Parallel twins?

Question

What is out there for new parallel twins? Not sport bikes. The vulcan 500 is a little smaller than what i want but i have rode older gs450 that rode good. I like the older xs650 yamaha frame to build off of. Triuph has the speed master and america (850cc twin) but look a little bigger than what i want. What else is out there? seems like the craze is the v-twin but if i wanted a v-twin i would get a harley. Seem like all the japanese wants to be like them so bad they are now listing size in cubic inch instead of cubic centimeters.

Answer 1

Kawasaki made a Triumph clone for a few years untill very recent. Nice looking bike but it had zero design appeal to me.

Answer 2

The kawaski Ninja 650 is a parallel twin, isn't it?

What you need is the engine out of a kawasaki W650.  See the article below for more on the W650 and triumphs.

Or the ninja 650, its a lot more common.

Answer 3

I don't think there is a whole lot out there. Pleanty of V twins though. The XS 650 Yamaha was built closely around the British Triumph motorcycle. It's engine even resembled the Triumph twin. It has been a long time since I've been aquainted with them, and I can't remember if the Yamaha had the 180 degree crank (where the two pistons rise and fall together). All the British bikes I rode years ago were all 180 degree cranks. The Japanese went to 360 degree (one piston up and one down) on many of their twins. You can still pick up a nice BSA 650 Road Rocket from the mid '60's for around $5500.

Answer 4

Find a Yamaha TDM850 - early nineties. Awesome versatile bike, but can be  hard to find, not many of them around.