Premiere: Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R

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Premiere: Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R
Kawasaki

motorcycles

Premiere: Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R

Premiere: Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R
Ninja Reloaded

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Unfortunately, the last Kawasaki ZX-6R was unable to achieve great success. Although she won the Supersport IDM under Sebastian Diss in 2007, her sales figures remained far below expectations. That should change with the successor, which has been slimmed down by 10 kilograms, from next spring.

Robert luck

12/11/2008

With the rope fully tensioned, the new Kawasaki ZX-6R thrown from right to left knee in third gear. The line through the fast S fits sucking, the little one screams the soul out of the body and prepares to pull the long start / finish straight under the rubbers. Shortly before 16 on the tachometer, the underexposed switch glow begins to glow, and the pilot, folded up behind the fairing, engages the next gear. We continue over bad bumps that make the helmet knock on the tank. Gears five and six follow, the green one flies towards the braking point. The pit lane exit hisses past in the corner of your eye, and the 100 meter sign is already lurking some distance away. Time to surface and drop anchor.

The energy transfer begins with four fingers on the brake lever and closed gas: while the Nissins convert speed into heat below, the pilot steps through the cassette gear and lets the clutch engage in second gear. The slightly prancing six acknowledges this action thanks to its superbly functioning anti-hopping clutch with a cold smile: Although the rear wheel barely bends under gravity, the Kawa provides good stability. The pilot is fine, the turning is playful and on the desired line. In the full lean position, the gas is applied and raised in the hanging right in order to accelerate out onto a short downhill straight that turns into a very fast right-hand curve. The four-man implements the gas command gently, but not ultra-directly. We continue down the slope towards a tight right-hand bend.


Premiere: Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R


Kawasaki

The test site called Autopolis belongs to Kawasaki Heavy Industries and has strict requirements for the vehicle.

This ride-on roller coaster is located on Japan’s southernmost main island, Kyushu, is called Autopolis and has been owned by Kawasaki Heavy Industries for several years. Of course, the two-wheeler division of the industrial group develops and tests its sports models and MotoGP cars here. A good reason to present the 2009 model of the Kawasaki ZX-6R to the world press right here. The very demanding route with its undulating surface demands everything from the chassis, the 50 meter difference in height sucking the four-cylinder in the uphill passages to the full.

Mentally, the pilot has to nibble on the triple guardrail, which for European standards runs very close to the asphalt strip ?? despite the gravel beds in the curves. It’s good that the new six is ​​behaving piously and is committed to the top development maxim, drivability.


Premiere: Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R


Kawasaki

The row foursome has increased in the middle, a little more could go around the top; the top performance is quite poor.

According to project manager Yasuhisa Okabe, the four major requirements of the 2009 ZX-6R were drivability, handling, perfect feedback and weight reduction. The latter goal was probably the easiest, after all, the 2008 model weighed in at an impressive 203 kilograms for a six hundred, ready to drive, mind you. The new one has lost 10 kilos: the change from the underseat to the conventional exhaust alone saved one kilo, further measures on and in the engine saved another two: the two camshafts were an impressive 400 grams lighter in total ?? thanks to new chrome-molybdenum steel. It is more resilient than the material previously used, so that the wall thickness of the shafts could be significantly lower. On the fairing, frame and mudguards, the diet adds up to 4.5 kilograms, the rest is spilled here and there.

The centralization of the masses improves the handling of the 6-ninja. The engine is now mounted a little steeper in the frame. It was rotated around the balancer shaft and raised at the front, which means that the engine’s center of gravity is 16 mm higher than its predecessor. The move away from the high underseat exhaust and the conventional variant now used with a damper prechamber directly below the swing arm, near its axis, brings more pounds close to the machine’s center of gravity. On the chassis side, the steering head angle became one degree steeper (now 66 instead of 65 degrees), the caster was reduced from 110 mm to 103 mm. All in all, there are a lot of small steps that do the Kawa very well.


Premiere: Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R


Kawasaki

The Showa novelty, the Big Piston Fork. It should respond better and is lighter than a cartridge fork.

The Showa fork of the six is ​​an absolute novelty in production motorcycles. The inner tubes with a diameter of 41 millimeters have remained, but the structure of the innards has changed: instead of a conventional cartridge fork, Kawa relies on the new BPF construction principle developed by Showa; the abbreviation stands for “Big Piston Fork”, so large piston fork. Instead of running in a cartridge, the damper pistons now run directly in the inner tube and therefore have a much larger diameter. In the Kawa 41 fork, the effective piston diameter increases from 20 mm (cartridge fork) to 37 mm (BPF). With the larger diameter of the pistons, their upper surface increases almost three and a half times, which means that the damping pressure in the fork can be a third lower than in the previous design. Through this
the response behavior improves, especially at the beginning of a spring movement, which benefits the feedback.

So much for theory. Back in the saddle of the Greens, back on the corrugated iron roller coaster called Autopolis: It is particularly noticeable on the start / finish straight that the four-cylinder gets down to business very smoothly. It should deliver more pressure in the middle with the same top performance as the previous model. The fact is that the medium pressure can already be there, but at least subjectively something is missing on top. Namely that 600 kick, which normally pounds in from 12,000 tours. At least on the racetrack you miss him on the six. On the other hand, the engine behaves very smoothly and is easy to switch.


Premiere: Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R


Kawasaki

The handling of the six is ​​all the more crisp. It can be peppered from one side to the other without much effort and whistles through the corners like the wind. She holds the target line in quick arcs, but is never really fed up: Slight pumping of the hindquarters could not be completely switched off during the journey in Autopolis. We liked the new Showa fork: In fact, when the brakes are applied, it does not dive down quite as quickly as a cartridge version. While its responsiveness was quite convincing, it lacked a bit of feedback.

Conclusion: With the new ZX-6R, Kawasaki has taken a big step forward. Both their handling qualities and their precision have improved. A comparison test will show how well the engine can stand out against the competition.

Specifications – Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R


Premiere: Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R


Kawasaki

Drive: Four-cylinder in-line engine, 4 valves / cylinder, 94 kW (128 PS) at 14,000 / min *, 67 Nm at 11,800 / min, 599 cm³, bore / stroke: 67.0 / 42.5 mm, compression ratio: 13, 3: 1, ignition / injection system, 38 mm throttle valves, mechanically operated multi-plate oil bath clutch with anti-hopping function, six-speed gearbox, chain, G-Kat

Landing gear: Light alloy bridge frame, steering head angle: 66 degrees, caster: 103 mm, wheelbase: 1400 mm, inner fork tube Ø: 41 mm, spring travel v./h .: 120/134 mm

Wheels and brakes: Light alloy cast wheels, 3.50 x 17″/5.50 x 17″, Front tires: 120/70 ZR 17, rear: 180/55 ZR 17, 300 mm double disc brakes with radially attached four-piston fixed calipers at the front, 220 mm single-piston floating caliper brakes at the rear

Weight (dry): 191 kg *, tank capacity: 17 liters
great

Base price: approx. 10 700 euros (plus ancillary costs)

* Factory specification

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