Kawasaki makes a few changes to the Ninja

By JIM DUNCAN

The new era of top-flight super-sports bikes are waging a battle that will go on for a long time. Yamaha has been winning the war in recent years, with Honda's Fireblade sparking huge interest in the past decade. The new Suzuki GSX-R1000 is an amazing bike, too.

But what of Kawasaki?

Well, the ZX-9R has always been a capable bike, but the thing that may hinder its success in 2002 is displacement.

We all want more power (well, the hard-nose types do) and it seems that the top two are well up around 1000cc mark - that is the R1 and Gixxer 1000.

At 899cc, the new Kawasaki 900 is still a good 50cc down on the new Honda Fireblade, which weighs in at 954cc in 2002.

So, you may ask, is the ZX-9R completely outclassed by the other litre-sized bikes? In a word, no.

Despite it's lack of displacement, the 2002 ZX-9R has been given a rigorous once over, with the head engineers at Kwaka factories making more than 100 changes to the new season's bike.

First up, the innards. The new bike is the recipient of a revised crankshaft, to help increase inertia and it achieves this simply by being heavier. Other components include shiny new carbs and a new exhaust collector.

Now some may whinge, expecting the new bike to be fuel injected, but insiders are already reporting an increase in not only power, but a smoother power delivery, which is almost as important.

Creating 144bhp, raw power is the same as last year's bike, but while no torque figures were supplied at the time of writing, we expect his figure to be up on last year's model.

The frame has seen some changes, too, which will affect the way the new bike dips into and out of corners and the way in which it handles, in general.

Good news then, that Kawasaki has made the new frame even more rigid than last year's, drawing from a pool of WSB know-how. Further improving stiffness is an all-new swingarm, which as you can see has been braced - the first time one's been used on a ZX-9R.

Contributing to the 'stiff' theme are welded engine mounts, replacing last years rubber jobbies. In theory (we assume Kawasaki has tested this), these welds would hold the engine in place with more force, which would, in turn, transfer stress from the chassis/frame to be absorbed by the motor.

For those who like to get their knee down, Kawasaki has overhauled the suspension setup. You now get stiffer damping and springs in the forks, while at the rear the shock-absorber gets a new linkage to aid in getting the power through the rear wheel more efficiently.

While many may be disappointed to hear the six-pot calipers have been swapped in favour of new four-pots, this has, in the process, reduced unsprung weight considerably.

A further handling bonus comes in the form of totally reworked suspension. The forks get stiffer springs and new damping, and the offset is reduced from 30mm to 28mm to quicken the steering. At the back, the shock gets a new linkage to help put the power down more easily out of corners.

Lastly, the bike has been given a bit of a cosmetic once-over, too. While we've already talked about the newly braced swingarm, there are more changes that aren't instantly recognisable, such as the much slimmer seat. That said, those two pillion handles that made two-up riding less of a chore are now gone.

The bodywork has been slightly restyled and the new pillion seat section is much sexier than last year's variant. At the end of the day, we'll have to wait and see if this new Ninja can hold its own with the new-generation of litre-class bikes. We believe it will, but let's hope we're wrong and it surpasses the others as the quickest, most nimble super-sports bike ever.

At the time of writing, colours and pricing have yet to be decided for Australian local markets.