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Will the Euro 4 Requirements Bring a Bigger, More Powerful, Cleaner Kawasaki ER-7?

Kawasaki is believed to work on a new, bigger engine that will power the new ER machines. The ER-6n and ER-6f bikes have received solid aesthetic upgrades since their introduction, starting as rather common two-wheelers and becoming quite lookers in their latest embodiment.
2015 Kawasaki ER-6f 1 photo
Photo: Kawasaki
Still, the engine remained unchanged, the same 649cc liquid-cooled parallel twin that can produce a 71 hp peak power and 64Nm (47 lb-ft). The tech specs have varied insignificantly since the model's introduction back in 2006, and almost a decade means that the a change in the engine department of such bikes is almost overdue.

Even more, the EU regulations demand that all new models being manufactured starting with 2016 be compliant with Euro 4 emissions rules. Existing models will have to be upgraded by 2017 for the same purpose.

With Kawasaki's naked bikes being highly popular in Europe and the model in need of some tech revamping, we can dream that Akashi will bend its engineers on the ER engine, possibly delivering an ER-7 series.

Stricter emissions rules usually means less power, but extra ccs could compensate

When an engine is tuned to comply with stricter emission rules its performance will drop a bit. This can be compensated by some extra displacement added by a longer stroke, when building a completely new power plant is out of the question.

The existing ER-6 models could definitely use this recipe, and even some more beauty tricks could be added into the mix. The current generation was launched in 2012m and tweaking its looks a bit for 2016 would be a most welcome idea.

Now, the new Vulcan S is also using the same engine, so it will also benefit from a more powerful mill, much to the new customers' delight. Whether this is only silly season speculation or not, we'll most likely find out later this fall.
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