Kawasaki Ninja ZX-4R

[Alex Z]

Most surprising thing is it’s a 4 cylinder rather than twin. If they can hit a decent price point, it should sell pretty well.

[Caddyshack]

I ride a Cagiva mito 125 and enjoy revving it hard to get anywhere, I have considered getting an Aprilia RS660 next but the thing that puts me off is the v twin, the best bikes when I grew up were the Exup with in line 4….this super revvy 400 has me interested.

[Kawasicki]

cool machine

the old zxr400 weighed around the 188kg mark with a full tank of fuel.

I‘m looking forward to a test ride!

[trickywoo]

Caddyshack said:

I have considered getting an Aprilia RS660 next but the thing that puts me off is the v twin, the best bikes when I grew up were the Exup with in line 4….this super revvy 400 has me interested.

The RS660 is a parallel twin, not even as good as a v twin so scratch it right off your list.

[Caddyshack]

trickywoo said:

Caddyshack said:

I have considered getting an Aprilia RS660 next but the thing that puts me off is the v twin, the best bikes when I grew up were the Exup with in line 4….this super revvy 400 has me interested.

The RS660 is a parallel twin, not even as good as a v twin so scratch it right off your list.

As I typed it I thought I may have made an error there. It sounds ok as a twin but not spine tingling like a screaming 4.

I imagine this new kwaka could be made to sound great with a slip on.

[Byronwww]

Caddyshack said:

trickywoo said:

Caddyshack said:

I have considered getting an Aprilia RS660 next but the thing that puts me off is the v twin, the best bikes when I grew up were the Exup with in line 4….this super revvy 400 has me interested.

The RS660 is a parallel twin, not even as good as a v twin so scratch it right off your list.

As I typed it I thought I may have made an error there. It sounds ok as a twin but not spine tingling like a screaming 4.

I imagine this new kwaka could be made to sound great with a slip on.

The zx250r sounds amazing

https://youtu.be/ubOLuI5_jrQ

[Caddyshack]

Byronwww said:

Caddyshack said:

trickywoo said:

Caddyshack said:

I have considered getting an Aprilia RS660 next but the thing that puts me off is the v twin, the best bikes when I grew up were the Exup with in line 4….this super revvy 400 has me interested.

The RS660 is a parallel twin, not even as good as a v twin so scratch it right off your list.

As I typed it I thought I may have made an error there. It sounds ok as a twin but not spine tingling like a screaming 4.

I imagine this new kwaka could be made to sound great with a slip on.

The zx250r sounds amazing

https://youtu.be/ubOLuI5_jrQ

How can so little power sound so great?

[Tango13]

Alex Z said:

Most surprising thing is it’s a 4 cylinder rather than twin. If they can hit a decent price point, it should sell pretty well.

I can't understand why it's an in-line four either? A supercharged 400 or 500 parallel twin would've been much more interesting.

[Caddyshack]

Tango13 said:

Alex Z said:

Most surprising thing is it’s a 4 cylinder rather than twin. If they can hit a decent price point, it should sell pretty well.

I can't understand why it's an in-line four either? A supercharged 400 or 500 parallel twin would've been much more interesting.

High revving normally aspirated is where it’s at for me.

Supercharging adds weight, cost and complexity along with losing the 4 cylinder sound….I expect it’s a generational thing?

[CoolHands]

These bikes always have completely ste engines. Will probably be extremely boring to ride in real life.

[Drabbesttunic]

LordFlathead said:

I really like this and am waiting for the price. I've recently had to sell off all my bikes and am just left with my mint 06 MV Agusta F4. Sadly this will have to go too to fund a house move. I miss the screaming 400's and love the fact you can wring its neck and not have double speed license losing mode without being fully aware of it.

£7499? I'm in as long Kawasaki finance is not ridiculous!

10k apparently.
No thank you

[LordFlathead]

Drabbesttunic said:

LordFlathead said:

I really like this and am waiting for the price. I've recently had to sell off all my bikes and am just left with my mint 06 MV Agusta F4. Sadly this will have to go too to fund a house move. I miss the screaming 400's and love the fact you can wring its neck and not have double speed license losing mode without being fully aware of it.

£7499? I'm in as long Kawasaki finance is not ridiculous!

10k apparently.
No thank you

"I'm oot!"

[Tango13]

Caddyshack said:

High revving normally aspirated is where it’s at for me.

Supercharging adds weight, cost and complexity along with losing the 4 cylinder sound….I expect it’s a generational thing?

What the bike might gain in extra weight from the supercharger it should save by only having two cylinders, half the number of valves, a smaller cylinder head, shorter cams, shorter crank, fewer bearing journals on the crank and cams so less internal friction and a narrower block.

Supercharging will also add a fk ton of extra torque pretty much anywhere in the rev range and as you won't need to run the engine out to 15k rpm it will be much easier to access the power.

Obviously no one has built a supercharged 500 twin so the above is speculation but the H2 is restricted to 200bhp/99lbs/ft of torque and 250bhp is but an ECU flash away if the internet is to believed.

[rodericb]

black-k1 said:

rodericb said:

It's an interesting product in this day and age. The 400's back in the 90's were knocking out 60 horses and were a tiny bit lighter (around 160kg dry). This Kawasaki has 80 horses and 188kg wet. Yeah it doesn't seem impressive when a Ducati Panigale weighs less and has three times the power but it'd perform better than a lot of the supersports 600's ever did! What's more astonishing is that Kawasaki produce the ZX25R, which is a four cylinder 250cc bike for south east asian markets. I think this 400cc version is pretty much the 250cc but with a larger engine....

https://www.mcnews.com.au/kawasaki-zx-4r-80-hp-fou...

I think your weight comment is confusing dry weight and kerb weight. The kerb weight of a Panigale is 198.5kg. (I don't know why manufactures give dry weights as no one is going to ride without fluids in the bike!!!) Even at almost 200kg, the Panigale is still super light but it's not lighter than the ZX-4R

Yeah I had a bit of a slip with the weight of the Panigale. Ten kilos more, three times the power then

This 400 would seem to be lighter than the 400's from the early nineties though. The frame spar is actually two thin ones, the swingarm is quite slender and the spokes are tiny.

[Byronwww]

Tango13 said:

Caddyshack said:

High revving normally aspirated is where it’s at for me.

Supercharging adds weight, cost and complexity along with losing the 4 cylinder sound….I expect it’s a generational thing?

What the bike might gain in extra weight from the supercharger it should save by only having two cylinders, half the number of valves, a smaller cylinder head, shorter cams, shorter crank, fewer bearing journals on the crank and cams so less internal friction and a narrower block.

Supercharging will also add a fk ton of extra torque pretty much anywhere in the rev range and as you won't need to run the engine out to 15k rpm it will be much easier to access the power.

Obviously no one has built a supercharged 500 twin so the above is speculation but the H2 is restricted to 200bhp/99lbs/ft of torque and 250bhp is but an ECU flash away if the internet is to believed.

The high revving 4 is the main reason for the bike though, it's a bigger version of the 250R

[epom]

Byronwww said:

Tango13 said:

Caddyshack said:

High revving normally aspirated is where it’s at for me.

Supercharging adds weight, cost and complexity along with losing the 4 cylinder sound….I expect it’s a generational thing?

What the bike might gain in extra weight from the supercharger it should save by only having two cylinders, half the number of valves, a smaller cylinder head, shorter cams, shorter crank, fewer bearing journals on the crank and cams so less internal friction and a narrower block.

Supercharging will also add a fk ton of extra torque pretty much anywhere in the rev range and as you won't need to run the engine out to 15k rpm it will be much easier to access the power.

Obviously no one has built a supercharged 500 twin so the above is speculation but the H2 is restricted to 200bhp/99lbs/ft of torque and 250bhp is but an ECU flash away if the internet is to believed.

The high revving 4 is the main reason for the bike though, it's a bigger version of the 250R

Was just about to point out the same. The whole point of this bike would be ruined by adding a supercharger. That would just make it faster.

[Donbot]

Is it confirmed that this is coming to the UK? I'm surprised it gets through emissions considering the trouble bike manufacturers have getting the revvy 600s past them.

[ar-em-en]

It'll be an excellent bike for a one make series. I definitely wouldn't mind one as a track bike if they start doing packages or the price is competitive.

[graeme4130]

ar-em-en said:

It'll be an excellent bike for a one make series. I definitely wouldn't mind one as a track bike if they start doing packages or the price is competitive.

I was thinking the same. Yeah, it's quite heavy, but then again a full race spec current Ninja 400 is 142kg, so no lightweight. This has loads more power too. Would make for some good racing

[Pebbles167]

I want one, even though I've given up trackdays and hate sports bikes on most roads.

It'll probably be a hit, but only if they get the pricing right.

It'll have to be under £8k , otherwise people will likely be tempted by the Yamaha R7 or something else.