Hi everybody, it's Peter and in this video I'm gonna review and compare the Ninja 400 with the Ninja 650. And this video comes directly from the comment section on one of these videos where someone said, Hey, I kind of like this bike, but I kind of like that bike as well. Could you compare them for me so I know which one is best for me? And the reason we get to come back to these bikes again and again is because we're filming here at  Jim Gilbert's Power Sports, where they give me complete access to their entire Kawasaki lineup. So if you have questions that maybe I don't get to in this video, make sure you hit the subscribe button and let me know in the comments what you wanna know. And I'll come back and answer that both in the comments and in future videos.

So let's get going with this comparison review. So the two bikes that I chose today are the K R T edition, the Kawasaki Racing Team Edition. Basically that's a paint scheme on both of these bikes and they look like race bikes and really that's probably why you wanna buy these. They look sporty, they look like the race team bikes. However, these two bikes are in the road sport kind of category in Kawasaki's lineup. So although this bike especially has a whole racing circuit around it, most people make a few suspension modifications to actually take it to the track. And this one, it's not the 650, that's the 600 super sport category. This is a 650. Both of these are two cylinder motorcycles and they have a lot of similarities. But I always like to compare motorcycles to cars. To give you a bit of an idea of the character of each, this one weighs 366 pounds, this one weighs 423 pounds, that's right off the website.
That's a ready to go weight. So there's a difference in weight. So the way I like to think of these, if I have to equate them to cars, is this is the Mazda Miata sort of a legendary road going sport car that can handle the track. And that's kind of way to think of this. It's not known for its all out power, but it's handling is certainly top notch and kind of legendary. This one here is a larger version of that. So I like to think of this as more as something like a Kia Stinger, a BMW three series, something like that. Again, more road going than track going, but certainly capable of those track days. And you'll notice as we sit on these bikes a little bit later that there's a different riding position that makes it a little bit more comfortable for road going, but there's a difference in the way they feel. 

One thing that a lot of people like to say is, oh, don't buy the 400 because you'll outgrow it and want the 650. And I just don't like that term outgrow. There's lots of people, if you think about a Mazda Miata type thing, lots of people that like that feeling of a lightweight car. So think of the lotus cars. Lotus are known for lightweight and handling compared to something like a Ferrari, which is all out power and handling. So there's a lot of, most people will not outgrow a 400, but they may want more speed. There's guys that can race these around the track faster than you and I, uh, they're not outgrowing this bike. It's a great bike to learn sports riding on, especially because of its lightweight. This one, although not at all heavy

Because it is a little heavier, it works fine for the road, you can certainly take it on the track. But for most people from a speed perspective, this is all the speed they're gonna want on the road. With a six speed transmission, you can still zip it up and down through the gears and stay mostly legal, but it can certainly go well beyond legal speed. So there's a difference in the way they are. We're gonna talk about more who the riders are for these in a second, but now let's look at some of the technical differences between each bike. So I've pulled out the 400 here first, let's look at that. And when we talk about the technical differences, all of those technical differences are driven by size and this is physically a smaller bike. Now in the past, smaller displacement bikes like this were often cartoonishly small. 

It's non, not an adjustable windshield. Uh, you could certainly uh, buy an accessory longer one if you wanted to. But with this windshield way it is and that slight lean forward, you're gonna have some wind holding some weight off those handlebars. Anyways, it's fairly comfortable, fairly compact position. One thing you're gonna know is here is with my size 11 feet, if I put my feet too far back, I'm actually on the heat shield here. Now if I put them where they're supposed to go, they're off the heat shield, but I'm very close to that heat shield. So there's that compact kind of feel here in the riding position and you definitely feel the lighter weight. Let's take a look at the 650 now do the exact same shot. So we'll go back to back here, you can see the size and then we'll start talking about what that size leads to as far as differences, engine brakes, suspension, uh, and other pieces. 

Alright, so I don't know if I line it up on the exact same tile, but let's just jump right on this one as well. First of all, you're gonna have a little bit more width to the handlebars, not a whole lot and I'm still relatively low to the ground, still bent in the knee. There seems to be maybe a slight bit more reach here, but the bike does feel just generally a little roomier, maybe just a tiny bit wider as well. The tank, the view of it is certainly wider and while you feel the weight pushing it around, uh, like walking beside it as you move it around, you don't feel a whole lot of weight on the bike. It's very comfortable here. Uh, same sort of thing. And again, you have that little bit forward lean, the wind's gonna help hold you up on a sport bike like this and you've got a really good position on both these bikes. 

One thing you'll notice is it doesn't matter where my heel goes, there is no exhaust that comes up here, it's underneath there. We're gonna talk about that technical difference as well. But yeah, overall similar riding position, but you do feel like this is a little bit larger bike. Um, not so much in the, in the, just like I said, seating position here, but as you move it around a little bit, this one's still very, very nimble and maneuverable. But that one is a whole different category of lightweight, nimble, and maneuverable. Now let's talk about some of the technical differences that the size brings to these bikes. So the first thing we should talk about is brakes. This one here has a large caliper AVS brakes. This one has a a available AVS brakes as well. So again, available avs, same thing from the angle you're looking at, they look nearly identical. 

The difference is this one being lighter weight and having less speeds. It doesn't need as much breaking capability and they throw a single disc on the right side of this bike. Over on the six 50 you've got a dual disc up close and personal. You can see there's a little bit different style to the drilled rotors. There's sort of a more aggressive drilled rotor here. There's larger cas Uh, the disc actually I think might be a hair larger on this, but they're very similar. Um, but again, the dual disks on this one, you'll also notice there's a slight tire size difference. This one's a wider tire than this one here. Uh, and to me it has much more aggressive tread. In other words, more rubber sort of less uh, tread than this one here. So both sporting tires, both sporting looks but definitely a difference in the brakes. 

Alright, so this is a bit of a busy looking shot. We're gonna walk through a couple things that you see in this shot. We're on the 400 still. So first thing I wanna point out is your foot pegs here, they are still sporting style foot pegs. You can have this uh, little feeler there on the bottom. So if you lean over far enough that your foot peg is gonna touch the ground, it's not your foot or your foot peg, it's this little feeler right there. But they are steel foot pegs. So you've got the uh, metal foot peg there and you've got a suspension shock in there, which is tucked in nicely to see if I can get the angle right. There we go. So you can see it right in there. It is tucked in well forward and it's sort of up and down. 

There's a more modern way to do that which you'll see on the 650 but still again centralized mass move forward about as far as it can go and uh, you know, good uh, just a good system there. There is some adjustability in there as well. We can talk about that a little bit later. Uh, maybe actually in a future video we'll do suspension talk and then you have the exhaust that comes up here, which is beside your rear wheel. So suspension, foot pegs, exhaust, all of those are gonna be different on the 650. Let's take a look at that right now on the 650. So taking a look at the 650. Now you can see a couple differences here. So you've got your foot peg here, which is now rubber pad which helps damp the vibrations and it's a nice sort of soft rubber. 

So deals with vibrations, which is kind of nice. Same sort of feeler on the bottom of that uh, pedal there. So you can lean way over. You'll notice the exhaust is down low on these 650 bikes. They have the ability to sort of finish it off right there underneath the bike not bringing out here you can see the nice swing arm there as well. And also the suspension, instead of going up and down, it's this horizontal backlink rear suspension. So it moves everything forward. It's a more advanced system. Uh, there's a number of reasons why it's up like that that um, but that's what they use on the higher end bike. So you have a little bit better backlink suspension which keeps it away from the heat, which can help give you consistent performance. And again, it centralizes that mass, which is why when I sat on this bike, although it does feel heavier and it is heavier, it doesn't feel that much heavier because things like these components that are heavy or down low, the suspension, the way it works is forward and uh, in the center of the gravity of the bike. 

So a couple different things. I don't know if you can see, let's see if I can see there the rear uh, pegs right there as well. Yeah, you can see them. Rear pegs are also rubber padded here. Uh, indigent the front pegs on the 400, no rubber padding on either of the uh, uh pegs front or rear. One of the styling details I really like about the 650 is because there's no exhaust here, this swing arm is kind of a nice stylized piece and this whole look to me looks really sporty When you throw a muffler up there, it kind of hides this clean look And I just really, really like the way that kind of plays out on this bike here. Again, big brakes that are showing the abs in there as well. So just kind of cool the way it shows your tire off and shows everything else. 
One thing this 650 does not have are little luggage hooks, which we're gonna show you on the uh, 400 in a second. This one doesn't have that. So you do have a probably a little bit more comfortable seat here, which we'll talk about you know, in a second here. But let's compare it to the 400 right now. So taking a little different angle on the 400 here you can see the exhaust is in the picture but these are those hooks I was talking about on the 400. So while the rear seat is a little bit smaller, again smaller bike, you're probably not taking passengers on it that often. They kind of know the market. But you may want to take, if this is your commuter bike or going to school or work extra gear and you do have an extra hook here along with an area just above the rear foot peg there that you can use to uh, tie down things on the back area of the bike if you want to. 
So you can create a little bit more luggage space here. The next difference you're gonna see between these two bikes is that the dash is different in both. Now we'll talk about a couple things here. The 400 cc is smaller pistons traveling a shorter distance and that makes of course the displacement, right? It's how much the pistons travel and how large they are. So smaller ones traveling a shorter distance basically means that they can rev higher. Uh, it's no real strain on the engine to rev higher for a smaller piston and think about moving your whole hand up and down versus moving just your fingers up and down. You know it's the same rotation. One up, one down is sort of a rotation. And uh, the same thing works with your sellers. We'll talk about that in a future video. But this one revs up to 12,000 rpm and you have a traditional analog tack in there. 
You also have a gear position indicator and on the right side your speedometer, there's a fuel gauge just kind of blinking off the edge in here. That's a little tough to see and a temperature gauge as well below that. So a number of things in there, you can sort of cycle through the trip meter as well, which gives you various features. Uh, but a sort of traditional type uh, dash in here with a modern touch blending the traditional tack with the information that you need. Very good dash here in the Ninja 400. So in the ninja 650 you step up. Again, think of this as a higher end bike, not just a faster one or uh, something that has uh, you know, a little bit more size to it. It also has a few more features for your dollar. And when I turn the gauge on here, I left some glare in the shot for a reason because a lot of people wonder about these TFT displays and that's what this is. 
How is the glare? Well first of all, cameras see every bit of glare when I'm looking at the exact same angle, I don't see any glare at all. It's much clearer for me in person than it is for you on the camera here. But still you have a very good dash. Now the benefit of this dash is a number of things. One, it's got some clarity, it's got some options in there, features that kind of thing. Basically the information is the same in here, but one of the things you can do is you compare your cell phone to this bike and get a few more details through the radiology app. So I really like the digital dash. I think it's done well. A lot of digital dashes don't give you a very large um, analog style tachometer and this one does so it's very clear and easy to read.
This one rev revs to 10,000 rpm and again that's relating to a larger cylinder. Uh, traveling a further distance, it's not gonna rev as high, but this bike really has a lot of mid-range power as well as higher uh, top end power as well. So very good dash here for both vehicles. But there is definitely a difference between one over the other. A couple other differences you're gonna see between these two bikes are in the controls here. So again, left side controls here. I don't know if you can sort of see that little bit of trigger there that's gonna flash to pass for your high beams. These are your regular high beams and of course your low beams are there signals horn, typical stuff. One thing to notice is there's no adjustment here in the brake lever. Now I don't think that's an issue. It's not a huge reach.

Uh, and it is a slipper and a cis clutch, which means it's nice and light. But let's show you the differences on the six 50. Now over on the six 50. Now again all the same controls here flash to pass high beams, uh, low beams, you've got your signal lights right there, your horn down low, same thing right there. But you do add the hazard lights or the four-way flashers depending on what you want to call it. And you have an adjustment here which is a five positioned reach adjustment for your clutch lever and the same thing on the op side for your brake lever. So the ninja 400 has no adjustments on your levers. This one does have a reach adjustment on both the clutch and on the brake lever. And that is an advantage again of moving to this bike. It does give you some uh, reach. 
Now this one does feel like a longer reach as it's set up than the other one. So again, I don't think you're gonna have trouble reaching, uh, if you've got smaller hands on either bike. But if you've got larger hands you can set it out a little bit further, which is just an option for you. As far as lighting differences, the front headlights are probably not shared parts between these two, but they look nearly identical as do the rear signal lights. But the rear taillights do look different on both bikes. So on the left side here we've got the six 50 on the right side there we've got the 400 and you can see there is a different shape to the taillights just to give them a little differentiation out on the road. So now that we've seen the size difference between the two bikes and some of the technical differences between the bikes, let's talk about practically who these bikes are for or who one person or which person might enjoy one over the other. Well first of all, if you're sport riding, these are both comfortable bikes. The mirrors are positioned out here on the uh, uh, faring

Here here instead of up on the handlebars to allow you to sit both upright and get into a tuck. And when you have your head tucked into your uh, sort of the windshield here, you still have the mirrors in front of you, unlike on the Z bikes where they would then be behind you if you did that. So you're able to do a lot of sport riding on these while still being comfortable. Both these bikes are gonna be very good for that. There is a difference in the way that they feel though this one with its very lightweight. There's just nothing like a lightweight vehicle or a lightweight motorcycle. They handle differently. Now, one term that I don't use on this channel is I don't talk about people outgrowing a bike, it's just a term that frustrates me because I don't think that's the case, especially when it comes to this ninja here. 
I think it's a bike that a lot of people like the feel of and there's a lot of guys who can ride really fast bikes that keep one of these in their in their fleet to be able to ride it and have a lot of fun. If you are someone though who wants more speed, that's where the six 50 comes in. The 650 does give you more road going speed and I think that appeals to a lot of people. It also gives you potentially a little bit more luxury in the seat here. The seat is probably just a hair better. I don't know that it'll make a huge difference to a lot of people. But again, same sporting kind of feel that digital dash is kind of nice as well. And if you know as a beginner that you're gonna definitely want speed, that's what you're going for. 
This is all the road going speed that most people need. This certainly isn't a bike that anybody would ever say that they outgrow it. If they do then they're just talking nonsense. But this is gonna give you a lot of great fun on the road. But the thing is, if you're just gonna stay on the road with these, you've got options in the 400 lineup des despite the ninja and the Zed 400. And the thing I like about the the um, the Ninja 400 is going through traffic circles, real, those real tight circles, that's where you really notice the handling differences on these bikes. So again, on a racetrack with tight turns, that one's gonna feel a lot more flickable from one side to the other side. But if you're just riding on the streets and you're riding on country roads with country curves, there's really not an advantage to one over the other on the handling department.

While they do feel a little bit different, either one is gonna be good and again this one has very controllable power in a 650 and it might also still be good for a beginner depending on what you want to do. This bike, to me the 650 size point is a perfect road going sporty bike. And then the difference with this bike is it's not just the Z 400 or sorry the Z650 or Z650 if here in the states that is an option when you move to this engine. You can also look at things like the versus 650, which is a bike that I used to own that's got all the sport riding capabilities that most people will need. Usually the bike is gonna have a far more capability than the rider. Uh, if you are considering this because it has a better passenger seat and a passenger seat matters to you, the verses 650 is gonna be an option for you.

This one is again, a little bit more nimble than that bike, a little bit more sporty in nature, but it does offer a sporty ride while still still giving you a little bit better passenger capacity. And you can stack on the side bags. You also have the option for sporty uh, vehicles in this class for the Z650 and the Z650RS. That RS is that retro sport. Look, I've got videos on this channel of that. So you can have that sort of retro styling semis sporty bike with the same engine, same speed and gives you options. And if you wanted a cruiser with this engine, this the, um, there's a sport cruiser in the Kawasaki lineup, which is the Vulcan s that S matters. Vulcan s being that sort of sportier cruiser. So once you move up to this size of bike, if you're gonna be in that insurance class anyways, you do have more options in this size. 

But between these two bikes, that is probably the real standout in its class. Whereas this one is a little bit more mid-pack does everything, but it's designed to sort of do everything well. That lightweight flick ability, that class leader for something you can take to the track when you move to this one. This is probably the better overall country road sport bike for long term for a lot of people. But both are very, very good. So let me know when the comments below which one you like and for what reason. Obviously this one has a lot of fans, we'll talk about, uh, that, but I think this bike is a little bit underrated in its class as well. So let's talk about that one as well. Let me know when the comments, and again, this video exists because you guys commented below on the previous video and if you subscribe you'll be able to catch more videos on these bikes. 
I wanna thank Jim Gilbert's Power Sports. It is December right now. We had snow this morning, but this showroom is massive and stocked with all these bikes. You can come look at them right now if you're in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Swing on by, take a look. And it's known as Canada's Huggable Car Dealer, Canada's Huggable PowerSport dealer. They're laser focused on taking care of you as a customer. Great place to visit. So there you go, there's your video. Let me know when the comments, what you think, and uh, we'll talk to you in the next one.