installing Kawasaki Euro low-bar kit
Installing Five Stars luggage rack
Removing the carburetors
Removing the got dam throttle cables from the carbs in situ (by mattsz)
Installing Race Tech springs & cartridge emulators
Replacing the rear fender
Installing the Hepco & Becker rear rack
Removing the Kawasaki Clean Air (KCA) air injection system
Removal and Replacement of the Battery
Replacing the Fuel Hoses
Changing the Oil
Checking Valve Adjustment
Steering Head Bearing Service
Rebuilding the Front Brake Caliper
Colorized Wiring Diagrams by mattsz

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So the other weekend I picked up a '00 W650 in incredible condition. I first got a chance to ride one of these about a year ago when I helped a friend of mine buy one and ever since then I knew I would own one. In fact, I had already taken possession of my ex-'07 Scrambler at the time I first rode the W650 and even at that time I knew the W650 was the bike I should have bought instead of the Scrambler.

I sold the Scrambler earlier this year and hadn't planned on picking up another bike anytime in the immediate future but it turned out that this one became available, was the only W650 color scheme I was interested in, it was relatively local, and it was mint, so I had to jump on it as these bikes are not that easy to find and are even harder to find in stock unmolested condition which is what I was looking for.

My goal for this thread is for it to become as much of a resource for the W650 as my Tiger 1050 thread is for the Tiger. It seems online resources for W650 info are few and far between out there, no doubt due to the relatively small amount of these bikes that are in the U.S.

So here's the porn:

First, this is the condition of the bike when I went to go look at it (and actually got a test ride without even asking!):



And the following week, the happy buyer picking it up:



Then my friend Alicia and I went immediately to Van Sant airport for a glider ride and some guy parked his old Triumph right next to my W650 for a convenient photo op:



I took the following pics yesterday before taking it apart to get the carbs out (more on that later):

















I love riding this bike. It has a really great feel to it. It's a 360 degree crank but it's counterbalanced. They dialed in just enough vibration to make it feel like a twin but not enough to rattle your fillings or put your hands to sleep. The exhaust sounds fantastic. The PO had punched the baffles out a bit on the stock exhaust so it's a bit louder than stock but it's a great tone. It's very quiet at idle. You only really hear it when you get on the throttle under load. However I think the bafflectomy has contributed to a lean condition (manifested mostly as a slight lean surge on steady throttle especially when the engine is cold) which I tried to address yesterday with some success but I think a re-jet is going to be in order. Will address that in a separate post to this thread.

I love the way the bike looks, I love the way it sounds, I love the way it rides, I love the bevel gear cam drive, I love the kickstarter. This bike just pushes my buttons.

I plan to keep it pretty much stock. I think I will have to re-jet as mentioned above. I've added on my E-ZPass holder and hard-wired in a Zumo mount. I've also added the Five Stars luggage rack available from Twisted Throttle which also mounts my Givi top case that I use on the Tiger.
I will also add a Powerlet outlet to power my Motopump kit's tire pump.

Soon I'll put up a pictorial "how to remove the carbs" post. That was my project yesterday.

Beautiful bike! It looks better than the new Bonnie.

Nice!!!

Always loved those bikes.

Couldn't believe Kawi pulled the plug on it so soon....

Carb Experts: Talk to me about jetting (I'm an FI guy).

Here's my situation: The W650 is pretty much bone stock except the PO punched out the baffles on the stock exhaust. I suspect that this is causing the bike to need a richer mixture than the stock jetting can provide.

I had the carbs apart yesterday (Keihin CVK) and found the stock jetting in place, that is a 118 main jet and 35 pilot jet. In fact, the carbs were so stock that I had to drill out the caps over the pilot screws before I could adjust anything.

I'm getting a bit of a lean miss/surge at steady throttle cruising, mostly @ lower rpms. It is worse when the engine is cold and improves a bit as the engine warms but still never goes away entirely.

My understanding is that the pilot circuit handles most of the fuel supply for that type of low-demand, low-throttle steady state cruising. I have opened the pilot screws up to 4.5 turns out and the lean miss has gotten better but has still not gone away entirely. I feel that at 4.5 turns out I'm probably pretty much near the max as to what the pilot circuit can supply.

Note that from the factory, one of the carbs had the pilot screw set at 2.5 turns out and the other one at 3.5 turns out.

An additional symptom of the lean running is I'm getting crackles and pops through the exhaust on decel. Part of that was due to the air injection system which I disabled yesterday by blocking the hose going to the air injection valve. This reduced the popping in the exhaust considerably but I'm still getting some, presumably from the mixture.

So my thinking is I might need to re-jet due to the now freer-flowing exhaust. My thought would be to just try and go up to the next size pilot & main and see what happens. I don't think I need to go crazy as I plan to retain the exhaust as is as well as retain the stock airbox. In doing a little research on the web, it appears that 120 main and 38 pilot would probably be the next step up.

Also I noticed that DynoJet has a kit for the W650 that has new mains and new needles (but they don't mention anything about pilots). Strangely, according to the PDF on their site, the mains are listed in various sizes from 108 thru 114. Unless DynoJet numbers their mains differently, that would seem to be a step in the wrong direction. Unless their needle changes the calculations versus the stock needle so that smaller main jets are used. Anyone know anything about that?

I don't believe DJ jet sizes correspond to stock numbers. It does sound like you need to go up on pilots, but you could try shimming the stock needles (presuming they're not adjustable). If you go for a DJ kit, their needles will be adjustable, at least they've been for all the kits I've seen.

Love your bike.

The stock needles are definitely not adjustable. What would you shim it with? Washers?

Congrats on the W.. I had one about 6-7 yrs ago.

I got aftermarket pipes for it, a corbin, and a lower handlebar kit. If I recall, I shimmed the needles and got the instructions from a website..

will see if I can find it.

Enjoy the bike !

here's a link:

http://www.captainjakes.com/w650/shimming/shimming.shtml

Very nice. Have fun.

Thanks, that's great info. I think I'll try shimming the needle first as it's cheap & can be done with the carbs in the bike. If that doesn't work to my satisfaction then I'll look at re-jetting.

Very nice bike!

That's a helluva find.. the bike looks like it just came out of the box. Tell us the story behind how you found it.

There are things I still like about the W better than the new Bonnies (and I'm a multi-Bonnie owner), but (to me) the Bonnies simply have more power (not that 60 hp is a lot of power). Kaw did a great job building the bike, but they did a lousy job marketing it. I understand it's still produced and sold overseas.

Many years ago I saw a W where the cam cover at the top of the bevel drive tube had been replaced by a clear piece molded in the same shape as the stock cover. The owner started the bike for me, and it was really cool watching the bevel drive work the camshaft.

Back in the day when I was seriously contemplating buying a W I bought a genuine Japanese W650 sales brochure off fleabay. It's actually a very classy piece of multi fold-out page sales literature, written in Japanese that includes a photo of a '01 silver/blue W. If you're interested in collecting W memorabilia to go along with the bike, I'll be glad to pass it your way for a few bucks, since it doesn't appear that I'm going to be latching onto a W any time soon.

Congrats on a great bike, and a great find. Please don't bob/chop/mod it too much.. they're fine just like they are, and I have no doubt they'll become more collectible as the years go by.

Pictures please. Thanks.





























Sweet bike

The shiny polished camshaft hypoid gears cover is just an ornamental cover. The hypoid gears are inside the rockers cover. Unlike ducatis where you can put a sight glass on the cover to view the gears in action.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
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Very clean bike considering it is 9 years old, I bet the mileage is less than 6,000miles.<o></o>
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Greetings from a stroked-down W650 owner
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One of the most enjoyable motorcycles I ever owned!

I loved every moment with it.

I left mine mostly stock with the following exceptions:

Low Bar Kit (brake lines, mirrors, handlebar) from Z-Power in Europe
SuperBrace Fork brace and progressive springs
National Cycle Superfly windscreen
Corbin Gunfighter saddle
slimmer '01 tank knee pads

There is a very active Yahoo Group associated with the bike.

Have great fun with yours, I know you will.

Wish I had taken better pictures of it when I owned it but here is one:

Ya know.. now that I think of it, maybe it was a bevel drive Duc that I saw the clear bevel drive cover on (at my age, it's amazing I can remember anything.. ).

I only get to see this every 6,000miles and very reluctant to put back the rockers cover when I am done with the valve clearance adjustment

Why oh why must you do this to me. The W is one of those bikes that I will own one day. Definitely one of the best lookin gbikes ever produced in my opinion. Something very simple and seductive about them.

Very nice motorcycle!

I liked mine. Kind of miss it, actually.

I still have the seat shown in this picture, and it's for sale.

I found it helped with the forward creep caused by the sloping stock seat.

Congratulations on your great find. I had a 00 a few years ago and really enjoyed it. I put a National Cycle Plexistar II w/s on it, a Corbin Gunfighter, some new Bridgestone BT45V's and a Ventura luggage system. I made two trips from Kentucky to Daytona on it and it was great.

A month ago I found one too. It was about 3 miles from my house it's entire life. It's an 01 that had 1,675 miles on it. One month later is has 5,700 and I am heading from Ky to Pomona, California a week from today.

They are great bikes that are much higher quality than other UJM's even other Kawasaki's. The took kits are beautiful along with many other fit and finishe related things.

Barry