The new 650 Morini

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George 350
Posts: 450
Joined: 16 Jun 2007 09:43
Location: Northampton

Re: The new 650 Morini

Post by George 350 »

Does this engine have any links to the recently announced 'made in China' Norton 650's?
From what is visible it certainly looks similar from the right hand side.

I'm sure if the price is right they will sell, which will be good in attracting new and importantly younger owners/riders to the brand and then hopefully into the club, but I'm a luddite and don't like the acres of plastic.

It's not a Morini I know, but I'll keep my Enfield 650 as my modern bike thank you. Has loads more appeal to me.
George
350 sport 1978, 350 Strada 1978
650 Norton 1967, 650 Kawasaki 1977 and 650 Enfield 2019
George 350
Posts: 450
Joined: 16 Jun 2007 09:43
Location: Northampton

Re: The new 650 Morini

Post by George 350 »

Does this engine have any links to the recently announced 'made in China' Norton 650's?
From what is visible it certainly looks similar from the right hand side.

I'm sure if the price is right they will sell, which will be good in attracting new and importantly younger owners/riders to the brand and then hopefully into the club, but I'm a luddite and don't like the acres of plastic.

It's not a Morini I know, but I'll keep my Enfield 650 as my modern bike thank you. Has loads more appeal to me.
George
350 sport 1978, 350 Strada 1978
650 Norton 1967, 650 Kawasaki 1977 and 650 Enfield 2019
Steph
Posts: 5
Joined: 22 Apr 2019 19:38
Location: London

Re: The new 650 Morini

Post by Steph »

The 6 1/2 looks well done and in good taste. I wish it would have been a V twin though.

Niche motorcycle don't always have it easy, who remembers the lack of demand for Cagiva Raptor 650, Hyosong 650, Laverda 650, the concept Laverda 650 Lynx, the discounted SWM RS650R etc.

It would be nice if Morini made a bit more noise, updated their website and actually advertised the Milano in stock somewhere in the UK.
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corsaro chris
Posts: 1162
Joined: 13 Jul 2006 21:28
Location: Berks, UK

Re: The new 650 Morini

Post by corsaro chris »

If you go to the Factory website you can get the details of the new Seiemmezzo here;

https://motomorini.eu/moto/seiemmezzo/

Scroll down and there is a technical sheet which you can download; seat height and other useful stuff is there, but no weights or power outputs as yet. The Factory tell us that they (the Italians) are working on Euro 5 compliance, and that the bikes will be ready by mid-2020. The 1200 Super Scrambler will be ready earlier...

How do we know this? Because we were there, of course.

Much more detail in the December issue of ATG (that's the magazine of the Morini Riders Club, for the uninitiated). Both of the new bikes use a common engine, and the X-Cape was also shown with a kit of luggage; looks to have a nice comfy seat as well! As to whether they are true Morinis, well the proof, as ever, will be in the riding, but they are good attractive modern bikes without too much superfluous add-ons...

Good riding,

CC
"I'll use the Morini"
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MarkB
Posts: 673
Joined: 22 Jun 2009 13:14
Location: Stevenage

Re: The new 650 Morini

Post by MarkB »

the Italian Morini FB page has many comments saying that it's a Kawasaki Versys. I rode one of those for 1000 miles around Thailand, and it's highly competent: mountain hairpins and climbs, flat-out dual carriageways, gravel trails - whatever you want to do with it. It just had no soul or sense of involvement. And that's what I want from a Morini.
"I'll have a V please, Bob."
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72degrees
Posts: 1549
Joined: 31 Aug 2007 21:24
Location: West Midlands

Re: The new 650 Morini

Post by 72degrees »

MarkB wrote:the Italian Morini FB page has many comments saying that it's a Kawasaki Versys. I rode one of those for 1000 miles around Thailand, and it's highly competent: mountain hairpins and climbs, flat-out dual carriageways, gravel trails - whatever you want to do with it. It just had no soul or sense of involvement. And that's what I want from a Morini.
Quite. I already have a Kawasaki ER6n with the same engine as a Versys. Utterly reliable. Winds the scenery in as quickly as I need to these days, but just 'meh'.
In a similar vein, the Aprilia Shiver 750 L twin I had, just didn't really feel like an Italian bike.
I'm all for not having to have a sense of involvement to keep the thing running, when it comes to a modern bike at least, but nothing has given me a grin after riding it as much as a Morini or Gilera (or KTM 350 SXF ;)) . To be fair, the grin was one of terror on the Corsaro occasionally, when a bit too enthusiastic with the throttle.

I also suspect the 650 Morini will be surprisingly heavy. I know modern emission controls, ABS, etc. have a weight penalty, but some of the so-called 'middleweights' (like the Benelli 502) are well over 200 Kgs!
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corsaro chris
Posts: 1162
Joined: 13 Jul 2006 21:28
Location: Berks, UK

Re: The new 650 Morini

Post by corsaro chris »

Well Pete, all;

We can appreciate that Morini will be wanting to attract a new audience with the 650 - existing Morini riders will want the bikes to be reliable and involving to ride; that's what Morini means to us, yes? Hopefully the guys at the Factory realise that any bike they build has to be different from the normal clone, and will factor that in to the engine work that they are doing for development of the map and Euro 5 compliance. I rode a GPz 500 to work for five years - utterly reliable and as exciting as rice pudding, just like the K100 I used before for work; that put over 70,000 miles on the clock over six plus years. As the eldest boy said at the time - "the only 'bike I've never been on the back of, Dad" - says it all really!

And if not - well, we've already got our Morinis haven't we? But - by the way - the Corsaro, GP, ZZ and all are involving and different due not only to the engine but also the chassis and ancillary stuff, so it can be done!

The proof - or not - will be when they break cover next year...

Good riding,

CC
"I'll use the Morini"
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