Tomorrow, Kawasaki will debut five new motorcycle models (along with a new Jet Ski). Then next month, for the EICMA show, Kawasaki has three more motorcycle debuts on its docket.
A busy timeline for Team Green, this news makes for a double-punch of new motorcycle models from Kawasaki for the 2022 model year, but we are not complaining.
In a few hours, the 2019 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R is going to debut at the AIMExpo in Las Vegas…so of course here are some photos and details on this “new” supersport, a bit early.
While there was much anticipation for this new machine before the trade show, it looks like Team Green is giving the 2019 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R more of a modest refreshing, rather than an all-new treatment.
For American readers this news will be a bit of a yawn, but for our friends across the pond, this means that Kawasaki is re-entering the supersport market in Europe, which is of course welcomed news.
There will be a new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R for the 2019 model year, of this much we are certain.
It is a story that has been floating around for over a year now (I thought we had reported it already, but apparently not), but now this rumor is heating up, and we have some details to share.
First off, the confirmation. Making filings with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), we see that Kawasaki has plans for a new ZX-6R. It will have a 636cc (cheater) displacement, and produce roughly half the emissions of the previous model.
Likely ready for the coming wave of Euro5 emission regulations, details from across the pond show a power decrease and weight increase for the 2019 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R, and point to a whole-new motorcycle coming from Team Green.
Like its liter-bike compatriot, the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R gets a special 30th Anniversary livery upgrade for 2015. Like the 2015 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R, the changes to the ZX-6R are only skin deep, and meant to celebrate the Ninja’s 30 years of being on the market. Accordingly, the 30th Anniversary changes include the following for the Kawasaki ZX-6R:
That special 30th anniversary exclusivity will cost you an extra $300 over the regular model, and if you want Kawasaki’s anti-locking brakes system (ABS), be prepared to shell out another $1,000 for it.
AMA Pro Racing continues to show that it’s homolo-flexible when it comes to supersport regulations, as America’s premier road racing series has homologated the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R and its 636cc engine displacement to compete in the supersport class (the new ZX-6R is also homologated for the Daytona Sport Bike class as well).
“Kawasaki has a strong racing heritage,” said Kawasaki Racing Senior Manager Reid Nordin. “Our Ninja brand is synonymous with success on the track. When we brought back the 636cc engine we knew there would be interest in racing and we have taken the steps necessary to have the new Ninja ZX-6R on the track and out front in 2013.”
The Isle of Man has to be the ultimate location for a motorcycle commercial. Not only does the small island in the middle of the Irish Sea host the famous Isle of Man TT, but the small country’s picturesque hillsides and ocean backdrops make for some spectacular visuals in their own right. Add in the lack of a speed limit outside city limits, a thriving motoring culture, and well…you get the idea: two-wheeled paradise.
Taking Kawasaki’s TT rider James Hillier and the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R, Kawasaki launched its latest supersport machine at the Isle of Man last year with one of the more compelling series of videos and photographs we have seen in a while…and they pulled a few awards in the process as well. Now, Team Green is giving us a glimpse in what went into the commercial’s production. It’s good stuff. Check it out after the jump.
Officially debuting the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R in New York’s Times Square today, Kawasaki has unsurprisingly brought a stroked-out 636cc machine to a 599cc supersport battle. While the chassis of the new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R is the same, the motor has obviously been reworked, along with the bodywork. However, the big news from the reveal is the addition of Kawasaki’s three-mode KTRC traction control to the supersport-class motorcycle, once again proving that electronics are the new horsepower.
Other additions to the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R include Showa’s new SFF-BP front forks. Combining Showa’s Separate Function Fork (SFF) with its Big Piston (BP) technology, Kawasaki hopes the suspension units will provide the optimal balance between street and track riding. The new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R motor also gets further improved with the addition of a back-torque limiting slipper clutch.
Multiple Kawasaki models are expected to be unveiled in New York tomorrow, and chiefly for the American market we are expecting the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R & the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja 300 to officially break cover in Times Square.
This of course hasn’t stopped the bikes from “unofficially” breaking cover well before that date, as an EPA document (now edited to omit the models) first outed their existence, as well as numerous other leaks breaking loose as the event unveiling event looms closer — almost as if the leaks were designed to help create buzz around the new machines, hmm…
Our latest viewing of the new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R & Kawasaki Z800 motorcycles comes to us from a video, which employs one of the most frustrating audio tracks ever to grace a motorcycle industry YouTube clip.
Presumably employed to stop us from hearing the new ZX-6R and Z800 rev to life, the music sounds like one of those canned audio tracks for slideshows about kittens playing in cardboard boxes. Nevertheless, it does give us a pretty good glimpse at the bikes in question. Beggers can’t be choosers, right?
UPDATE: The folks at TMCBlog seem to have some screen grabs from a walk-around video with the new ZX-6R. More photos attached after the jump.
Kawasaki only has a few more days until its big launch in New York City’s Times Square, so depending on how you look at it, Team Green has only a few more days to keep its new bikes under wraps, or Team Green has only a few more days to leak out hype-building photos of its new bikes. We’ll let you make the call on that issue, but today’s big Kawasaki news is a leaked photo of what appears to be the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R.
The 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R is set to return to a 636cc displacement, according to a spreadsheet released by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). With alleged spy shots of the new ZX-6R already hitting the press, the supersport-class bike noticeably takes a design cue from its liter-bike counterpart — a move that should surprise no one.
Listed by the EPA as making 129 hp (96.4 kW) at the crank, the move to have the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R be a 636cc displacement machine is interesting, as the EPA’s document does not list a 599cc Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6RR analog, something the Japanese brand did last time it bumped its middleweight’s displacement figure beyond the norm.
If you believe the motorcycle rumor mill, the now long-in-the-tooth Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R is set to get an update next model year. Now four years old, the ZX-6R has long shared a common thread with its 1,000cc brethren, the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R. With the ZX-10R now two-model-years-old though, the clock has been ticking as to when Kawasaki would give the ZX-6R a similar makeover. While still simply an internet rumor, there does seem to be some logic to the idea that we could see a new Kawasaki ZX-6R by the end of the year, though nothing can be for certain.