All About The Kawasaki W800: How Fast Can These Bikes Go And Are They Still Made Today?
The Kawasaki motorcycle brand has been around since the late 1950s, having spun off from the Kawasaki shipyard formed in Japan in the late 1800s. Over the years, the Japanese-owned company began making its motorcycles in Thailand and other places. Today, it offers both eye-catching models like the Ninja and surprisingly cheap and easy-to-maintain vehicles like the Z400. These models and others have maintained Kawasaki's reputation as a power player in the motorcycle scene for more than a century.
One of Kawasaki's most enduring vehicle families is the W series, dating all the way back to the release of the 650-W1 in 1965. Since that first vehicle, Kawasaki has continued to revamp the W series, producing four-stroke motorcycles with higher and higher displacements. Quite possibly the most well-known and beloved iteration of the W series came out back in 2011: the W800. Despite the original model being over a decade old, Kawasaki is still releasing new versions of the W800. The latest models pack a mighty 773cc, four-stroke engine, capable of highway-ruling outputs of speed and performance.
The Kawasaki W800 is alive, well, and readily available
The original W series motorcycle, the 650-W1, was released in 1965. In the decades since, there have been a handful of numbered entrants into the W series, including the W3, the W650, the W400, and of course, the W800. At the time of its release in 2011, the W800 was the most powerful street bike in the W series. While you can't get a classic W800 directly from Kawasaki anymore, a new bike has filled in for it.
Immediately after the original W800 was retired in 2016, Kawasaki relaunched the model with updated specs and a touched-up body reminiscent of the classic W1. It is this version of the W800 that has remained part of the Kawasaki family to this day, with the most recent release being the 2024 Kawasaki W800 ABS. This motorcycle is readily available for purchase on Kawasaki's website and at most motorcycle dealers with an MSRP of $10,399.
If you absolutely need to have an original W800 model from 2011, don't worry. Since the bike is fewer than 20 years old, the odds are in your favor that there are still plenty of classic models around. According to Redbook, original W800s typically get sold for between $6,200 to $7,350, and can be traded in for prices ranging from $4,350 to $5,150. A brand new mint-condition 2011 W800 can sell for as much as $11,999.
The W800 has a top speed of 110 miles per hour
The current iteration of the Kawasaki W800 features a hefty engine with respectable output, which is perfect for cruising the streets or surfing the highway. The 2024 W800 ABS is equipped with a four-stroke, four-valve, parallel twin air-cooled engine with a 773cc displacement. That gets you 46.4 lb-ft of torque, controlled with a five-speed transmission.
If you really open up the 2024 W800 ABS, you can get a good 110 mph going. It's obviously not the fastest bike in the world, but for a street bike, that's some pretty impressive performance. Incidentally, this performance is roughly analogous to that of the 2011 W800 model, so even if you bought used, you'd probably be getting around the same speed output.
Fun fact: The 2024 W800 ABS is also equipped with Kawasaki's proprietary Assist & Slipper Clutch system, which makes it easier to manage the clutch while repeatedly shifting. It's also got a sensor-based anti-lock brake system which constantly monitors the state of the front and rear wheels and modulates brake line pressure when a lock is detected.