Kawasaki is emerging as a world leader of bikes

[rubbersidedown]

• This is a little blurp from CycleWorld.
• The Big Four of Japan are all working on forced induction.
• Kawasaki already offering its supercharged H2 bikes.
• Yamaha is using its versatile triple motor for the activity.
• It is likely to first be available as a naked.

Forced induction seems to be one of the key aspects that we will be seeing on future motorcycles from Japan’s Big Four manufacturers. Obviously, Kawasaki has been selling its H2 series of supercharged bikes for a while. Honda is expected to follow suit with a supercharged Africa Twin of sorts. Suzuki, though, is opting for the turbocharged route, something that we could possibly see on the next-gen Hayabusa. Yamaha also thinks going down the turbo route is the way forward as it patents a new turbo-ed triple engine, housed in a Deltabox frame from the MT-10.


While its Japanese counterparts are working with twins and inline fours for forced induction, Yamaha’s is playing it quirky with a triple. The motor is said to be a 847cc triple unit but not the same one that was earlier found on the older gen Tracer 900 and MT-09. It has a smaller bore (67.5mm) and a longer stroke (73mm). What’s the likely end result? How does 180PS and 176Nm sound? Juicy, right?

And Yamaha also seems to have tackled the turbo lag issue too, smartly achieving minimal lag with electronics. If claims are to be believed, the engine reaches 90 percent of peak torque in just a second while being revved at 3000rpm in third cog.

How soon are we expected to see this turbo Yammie naked? Not that soon. Kawasaki spent the better part of a decade in research and development after it filed for its patents for the Ninja H2. We should expect some hints in 2022 with a launch possibly as soon as 2023 -- if all goes to plan that is.

Image credit: Cycle World

Rubb.

 

[rubbersidedown]

Pick that ^ outa THIS,
Rubb.

 

[Red05]

I read about Yamaha's possible turbo triple, and my first thought, thinking back to the FZ09's engine...wow. Now I hear it's not the same engine, but if Yamaha improved on the 847, it should be outrageous.

 

[Bumblebee]

• This is a little blurp from CycleWorld.
• The Big Four of Japan are all working on forced induction.
• Kawasaki already offering its supercharged H2 bikes.
• Yamaha is using its versatile triple motor for the activity.
• It is likely to first be available as a naked.

View attachment 1630061​

Forced induction seems to be one of the key aspects that we will be seeing on future motorcycles from Japan’s Big Four manufacturers. Obviously, Kawasaki has been selling its H2 series of supercharged bikes for a while. Honda is expected to follow suit with a supercharged Africa Twin of sorts. Suzuki, though, is opting for the turbocharged route, something that we could possibly see on the next-gen Hayabusa. Yamaha also thinks going down the turbo route is the way forward as it patents a new turbo-ed triple engine, housed in a Deltabox frame from the MT-10.


While its Japanese counterparts are working with twins and inline fours for forced induction, Yamaha’s is playing it quirky with a triple. The motor is said to be a 847cc triple unit but not the same one that was earlier found on the older gen Tracer 900 and MT-09. It has a smaller bore (67.5mm) and a longer stroke (73mm). What’s the likely end result? How does 180PS and 176Nm sound? Juicy, right?

And Yamaha also seems to have tackled the turbo lag issue too, smartly achieving minimal lag with electronics. If claims are to be believed, the engine reaches 90 percent of peak torque in just a second while being revved at 3000rpm in third cog.

View attachment 1630062​

How soon are we expected to see this turbo Yammie naked? Not that soon. Kawasaki spent the better part of a decade in research and development after it filed for its patents for the Ninja H2. We should expect some hints in 2022 with a launch possibly as soon as 2023 -- if all goes to plan that is.

Image credit: Cycle World

Rubb.

Interesting as there are many turbo-charged snowmobiles using Japanese engines (Yamaha, Suzuki) out there which are brilliant-maybe they'll borrow from that segment.

 

[jch364]

Its always better to see more not less. Like the old saying goes. Competition breeds innovation.

 

[Amode]

Don't get me wrong,I love my Busa,but if all the brands started to die off one by one...I would bet money Honda would be "The last man standing."
23.3% of the market share last year. With so many brands to choose from,having almost 1/4 of the market,thats huge if you ask me. Sure,they opted out of the power wars after the Blackbird...I see no reason they couldn't jump back in and win.My guess is the execs at Honda have no interest in the speed or horsepower battle for several reasons.Sure there will always be guys like us,that want the biggest and the baddest,but our numbers are dwindling. I think bikes like the H2,ZX,Busa,etc will die out when we do. I'm surprized they are still around today. How big is the market share for "sport-touring" motorcycles anyway? The millennials don't want them...I'm guessing the 1.5 kids they'll have,won't want them either. Seems like Honda is building the bikes people want. Honda has the highest selling motorcycle of all time. I'd put money on them to survive the longest.
Rubb.

 

[Bumblebee]

Seems there is quite a bit of Kawasaki talk on other threads...even the Hayabusa gen 3 thread of all places....

Kawasaki has always been a world leader...the original 2 stroke H2 was a beast, the original Z900 was the most powerful bike of it's day...

The ELR replica bike-awesome

Then on to turbos-the GPZ750 turbo was the best turbo bike in it's day....

The '85 600 Ninja-people couldn't believe their eyes when they saw it a GP bike for the street...

The 86 1000 Ninja was an awesome bike and lived in the Concours up to what 2005 or so...? and the Ninja morphed into the huge line of ZX10s...all great bikes...

The ZRX11/12 was one of the best looking retro bikes made...

The ZX12R was just a few kms/hr off beating the Hayabusa and on a good day with a good rider was every bit as fast.

They made a diesel KLR even though the KLR is legendary in it's own right.

A supercharged 1000 which took the title away from the ZX14R which in itself is a stellar bike.

...and the list goes on and on....

Anybody can say what they want, Kawasaki is a serious motorcycle builder.

All that being said, I am a die-hard Suzuki fan and will always be as Suzuki has made more than their fair share of stellar bikes themselves...as we all are very aware.

 

[JeffSyh]

The new zx-10's are no joke and if you roll or drag race they are stupid quick, I'm not sure if there is another N/A 1 litre out there quicker out of the box. The newer gsx 1000's stepped up quiet a bit to after being left behind with Honda in the power category for a few years. Sorry Honda 2008 was your last huge leap in my opinion when it came to pure power and speed great track bikes though. The new SP is 165 whp I don't think I'd want to turn a beautiful track bike into roll/drag bike plus they are $28,000 canadian.

 

[macka]

The new zx-10's are no joke and if you roll or drag race they are stupid quick, I'm not sure if there is another N/A 1 litre out there quicker out of the box. The newer gsx 1000's stepped up quiet a bit to after being left behind with Honda in the power category for a few years. Sorry Honda 2008 was your last huge leap in my opinion when it came to pure power and speed great track bikes though. The new SP is 165 whp I don't think I'd want to turn a beautiful track bike into roll/drag bike plus they are $28,000 canadian.

Let me just say my work m8 and i went out for a ride and we swapped bikes he's got the current zx10r and all i can say is he didn't want to get off my busa and he was making a face that said wow that was a good time he just said it felt more fun, the zx10r felt sterile and fast missing character ,

 

[ottafish]

Let me just say my work m8 and i went out for a ride and we swapped bikes he's got the current zx10r and all i can say is he didn't want to get off my busa and he was making a face that said wow that was a good time he just said it felt more fun, the zx10r felt sterile and fast missing character ,

Exactly what my mate said about the Zh2

 

[macka]

Exactly what my mate said about the Zh2

but if i was to own one i would make changes like exhaust, im betting it was exhaust restricted like many other bikes that rely on throwing away the factory can, even the gen 2 is a classic example
that zx10r is a small bike suited well for the track tho

 

[Tony Nitrous]

I had an interesting conversation with someone in the bike trade recently.

Kawasaki has the 5 bike Supercharged H2 range.
Yamaha gave us the cross plane crank MT10 / R1.
Ducati stuff like the Streetfighter V4 and Superleggera V4.
Yamaha the weird Niken.
Honda the RC213V-S

All standout bikes for different reasons. All bringing something new to the table in various ways.

Meanwhile Suzuki are doing glacial slow changes to their 10, 15 and 20 year old bikes. I love Suzuki’s, they really are my brand. Id be surprised if my next bike isn’t another Suzuki, but they have become the safe predictable brand. Good value and reliable but they are certainly heading in a different direction to other brands.

The original GS750, GSX1100, Katana, GSXR, Busa, B-King, GSX1400 etc all had impact on their release. I haven’t felt that with Suzuki in a while.

 

[Bumblebee]

I had an interesting conversation with someone in the bike trade recently.

Kawasaki has the 5 bike Supercharged H2 range.
Yamaha gave us the cross plane crank MT10 / R1.
Ducati stuff like the Streetfighter V4 and Superleggera V4.
Yamaha the weird Niken.
Honda the RC213V-S

All standout bikes for different reasons. All bringing something new to the table in various ways.

Meanwhile Suzuki are doing glacial slow changes to their 10, 15 and 20 year old bikes. I love Suzuki’s, they really are my brand. Id be surprised if my next bike isn’t another Suzuki, but they have become the safe predictable brand. Good value and reliable but they are certainly heading in a different direction to other brands.

The original GS750, GSX1100, Katana, GSXR, Busa, B-King, GSX1400 etc all had impact on their release. I haven’t felt that with Suzuki in a while.

Suzuki definitely hasn't "reached out and grabbed anyone by the throat" lately.

But, nor has any other bike company either....

I haven't seen a bike come out in say the past few years that made me really sit up and pay attention.

There are lots of serious bikes out there but they have been out there for a while now.

 

[fallenarch]

Suzuki definitely hasn't "reached out and grabbed anyone by the throat" lately.

But, nor has any other bike company either....

I haven't seen a bike come out in say the past few years that made me really sit up and pay attention.

There are lots of serious bikes out there but they have been out there for a while now.

Even the Gen 3?

 

[Bumblebee]

Even the Gen 3?

Even the gen 3....it's basically a rehashed gen 2, the electronic suite was already in production so the only real changes were engine tweaks and body work. It didn't come out swinging for the fences like I really thought it would.

 

[ottafish]

Even the Gen 3?

Even the Gen 3.
It doesn't have the "balls out swinging" kind of presence the gen1/2 did.

 

[Bumblebee]

Even the Gen 3.
It doesn't have the "balls out swinging" kind of presence the gen1/2 did.

Suzuki really could have done something really special...

But it seems like Suzuki has fallen off the leading edge and has been for a long time.

The GSXR is doing good though...but all the other companies have enhanced versions of the liter bikes (SP, RRR, M package, etc...)

 

[Tony Nitrous]

Suzuki really could have done something really special...

But it seems like Suzuki has fallen off the leading edge and has been for a long time.

The GSXR is doing good though...but all the other companies have enhanced versions of the liter bikes (SP, RRR, M package, etc...)

Yeah, the GSXR1K is the one model they have to keep on top of. Cruisers, Adventure bikes, tourers, commuters etc you have a bit to play with, but a bike that’s heavily involved with Motorsport will live or die on its lap times, weight, specs and horsepower. You can’t do minor tweaks to a 15 year old GSXR in World Superbikes and think it’ll get accepted like other streetbikes.

 

[ROADTOAD1340]

@Bumblebee , The GSXR is doing good though...but all the other companies have enhanced versions of the liter bikes (SP, RRR, M package, etc...)
The Gixxer 1K is doing well in drag racing , professional and amateur level , worldwide . It is not doing so well at professional road racing worldwide , but at club levels , will be better mainly because of pricepoint . The Gixxer generally lacks the trick component appeal the other manufacturers model seem to have in droves , and only being a good honest performing bike is not enough nowadays .

 

[Bumblebee]

@Bumblebee , The GSXR is doing good though...but all the other companies have enhanced versions of the liter bikes (SP, RRR, M package, etc...)
The Gixxer 1K is doing well in drag racing , professional and amateur level , worldwide . It is not doing so well at professional road racing worldwide , but at club levels , will be better mainly because of pricepoint . The Gixxer generally lacks the trick component appeal the other manufacturers model seem to have in droves , and only being a good honest performing bike is not enough nowadays .

True, although the GSXR used to be the world leader, Suzuki has been sitting on it's laurels lately which is never a good sign of things to come.

The GSX series is based on an old design, even the new touted GSX GT is nothing new and stellar other than a few "do dads" to make it more of a sport tourer and you can bet the bag system came right off a V-Strom.

I will always be a Suzuki guy as I'm loyal like that but they sure make it hard sometimes.

I have always been a big fan of the Hayabusa since I saw one at the '98 bike show but I really thought the gen 3 should have come out as a fire breather worthy of it's lineage. I know we are happy it is still in the line up though and with work it will be a beast-once that ECU is unlocked, the potential will be realized however as a flagship of the brand, it should have been competitive right out of the crate...to marginally beat it's predecessor just isn't enough.