Kawasaki’s plan for new 800 naked appear with adjustable bodywork and more sporty aspirations

Kawasaki has pushed through another update for it’s big naked model range with an as-yet-specified model getting updated bodywork and a more sporty riding position.

The model is likely to end up in the 2017 model range and the drawing has just been filed with details of an updated air intake into the motor (although this bike doesn’t have any mention of a supercharger or turbocharger in the patent description).

There are several aspects to the drawing that are interesting, whatever size bike this turns out to be has a more sporty riding position to the current Z800, the small cockpit fairing that sits on top of the handlebars can be moved up and down to change the amount of air hitting the rider and is a simple click-up, click-down small shield. The bike had upside-down front forks but a stubby seat unit and aggressively-styled front end with a completely re-designed headlight unit.

There’s also a full-height shoulder fairing that continues from the bike’s fairing to the bellypan and joins up with a new pan around the exhaust and under the motor.

It would make sense for this to be the new Z800 and compared to the current bike (pictured below) there are obvious similarities like frame, swingarm and general riding position.

In the drawing, the exhaust exits the bike on the right hand side, so it’s unlikely that this is the firm’s Z1000 update (the current Z1000 is pictured below). It looks much more likely to be the updates Z800 which for 2016 was limited to a new exhaust cosmetic tweaks.