Bikes

Up-Close with the Kawasaki Ninja H2R

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Asphalt & Rubber is coming to you live from the AIMExpo in Orlando, Florida today and tomorrow, covering the new bikes that are debuting on North American soil. We’ve already seen the new Yamaha YZF-R3 released here, as well as the Alta RedShift electric motorcycles (formerly BRD Motorcycles).

While both bikes are impressive, and are massively important to the American motorcycle scene, the buzz remains about the Kawasaki Ninja H2R. The AIMExpo is the first venue for Americans to get a glimpse of Kawasaki’s hyperbike, and the H2R sits like a praying mantis, waiting to strike you with its supercharged charms.

Naturally, we had to get a closer look…and bring you a bevy of high-resolution detail shots from the trades how floor. Enjoy!

In person, we can say that the photos we have seen to date have certainly done the bike justice. The Ninja H2R’s plethora of aerials adorn its carbon fiber fairings like menacing horns. You can’t call them superfluous, because at the very least they exude the idea that the supercharged Kawasaki Ninja H2R is something special, which it is.

The detail work is fantastic. Strip away the green highlights and Kawasaki labels, and you would be guessing a European origin for the H2R, with its fine details and tailor made pieces. Perhaps most striking are the long carbon fiber tubes that draw the RAM-packed air in the supercharger’s intake, which sweep around the H2R’s body.

The switchgear is interesting too, and betrays the advancements that Kawasaki has made on the electronics side of its sport bike offerings. While details are mum beyond the most basic of basics, we suspects the EICMA show will reveal the extent of Kawasaki’s efforts to tame this 300hp beast.

Visually no bigger than your typical liter bike, it’s easy to see how bikes like the H2R are the future. Massive power packed into typical form factors, if not smaller. Forced induction is sure to be the future of the motorcycle industry, we are just seeing the tip of that iceberg…a very formidable tip, to be sure.

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Photos: © 2014 Jensen Beeler / Asphalt & Rubber – Creative Commons – Attribution 3.0

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