At last weekend’s Argentinian round for the WorldSBK Championship, the Kawasaki Racing Team had something special in mind for Race 1.
It wasn’t a new race strategy; they didn’t find 10hp extra in the ZX-10RR motor; nor did they make any major chassis changes.
What the team did do though was dig into the 125 years of Kawasaki history, and run with two special throw-back liveries for Saturday’s race.
Where there is an updated ZX-10R, so too is there an updated ZX-10RR, and the 2021 model year from Kawasaki does not break away from this tradition.
As such, say hello to the 2021 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR which gets some subtle changes for its $28,999 price tag and a 500-unit exclusivity.
The level of competition continues to increase in each season of the WorldSBK Championship, but each year Jonathan Rea rises to the occasion, with Kawasaki rider making it six titles in-a-row with the 2020 season.
For this year, the battle for the title came down to the final round of the season, with WorldSBK returning to the Estoril circuit in Portugal because of the coronavirus restrictions.
The new track on the calendar didn’t phase Rea though, as he took the championship easily during Saturday’s race.
In 41 days, Kawasaki plans on unveiling six new motorcycles for the 2021 model year, and no ink has been wasted trying to speculate what those bikes could be.
Could there be a new KLR to rival the Yamaha Ténéré 700 and help Team Green back into the ADV category? Another supercharged model to keep the H2 and H2 SX street bikes company? One more retro-modern play? It’s hard to say.
One thing that did seem for certain was that we would see a new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R superbike, and that is where today’s story takes us.
Now, our Bothan spies have reported in, and given us some clarity on what has only been speculation so far.
Motorcyclists who bleed green will be happy to hear that Kawasaki has FIVE new models to show us, between its unveilings at the Tokyo Motor Show and what is to come at EICMA.
From the company’s website, two of the upcoming machines will debut in Tokyo, while the other three will be launched at EICMA. Best of all, we have a pretty good idea what those bikes will be.
Take a good look at it – this is the Suzuka 8-Hours race winning endurance bike that Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam took to victory this year.
As with any endurance-spec race bike, this Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR is a very special animal, and one can pore over the photos here looking at all the interesting modifications that go into a Suzuka-winning machine.
For us, our eyes always go towards the quick-change wheels and brakes, but there are interesting items on every corner of the motorcycle.
A month ago, we told you about Kawasaki thinking about its response to the Ducati Panigale V4 R, which is dominating in the World Superbike Championship right now.
In short, to counter the Italians’ creation, the Japanese brand was thinking of brining its own homologation special superbike to market, which like the Panigale V4 R, would be a race bike with lights, built only with the idea of winning the WorldSBK title.
Today, we seem to get further proof that Team Green will release a new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR for the 2020 model year, thanks to the company’s filings with the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
Team Green could bring a new superbike for the 2020 model year, or at least that is what the scuttlebutt from Europe is saying.
The news of a new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR comes from comments made by KRT Senior Engineer Ichiro Yoda while talking to Germany’s Speedweek website.
In responding to the dominant force laid bare by the Ducati Panigale V4 R and Alvaro Bautista, Yoda-san signals Kawasaki’s response to the Italian manufacturer – namely that a new bike could debut for next year.
The Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R is getting an engine upgrade for the 2019 model year. As such, the 2019 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R as well as the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R SE will make an even 200hp at the crank, while the 2019 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR will make 201hp.
Across all three models, the updated Ninja ZX-10R gets a revised cylinder head, which includes a finger-follower valve train that has 20% less mass than the previous tappet-style valves. This has allowed Kawasaki to use a more aggressive cam profile, accounting for much of the power gained, to the tune of 200hp at the crank.
On the 2019 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR, things go a step further. The homologation special gets titanium connecting rods from Pankl, which drop nearly a pound (400 grams) from the inline-four engine’s internals. As a result of this weight reduction, the ZX-10RR sees its rev limit increase by 600 rpm over the previous model.
The race-winner that could have been. Kawasaki Team Green was the Suzuka 8-Hours favorite coming out of Saturday’s Top 10 qualifying session, and the factory-backed Kawasaki team traded corners with Yamaha during the opening laps of Sunday’s endurance race.
What looked like an upset in the making, turned out to be a fizzle, largely because of a poor fueling and pit stop strategy, which saw Jonathan Rea first run out of gas, and then stay out on slicks during a rain storm.
As he tumbled down the asphalt, you have to wonder if the World Superbike champion saw his Suzuka fortunes tumbling with him.
The 2018 Suzuka 8-Hours endurance race was the biggest effort that we have seen from Kawasaki, which enlisted the help of its future WorldSBK team (Jonathan Rea, Leon Haslam, and part of the KRT pit box), to join the Japanese engineers and All Japan Superbike rider Kazuma Watanabe.
Part of the effort involved honing the specially prepared Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR race bike for the Suzuka 8-Hours, and this included a considerable amount of pre-event testing, with WorldSBK crew chief Pere Ribe overseeing the bike’s development.
Attention owners of the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R and Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR motorcycles from the 2016 thru 2018 model yeas, as news has come from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that roughly 4,000 of these machines might have issues with their gearboxes.
According to the recall, a high impact force can cause the transmission gears to break during shifting – specifically the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th gears in the gearbox.
First discovered in the Thai market, Kawasaki found upon further investigation that the strength of these gears was not sufficient, and could break under excessive force. As such, two warranty claims in the US have already been made for this issue.