Mash 650 Six Hundred Classic Is An Affordable Vintage Standard

Timeless styling that never left.

By: Janaki Jitchotvisut

May 28, 2021 at 2:02pm ET

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French motorcycle company Mash prides itself on its vintage styling. Just one look at the Désert Force or the X-Ride 650 instantly shows you that this is one modern company that wears its influences very proudly on its sleeve. Thus, when you first lay eyes on the confusingly-named 650 Six Hundred Classic, you might wonder how it is that Mash got this far without diving into this particular vintage aesthetic before.

It’s powered by a Euro 5-compliant, air-cooled, 644cc, overhead cam, single-cylinder engine with no horsepower or torque figures available. Suspension is comprised of a conventional 41mm fork up front and twin rear shocks for that specific vintage look. It rides on spoked wheels, with a 19-inch one up front and an 18-inch rear. Single disc brakes stop you all around, with a 320mm disc up front and a 240mm in the rear.

Seat height is an unintimidating 780mm, or around 30.7 inches. It’s not clear whether the weight figure is curb or dry, but is given as 181 kilograms (or 399 pounds), so we definitely hope that’s the curb weight.

Style-wise, it fits neatly into that old-school British single/UJM school of design, from the round headlight with chrome bezel to the dual round chrome-binnacled gauge pods, back to the two-up leather (or leather-look; that’s not clear) saddle with the matching strap across the middle. Even the exhaust shape is extremely simple, and familiar, and you’ve probably seen it a million times before. Are there black fork gaiters and round chrome mirrors? Of course.

Mash sells its bikes in various European countries, but apparently not every country gets all the same models—or if they eventually do, they don’t roll out everywhere at the same time. The 650 Six Hundred Classic is currently listed as being headed to the German market in or around July, 2021, in your choice of Irish Green or Night Blue colorways. It’s not listed on Mash’s French webpage, although that could change in the future. Cost in Germany, including delivery, should be about € 5,178.00, which is about $6,318 at the time of writing.