2000 Kawasaki ZX-12R

Al Fagan fills us in on the classic merits of Kawasaki’s forgotten hyper-bike: the ZX-12R.

- Al Fagan

If you’ve got anything more than a passing interestin modern MotoGP racing then you’ll appreciatethe Kawasaki ZX-12R’s flanks.

Yes, yes, I know you’re all about older bikes and older racing, but if you know anything about the last season or so in the blue riband class you’ll know that many of the current crop of Grand Prix motorcycles have sprouted various winglets, most notably on Ducati and Yamaha’s machines. So many winglets, in fact, that the Ducati almost resembles the Red Baron’s Fokker Dr.1 triplane. But look here: as well as boasting a monocoque chassis (like the old KR500) the Kawasaki ZX-12R also has wings on the fairing. Okay, there’s nothing new under the sun (old MV Agustas used to run wings, after all) but this was a turn of the millennium hyper-sports bike, showing that what goes around comes around. Or something like that.

And what a hyper-sports bike it was – the ZX-12R was the fastest production bike available of its era. Kawasaki was the only big Jap manufacturer of the time that regularly built aeroplanes (Honda has since) and you could see this baby was designed in a big wind tunnel. It wasn’t just the wings, but the 3D contours of the mirrors, the tabs on the fork bottoms and the wide-mouth snout under the headlights. The result isn’t perhaps the sexiest thing on two wheels. From the front, the ram-air induction scoop is so letterbox-like and jutting ahead of the fairing to take in great gulps of air. This hints at what the bike is all about, because what this bike loses in cosmetic appeal is remedied by monstrous power.