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Filming the Kawasaki ZX-6R Commercial at the Isle of Man

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The Isle of Man has to be the ultimate location for a motorcycle commercial. Not only does the small island in the middle of the Irish Sea host the famous Isle of Man TT, but the small country’s picturesque hillsides and ocean backdrops make for some spectacular visuals in their own right. Add in the lack of a speed limit outside city limits, a thriving motoring culture, and well…you get the idea: two-wheeled paradise.

Taking Kawasaki’s TT rider James Hillier and the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R, Kawasaki launched its latest supersport machine at the Isle of Man last year with one of the more compelling series of videos and photographs we have seen in a while…and they pulled a few awards in the process as well. Now, Team Green is giving us a glimpse in what went into the commercial’s production. It’s good stuff. Check it out after the jump.

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Racing

Video: A Whole New Meaning to Passing on the Inside

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Helping promote World Superbike’s stop at Britain’s Silverstone circuit, stunt driver Paul Swift has climbed behind the wheel of an Alfa Romeo Mito (the pace car of WSBK), and collaborated with Chris Walker, of Kawasaki Ninja British Superbike fame, and created a little promotional clip. What starts out seemingly as a trite marketing video, rapidly turns into something pretty spectacular, and we wouldn’t recommend trying it at home (or elsewhere).

What we would recommend is for other racing venues to take note of what is going on with the Silverstone circuit and the marketing that surrounds it. Cleverly promoting World Superbike with this event, along with the body-painting of Leon Haslam, Silverstone also distinguishes itself by playing host to Riders for Health’s Day of Champions fundraising event, and has been featured on Google Streetview with a very unique entry. It pays to be media friendly.

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Racing

Listen to Attack Kawasaki’s Crossplane CRT Bike

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The 2013 MotoGP Championship season is rapidly approaching us, and while many of the teams are now making their way to Sepang, Malaysia for their first test since the winter ban period, Attack Kawasaki and rider Blake Young were out in the California desert, putting laps in on Rich Stanboli’s new crossplane-enginged Kawasaki CRT bike at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway.

Only time will tell on how Attack’s racing package performs at its three MotoGP wildcard events (Austin, Laguna Seca, and Indianapolis), but so far the project is music to our ears. The only Kawasaki with a crossplane crankshaft that we can think of, enjoy the video posted by RM Racing after the jump. And remember, it’s Friday, so no one at work would judge you if you bumped up the speakers.

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Products

Öhlins Brings Semi-Active Suspension to the Masses

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Enticed by the idea of having semi-active suspension on your motorcycle? Then the latest tech from Öhlins Suspension might be the thing for you, as the Swedish company has developed an electronically controlled mechatronic shock for existing motorcycles, starting with the 2011-2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R.

Developing the system first in the  World Superbike Championship, Öhlins is the first suspension manufacturers to bring the technology to the masses, though companies like Bitubo, Marzocchi, and WP Suspension have similar units that will be available next year as well.

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Racing

Hiroshi Aoyama Back in MotoGP for 2013

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Forced to go to World Superbike for the 2012 season, Hiroshi Aoyama will return to the big show for the 2013 season, with the Avintia Blusens team. Trading his Honda CBR1000RR superbike for a Kawasaki-powered CRT entry, Aoyama will perhaps miss the days when he was on a Honda RC212V prototype, but certainly won’t miss the Pirelli-shod production machine, which he only managed to race to a 18th place championship points finish.

Entirely unimpressive in WSBK, Aoyama has something that many CRT riders do not: experience on the tricky Bridgestone tires. That fact alone should make Aoyama a potent weapon for the Avintia Blusens squad, which has struggled to develop its CRT entry — due partially to the talent on the machine. With the help of Aoyama’s MotoGP experience, and 250GP Championship title behind him, the BQR team might find some more traction and direction with its work — having Hector Barbera along for the ride as a teammate won’t hurt either.

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Bikes

53 Photos of the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja Z800 & Z800e

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We already knew well ahead of the INTERMOT show that Team Green would debut the Kawasaki Ninja Z800, a bike that replaces the best-selling sport-naked in the Europe: the Kawasaki Ninja Z750. Featuring an 806cc inline-four motor, the new Z800 comes in two flavors: the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja Z800 & the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja Z800e. The Kawasaki Ninja Z800 makes 111hp and 61 lbs•ft of torque, while the Kawasaki Ninja Z800e gets a bit more watered down with 94hp and 56 lbs•ft of torque, though it saves 6 lbs over its more burly counterpart.

The two-pronged model approach by Kawasaki is surely being done to better capture a wider audience with the Ninja Z800 line, which also explains why the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja Z800e comes with a 47hp A2 license compliant option as well. Designed to be at home on the set of the next Transformers movie, you will either love or hate the lines of the Kawasaki Ninja Z800 — we happen to think it looks rather edgy and mean, which is how we like our street-nakeds to carry themselves.

For its added price and power, the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja Z800 comes 41mm KYB forks that feature preload and rebound damping only — the same goes for the Z800’s rear shock. The 2013 Kawasaki Ninja Z800e, however comes with forks and a rear shock that have only preload adjustment capability, and no damping controls. Both models come with an optional ABS package. We do not expect the Kawasaki Ninja Z800 to come to North America at this point in time. Waiting for you after the jump are 53 photos of the new Kawasaki Ninja Z800.

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Racing

Trackside Tuesday: Long Live World Superbike

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As the other motorcycling World Championship, World Superbike has its own amazing stories to tell, stories often very weird relative to what we are used to in MotoGP. When I went to shoot WSBK for the first time, some of my MotoGP buddies told me the same thing: don’t get spoiled, it’s a different world there. Indeed, one MotoGP veteran left Grand Prix to make his new home in WSBK and hired someone else to cover the Aliens on his behalf.

Instead of three riders on the grid fighting among themselves for the victory, WSBK saw six different winners in the first six races of the 2012 season. Instead of three manufacturers (well, two, really) fighting for wins in MotoGP, five stood atop the WSBK podium in those first six races. With one race weekend to go, nine riders have won races. Compared to MotoGP, talk about weird!

Instead of riders over 30-years-old being hounded by lightning-fast 20-somethings, riders seem to bloom around 40, enjoying second or even third winds in their careers. The lower level of technology allows rider experience to count against the raw physical talent of youth. The playing field is more even, the racing is less about having the latest parts that separate the factory teams from the satellite ones.

Tom Sykes is a motorbike racer who could be the next WSBK world champion, and a protagonist in a story remarkably different from the usual MotoGP fare. Sykes is 30.5 points behind Biaggi with one round, two races, and 50 points to go.

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News

2013 Kawasaki Ninja 300 – Coming to America for $4,799*

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There is not much that we don’t already know about the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja 300. It looks pretty much exactly like the re-designed 2013 Kawasaki Ninja 250R that broke cover in Indonesia earlier this year. The EPA already spilled the beans on the Kawasaki Ninja 300’s 296cc displacement and 40hp, and we know that the Ninja 300 is the peppier fuel-injected cousin to America’s dreadfully under-developed Ninja 250R…and now we know that the bike will come to the American market for next year.

Tipping the scales at the curb with 387 lbs, with its 4.5 gallons of fuel, the Kawasaki Ninja 300 isn’t a featherweight, but it isn’t a slouch either. In fact, when it comes to a sporty learner-class motorcycle for the American market, the Kawasaki Ninja 300 may very well be the bike of choice.

In a category where prospective buyers are raiding the couch cushions for a down payment, price is king. And with its $4,799 starting MSRP, the Ninja 300 is an expensive option, but is it still a bargain?

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New Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R Gets Traction Control for 2013

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Officially debuting the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R in New York’s Times Square today, Kawasaki has unsurprisingly brought a stroked-out 636cc machine to a 599cc supersport battle. While the chassis of the new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R is the same, the motor has obviously been reworked, along with the bodywork. However, the big news from the reveal is the addition of Kawasaki’s three-mode KTRC traction control to the supersport-class motorcycle, once again proving that electronics are the new horsepower.

Other additions to the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R include Showa’s new SFF-BP front forks. Combining Showa’s Separate Function Fork (SFF) with its Big Piston (BP) technology, Kawasaki hopes the suspension units will provide the optimal balance between street and track riding. The new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R motor also gets further improved with the addition of a back-torque limiting slipper clutch.

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First (Strange) Video of the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R & 2013 Kawasaki Z800

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Multiple Kawasaki models are expected to be unveiled in New York tomorrow, and chiefly for the American market we are expecting the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R & the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja 300 to officially break cover in Times Square.

This of course hasn’t stopped the bikes from “unofficially” breaking cover well before that date, as an EPA document (now edited to omit the models) first outed their existence, as well as numerous other leaks breaking loose as the event unveiling event looms closer — almost as if the leaks were designed to help create buzz around the new machines, hmm…

Our latest viewing of the new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R & Kawasaki Z800 motorcycles comes to us from a video, which employs one of the most frustrating audio tracks ever to grace a motorcycle industry YouTube clip.

Presumably employed to stop us from hearing the new ZX-6R and Z800 rev to life, the music sounds like one of those canned audio tracks for slideshows about kittens playing in cardboard boxes. Nevertheless, it does give us a pretty good glimpse at the bikes in question. Beggers can’t be choosers, right?

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Bikes

Are You The 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R?

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UPDATE: The folks at TMCBlog seem to have some screen grabs from a walk-around video with the new ZX-6R. More photos attached after the jump.

Kawasaki only has a few more days until its big launch in New York City’s Times Square, so depending on how you look at it, Team Green has only a few more days to keep its new bikes under wraps, or Team Green has only a few more days to leak out hype-building photos of its new bikes. We’ll let you make the call on that issue, but today’s big Kawasaki news is a leaked photo of what appears to be the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R.

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