French · 7 years on Samui
French motorcycle tour guide living on Koh Samui for 7 years. Marc leads group rides across southern Thailand and knows every road on the island.
Updated: May 2026
At the Chaweng rental shop last February, an Italian rider with twelve years on various bikes asked specifically for the Z650RS - he had seen the photo on the rental shop's board and wanted the retro styling for his day on the ring road. I watched him pull away and return three hours later. His assessment: 'The styling is what I wanted, but the performance surprised me.' At 67 horsepower and 185 kilograms, the Z650RS is significantly more capable than its vintage appearance suggests - experienced riders who choose it for the aesthetics discover the performance on the first ring road straight.
Seven years of tour guiding on Samui has shown that the Z650RS attracts experienced parallel twin riders who want something different from the standard naked bike aesthetic. Riders with backgrounds on Triumph Bonnevilles, Honda CB650Rs, and similar retro-modern bikes arrive at the Z650RS with a calibrated expectation of what a 649cc retro twin should provide: character, torque, visual presence, and the parallel twin's smooth power delivery. The Z650RS meets those expectations and adds Kawasaki's more aggressive modern framing beneath the vintage styling.
On the north coast road last November, I rode alongside a Belgian rider on the Z650RS who had specifically planned his route around the scenic viewpoints most likely to produce strong motorcycle photography - the beach road at sunset, the Fisherman's Village approach road, the cliff section north of Choeng Mon. The Z650RS's visual presence in those locations is not matched by any other bike in the Samui rental fleet. For a rider who wants to document the trip and have the motorcycle as a compositional element in the photographs, the Z650RS is the most photogenic machine available.
On a full ring road circuit last January on the Z650RS - 52 kilometres, departure at 7 a.m. - I arrived at Nathon with the engine working easily and the rider comfortable. The Z650RS's seat is not a touring seat - it is lower and narrower than the CB500X's - but for a Samui-scale circuit of 50 to 80 kilometres, the discomfort does not accumulate to a meaningful level. For a rider planning Samui circuits below 80 kilometres per day who wants the Z650RS's style and performance combination, the ergonomic compromise is not significant within those distances.
At the rental shop last October, a rider planning a mainland day to Surat Thani and back asked about the Z650RS. I redirected him to the CB500X. The Z650RS's road-only tyres, lower seat, and naked bike aerodynamics at highway speeds make it less appropriate for extended mainland touring than the CB500X's windscreen and touring ergonomics. For riders planning circuits above 100 kilometres, two-up riding, or mainland days, the Z650RS's style advantage does not offset the CB500X's practical touring advantages. The Z650RS is a Samui circuit and ring road bike, not a mainland tourer.
Seven years of observing Kawasaki Z650RS rentals from Chaweng has produced a consistent rider profile: experienced on larger bikes, drawn initially by the retro styling, and genuinely surprised by the performance they discover on the ring road. These riders return from their days having covered circuits at a pace that the styling does not promise but the 67 horsepower delivers. They are consistently among the most engaged renters on the motorbike fleet - the Z650RS gives them aesthetics and performance simultaneously, which is the specific combination they did not expect to find in a standard rental.
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