Kawasaki ZX-4R in the pipeline, but also in Europe?

Everyone says it, so it’s true: Kawasaki is about to launch a high-performance ZX-4R. Although it is of course not inconceivable that the wish was the father of the thought, it is certainly not inconceivable that the increasingly loud rumor about an imminent ZX-4R is true.

Shortly after the launch of the ZX-25R, Kawasaki had been rumored to be working on a 400cc and it has been hinted at by various media outlets, but things seem to have picked up speed in recent weeks. Since the Japanese magazine Young Machine wrote that the new 400 is almost here, the madness seems to have erupted worldwide. Not least because Young Machine has often been right with new models.

The new ZX-4R is said to be based on the ZX-25R, the Little Screamer that makes a whopping 17,000 rpm and squeezes a top power of 50 hp from a 250cc inline four. That translates to a 400cc, you arrive at a top power of 80 hp, and that is very fat.

Pack that into a chassis derived from the ZX-25R and you’re talking a lightweight sports bike that will give you plenty of one-litre bikes on many track days to beat and have a lot more fun with than a fat one-litre bike. Because it is much more fun to drive fast with a slow engine than slowly with a fast engine.

Based on the knowledge within Young Machine, it is therefore only a matter of time before the ZX-4R will be put on the market, but whether it will actually come to Europe remains unknown for the time being. Supersport bikes are still insanely popular, but that popularity is no longer being converted into numbers, because people have become aware that a 200+ horsepower bike is no use on the street. The ZX-4R could be the perfect compromise in that regard. The looks of a one-litre supersport, but with ‘Down to Earth’ performance.