Out with the old...

By JIM DUNCAN

Greetings and welcome to the final part of our look at what's new for 2002. To kick things off, we thought that we'd take a look at the new Kwakas on the block.

The ZX-12R will be heavily refined for 2002, as opposed to all new. Kawasaki have taken the bad-boy sports tourer and tuned it more towards sports with over 140 new parts.

With a redesigned fairing the bike now has a better drag co-efficient, but is still limited to a paltry 299kmh (186mph). No official power specs have been released, but the Kawasaki officials said it created about 180bhp at the crank.

Complete with a new headlight design, the nose cowling is now a little shorter, too, giving it a meaner front-end. The screen is no 20mm higher, though it doesn't look it. Those dangerous-looking pointed mirrors are now a little less lethal and have been designed to eliminate the vibrating that plagued the 2001 bike.

New colour schemes have been added to the list, with the black and gold looking strangely attractive. A new and more intense red plus the old blue colours are also available.

Next up is the ZX-9R, Kawasaki's Fireblade and R1 challenger. New for 2002 is the redesigned swing-arm with extra bracing. Not only does it look better, but it actually provides more rigidity, too.

There have been a few cosmetic changes to the 2002 bike, such as a slightly different shaped fairing and an all-new tail-section. Now the rear has its own pillion cover, like the ZX-12R, giving it a more sporting look. Though not a huge change for 2002, the ZX-9R is still a very impressive chunk of Japanese engineering.

The ZX-6R, the third Ninja we're looking at, has had one major improvement that stands out above the rest - a larger capacity. Moving from 599cc to 636cc, the extra 37cc will ensure that the new 600cc Ninja has even more power than before.

Midrange is where the bike will make most gains but because of many racing rules, the new 636cc Ninja won't be able to compete in many series as the limit is usually 599cc.

The increase in capacity has come about due to the Kwaka boffins simply increasing the bore diameter by 2mm. Expected gains are rumoured to be around 6-10 extra bhp and should also provide a better ride in general.

You also get a great big "636" sticker on the fairing, just to let people know that the new Ninja has just beefed up somewhat.

That just about wraps up our sneak peek at the bikes for 2002 though there's plenty more to look forward to next year. For instance, the new four-bangers that are going to start popping up in the GP500 road races at the start of 2002 will make for some great viewing, no doubt about that.

If you want to check out the other two "Out with the old..." articles, simply click on the links below or check out the Reports sub-section of the site.

Out with the old... (1)

Out with the old... (2)