I like this rumor. I like what this rumor says. And, I like that this rumor doesn’t seem to go away.
The scuttlebutt of the motorcycle industry right now is suggesting that the street-shredding Kawasaki Ninja H2 might be joined by a sport-touring variant.
This Kawasaki Ninja H2 GT – as some are calling it – takes the potent supercharged liter-bike, and makes it a little bit better suited for long-distance riding…well, as better suited to touring that a 200hp+ fire-breathing motorcycle can be.
History was made at Magny-Cours today, when Jonathan Rea claimed an unprecedented third WorldSBK championship in a row. It was a momentous day for the Northern Irishman, who also notched up the 50th victory of his career.
“To be honest I can’t sum up my emotions,” said the triple champion. “I just feel super proud of my team and Kawasaki.”
“It has been such a team effort, and even though I’m the guy who rode it over the line, there have been so many people involved to make it possible. Every season is different and special in its own individual way.”
Andrea Iannone has been something of an enigma since joining Suzuki. The Italian was blisteringly quick last year on the Ducati, which is one of the reasons Ducati took so long to choose between him and Andrea Dovizioso, after they signed Jorge Lorenzo to the factory team.
He was fast when he jumped on the Suzuki GSX-RR for the first time at the Valencia test, then carried that speed to Sepang, where he finished as second quickest overall.
Things have gone downhill since then. The Italian slipped down the order at the Phillip Island, then trailed further behind at the Qatar test.
His season has gone from bad to worse since racing started: he has five DNFs from 13 races, and when he finishes, he usually ends up around tenth. His best result so far has been a seventh place in Texas, but that was the exception, not the rule.
He currently sits in sixteenth in the championship, with a paltry 33 points. Iannone, race-winner in Austria last year, sits behind both Monster Tech 3 Yamaha rookies, and behind a total of seven riders on satellite bikes.
His rookie teammate, who has spent most of the season banged up with injury, is threatening to beat him more and more regularly. How to solve an issue like Andrea Iannone?
There has been one possible solution floating around since early summer. The basic concept is a surprising, yet surprisingly logical, swap.
The idea was that Andrea Iannone would be shipped off to World Superbikes to ride the Kawasaki of Jonathan Rea, while Rea would take Iannone’s place on the Ecstar Suzuki in MotoGP.
Tom Sykes had to sit out the Portimão round for World Superbike this past weekend, after the Kawasaki rider had a fiery crash during Saturday’s FP3 session.
The crash saw Sykes fracturing his little finger and ring finger on his left hand, and it required him to have surgery on Sunday, at the Clínica Mi Tres Torres in Barcelona.
Sykes’ recovery isn’t expected to take long, as the Doctors in Spain fitted a plate on his finger, and he could be back on his Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR race bike as early as the next round, at Magny-Cours.
Jonathan Rea took another step towards retaining the World Superbike championship, after a dominant weekend at the Portuguese round of the series. In Race 2, the Northern Irishman took longer to hit the front, but the end result was the same: 25 points.
The victory saw Rea extend his title lead to 120 points over his Kawasaki teammate, Tom Sykes. With the Englishman sitting out this weekend due to injury, Rea’s path to the title was given an unexpected boost, but overall it was business as usual for the 30-year-old.
In claiming his 34th Kawasaki victory, Rea became the Japanese manufacturer’s most successful rider of all time, but it wasn’t plain sailing for Rea.
Race 1 in Portimao may have produced a lights-to-flag victory for Jonathan Rea, but Saturday also produced plenty of drama.
Rea’s teammate, Tom Sykes, has been forced to sit out the weekend after fracturing a finger in a nasty crash during FP3. The 2013 WorldSBK champion highsided over the top of Jones’ Leap, was thrown from his Kawasaki, and left battered and bruised from the crash.
Having been given some strong pain medication, it was ruled that Sykes would be unfit for the rest of the weekend. The Englishman was in low spirits after the incident but should be back in full fitness in the year future.
The popular Kawasaki Z900 continues to get the attention of the folks at Team Green, first with the teasing of the Kawasaki Z900RS vintage street bike model, and now for our European readers, an A2 version of the Z900 is available for beginning riders.
This means that for the 2018 model year, a 70kW (93hp) version of the Kawasaki Z900 will be available to A2 license holders, and Kawasaki has gone to great lengths to make sure it keeps the looks and character of its full-power sibling.
At the British Grand Prix, two-time World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea sat down to talk about his standing in racing, and if he thinks he could cut it in MotoGP.
“It’s been a great weekend here at Silverstone, and I’ve been made to feel very welcome by everyone,” said Rea. “It was a nice feeling to have team managers, riders, journalists that I respect say ‘you should be here.’ It’s nice to hear that and it’s been great to see that the journalists here are really interested in WorldSBK.”
Sitting down with media from the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia, the interest level in the double-WorldSBK champion was clear from the outset.
For 20 minutes Rea held court and offered his thoughts on his own career path, the strength of production-based racing and the challenges facing WorldSBK.
No, the beard and skinny jeans crowd aren’t abandoning their broken down Honda CB’s and flocking to the crazy looks of the Kawasaki Z900, but Team Green does seem to have a heritage-inspired version of their four-cylinder street bike coming down the pipe.
Teasing the Kawasaki Z900RS in a short YouTube video, it seems that the Japanese brand is taking the stout Z900 and styling it for the mercurial tastes of younger riders.
This could be an interesting move for Kawasaki, and while the Z900 isn’t the bike that immediately comes to our minds as being appropriate for this venture, one has to remember the success that Yamaha has seen doing a similar maneuver with the FZ-09, turning it into the XSR900.
Using motorcycle designs as platforms for multiple machines is nothing new, but we have seen the Japanese brands using this strategy with growing success each year.
As such, the upcoming Kawasaki Z900RS could be a very intriguing machine to see, once it drops. Stay tuned.
Ducati’s Chaz Davies romped to back to back races in Germany, with a superb performance in Race 2 at the Lausitzring.
The Welsh wizard became the King of the ‘Ring, with his third dry weather victory in a row at the circuit. It wasn’t an easy day for the riders however, with spits of rain and the threat of showers hanging in the air.
“I knew the second race was going to be tighter,” said Davies. “It was hard to come from the third row, I made some good passes out there, and had a lot of fun.”
