Tag

2015 Kawasaki H2

Browsing

With the track-only Kawasaki Ninja H2R putting out 300hp from its supercharged 998cc displacement, the 200hp Kawasaki Nina H2 street bike seems positively demure, by comparison.

Of course, any 200hp machine is more than a handful, and we doubt many H2 owners will keep their machines street legal for very long — it’s been explained to A&R that it doesn’t take much work to uncork the H2…we’re just not sure if that’s a good or bad thing though.

Ostentatious might be the best way to describe the new H2. Bringing back forced induction to the sport bike scene is a pretty bold move from Kawasaki, and something we will likely see more of from the Japanese manufacturers. The styling of the H2R was certainly…eye-catching…with all the winglets and dramatic lines, the H2 street bike is only slightly watered-down from that lurid design.

I have seen a lot of things in the motorcycle industry since I started Asphalt & Rubber, but never before have I seen something like this. During the autumn months, it is not uncommon for A&R to receive tips about new motorcycle models that are about to debut, and today was seemingly no different.

This morning we got an enthusiastic email from a purported regular reader (make that two readers now), asking why we weren’t covering the leaked details on the supercharged Kawasaki H2, which were apparently “going viral” all over the internet, as the email told us. To give us proof of that assertion, they included in the emails links to a Facebook page for a new web forum for the H2, which is where the leak apparently occurred.

A quick check on our massive RSS feed (roughly 600 publications now) showed the viral story had only been picked up by one other publication, Motorcycle.com. MO ran the story with the headline “Inside Info About Kawasaki’s Radical H2 Sportbike?” — which had been written by the ever loveable “Motorcycle.com Staff” author, and qualified with the profession’s ubiquitous “?” phrasing.

Our friends at MO certainly do a bit of traffic (I say that with sincerity), though I normally wouldn’t use a single publication covering a story as an indication of that story going viral, but ok whatever…hyperbole is part of the game.

Like any good editor though, I dove into the story deeper. What I found has me supremely worried.

At the pace Kawasaki is going, it looks to be a long, painful, drawn-out debut for the Kawasaki H2. We’re six videos in now, and not much about the supercharged sport bike has been revealed. Sure, we’ve heard the sound of the bike’s centrifugal supercharger and inline-four engine, and we have gotten a glimpse at the H2’s lines, but our appetite desires more.

Today won’t be that satiation, though we do get to “see” the Kawasaki H2 for the first time…as it does triple-figures past the camera. Once again, Kawasaki takes off another piece of clothing in this two-wheeled burlesque show, yet manages not to show us anything worth the excitement.

We will likely just have to wait until September 28th, when the Kawasaki H2 officially breaks cover, ahead of the INTERMOT show.

At the end of this month, Kawasaki is set to debut a supercharged sport bike, which the Japanese company says will be a game-changing event.

We’ve already seen the Kawasaki H2’s supercharged inline-four engine, as well as the supercharger’s patent, and Team Green has even been kind enough to send us the H2’s exhaust note as well.

Continuing to tease the new Ninja’s debut video short web videos, Kawasaki is finally giving us an idea of what to expect visually from the new H2.

Making an homage to the big-displacement motorcycle of Kawasaki’s past, you’ll want to watch the video after the jump. We’ve enhanced a screen grab for you as well.

Continuing to build the buzz around its newest sport bike, Kawasaki has sent us a sound clip of the new H2 motorcycle, which the company will debut at the upcoming INTERMOT show.

Team Green has been pretty tight-lipped about the Kawasaki H2, though there have been plenty of clues sprinkled around for us to suss out that it will be a sport bike with a supercharged inline-four engine.

Listening to the provided sound clip seems to confirm our notion that Kawasaki’s new supercharger system is at work.

Kawasaki is teasing a new model today, which it will unveil at the upcoming INTERMOT show in October. Called the Kawasaki H2, the name harkens back to a pivotal time in Kawasaki’s motorcycle history, where the Japanese company made one of the most highly regarded line of sport bikes of its time.

While the video itself reveals very little in information, and only a couple looks at the machine, the teaser website provides us with a little more information.

Hidden in the website is the following phrase: “The Ninja H2 was not designed with meeting regulations a primary concern. Kawasaki’s latest flagship is the result of a pure exercise in pushing the limits of motorcycle technology with the goal of creating the ideal road sports bike.”