Ninja Power

Why Kawasaki’s ultra-rapid, but often overlooked, ZX-12R is gaining popularity.

The Kawasaki NinjaZX-12R is a beautiful reminder of a time when a far more carefree attitude was prevalent in motorcycling. And when we say carefree, we mean a time when you could show a total disregard for speed limits and more often than not get away with it. Well, in bits of Europe anyway…

Head hunting

Launched in 2000, the ZX-12R was a typical Kawasaki attempt to break open a nut with a sledgehammer. In this case, however, the nut was encased in concrete and made of hardened steel. Yep, in 2000 this Ninja only had one thing in its sights – the Suzuki Hayabusa.

In a wonderful display of corporate willy-waving, Kawasaki basically only developed and released the ZX-12R to get back its purely honorary title of ‘world’s fastest production motorcycle’ from Suzuki. They must have predicted, or at the very least felt, the rise in the anti-speeding brigade’s voices and strength, but Kawasaki chose to ignore this and instead went all out for the Busa’s jugular. And good on them for that! But did they succeed?

Identity crisis

Time for a fact check. In Fast Bikes back in summer 2004 we tested the latest ZX-12R (radial brake model) against a Hayabusa and the Kawasaki set a faster top speed of 184.54mph against the Suzuki’s 181.93mph. It also made 165bhp compared to the Busa’s 156bhp, although it lost out on torque with 4Nm less than the Suzuki. So by a gnat’s wanger the Kawasaki was the top dog of the pub bragging fight.

By the end of 2006 the king of speed was dead – replaced by the more touring orientated (but still blisteringly fast) ZZR1400.