Exactly 23 years after the curtain fell on the ZXR400 at the end of the last century, Kawasaki has given the little Supersport a new lease of life. At Circuit de Calafat on the Spanish coast we were able to get acquainted with the Ninja ZX-4RR in quite hot conditions, which has brought life back into the Supersport brewery. An extensive test will soon be available on Motorfreaks, here are Ron’s first findings.
We have a problem with this, with light motorcycles, and especially on the track, because it is still much more fun to ride fast with a slow motorcycle than slowly with a fast motorcycle. And although with a top power of 80 hp and a top speed of 225 km/h on a long straight stretch (we just reached 200 km/h on the 600 meter “long” straight stretch), the Ninja ZX-4RR can be anything but slow. it certainly falls into this category./p>
It became clear during the presentation that Kawasaki has done a great job with the Ninja ZX-4RR, and this will be discussed in depth in the extensive test, but for now we limit ourselves to the specs in a nutshell: a 400cc inline four with a top power of 80 hp (with Ram-Air, purely naturally aspirated 77 hp), a red area above 15,000 rpm, a truss frame (like the Ninja H2), Showa suspension, double discs with radial brake calipers.
What makes the Ninja ZX-4RR really unique are the integrated riding modes that link KTRC (Kawasaki Traction Control) and Power Modes, where you can choose from 4 different modes: Sport, Road, Rain and Rider. With the latter, everything can be adjusted to your own scent and taste. The traction control can be turned off completely, but spoiler alert: we didn’t do that anyway. We can now tell you from experience that even with ‘only’ 80 hp, traction control on a track is really not an unnecessary luxury.
And then we haven’t even talked about the design, which is really cool and resembles the Ninja ZX-10RR of Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes, with KRT racing colors, a large Ram-Air air intake on the front, aggressive dual LED headlights and Kawasaki’s signature 4.3″ TFT color display with Bluetooth connectivity.
According to Ron, the Ninja ZX-4RR is quite complete – especially when you take the price into account – and despite its Supersport DNA, it has a very relaxed and spacious seat, none of the colleagues he spoke to had There is something to say about that and that is a huge compliment for a ‘small’ motorcycle. He was also pleased with the midrange, which wasn’t all that bad for a 400 four-cylinder engine. Not that it spent much time there, keeping it above 10,000 rpm (actually even 12,000 rpm) was previously the motto at Calafat.
The extensive test will soon be available on Motorfreaks.
– Thanks for information from Motorfreaks.