Motorcycle specifications Mash650 Six Hundred 2024 Mischief?

Moving upmarket is often a delicate exercise. Customers are more meticulous, expectations are higher, and the competition is already well established. Mash is discovering this in its own way with its 650 cm3 engine. After the Dirt-Track and the X-Ride, it's now the turn of a classic roadster to make the house's big mono crack. The Six Hundred is here to add more watts to a tried-and-tested experience.

This XP is the Five Hundred 400. The French brand's first medium-displacement bike, a kind of revisited SR 400 with a crazy price tag. Vintage looks and old-fashioned technology have brought in the looks and the orders. The Six Hundred looks like its big brother, with an almost identical design but a beefier engine.

Based on the Honda XR design, the 644 cm3 block is classic in every respect. 4 valves, 1 ACT, 5-speed gearbox, air cooling aided by a small oil cooler - it smacks of the 80s, but with a little technology to help it pass the stringent standards. Fuel injection and a catalytic system take care of breathing. The Six Hundred offers 39 horsepower, 45% more than the 400.

When you put it like that, it sounds like the Mash is going to blow up. In reality, it offers much greater motoring comfort and dynamism, but remains a machine with measured pretensions, designed more for gentle riding than attacking.
For the Six Hundred is entering a sector where it must warn its users: in this displacement range, there are much better wattage, much more fun and much more expensive machines. It's out of the question to pit it against a 645 cm3 SV or a 689 cm3 MT-07, whose prices require an extra 1,000 to 1,500 euros.

No , let's put things into perspective right away. The competition is quite different. If anything, it's non-existent. You don't find many retro roadsters with an old 6 and ½ single on the market. The Six Hundred doesn't fear comparison in this respect, as its audience is not the young guns of the road.

even if its forty-odd grunts won't put creases in the road, Mash has nonetheless reinforced certain equipment compared to the 400. Braking is improved, with a larger 320 mm front disc, a beefier caliper with 4 pistons instead of 2, and a 240 mm rear disc instead of a drum. A small jar of sport-type brake fluid plays the provocative wink. ABS is disconnectable here.

The chassis is also very simple, with a single, split cradle steel frame, 41 mm forks, two side shocks and virtually no adjustment. Only the rear preload can be adjusted.
The charm lies elsewhere, in the tried-and-tested recipe for this class of machine. Teasing British styling, spoked wheels, a flat seat with full old-school flanges, gussets in the middle of the forks to protect the downtubes, a relaxed riding position and a set of sausage-style exhausts. The round, old-school headlight houses a full LED lighting system that's far more contemporary than the line.

Rather pretty, a little slender, the bike should also prove agile with its narrow tires. only 100 mm at the front and 130 mm at the rear. Enough to whizz around the suburbs and back roads, its most suitable playgrounds.
The cost of maintenance will be a question to be asked, with consideration. An oil change is announced every 3,000 km (oops), but with the few electronics on board, there's no risk of techno-digital failure.

Like all Mash models, the 650 Six Hundred is offered at a contained price. But this is no longer the unstoppable argument that made its 125 and 400 models so successful. If the difference is noticeable with modern, peachy machines, it's not really an obstacle. For the same price, a new Mash 650 or a second-hand CB 500 F?

M.B - Manufacturer's photos