This was an oddball attempt by Kawasaki. In my opinion two flaws existed in this model. First off was the timing, Kawasaki tried to make gains on a bike patterned off of the infamous Triumph Bonneville, to which the W650 is remarkably similar to visually. However, they were too late for that trend as Triumph soon re-released their own Bonneville afterwards, so why buy an immitation when the real thing was once again available? Had Triumph not gone forward on the Bonneville it might have taken off, following in the footsteps of their Drifters. Second was price. Kawasaki killed themselves by releasing the ZR-7 alongside the W650 at a lower price. What with the trend of dealerships attempting to sell more bike than what a beginner requires, it wasn't a tough sell to offer an inline 4 powered rocket at less than the price of an anemic parallel twin. All that aside the W650 is still a neat machine, and despite the higher cost and lousy timing it still makes for a fair place to start. The higher saddle and CG keeps it from the A rating, and almost lumps it into the Sportster's C rating, so I'm torn between a B and C rating here. The low 434 lb dry weight sold me on the B rating in the end. If you can score a good deal on one and really like the British retro style then this is the bike for you, just make sure you can plant both feet on the ground first.