Good news sport bike fans, Kawasaki USA in its infinite wisdom has decided to bring the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R SE to the United States for the 2018 model year.
Debuted at this year’s EICMA show, the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R SE takes the potent superbike and most notably adds Showa’s new semi-active suspension to the package.
Other perks include the seven-spoke forged aluminum Marchesini wheels, found already on the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR, as well as an up/down quickshifter.
Like what you hear? Well brace yourself…If you want a 2018 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R SE in your garage, you are going to need to shell out $21,899 MSRP for it.
That sticker price represents quite the premium over Team Green’s race homologation machine, the ZX-10RR, which goes for $18,899.
As such, Kawasaki must obviously think highly of Showa’s new electronically controlled semi-active suspension, to justify the considerable price increase.
That might be a fair assessment, however. Showa’s balance free forks (BFF) and shock (BFRC) are certainly premium-level pieces – rivaling Öhlins in every regard (if not surpassing the Swedish brand).
Though the Japanese brand is new to the semi-active game, its design is certainly intriguing.
This is because the Showa BFF and BFRC units have a built-in stroke sensor, which provides a real-time assessment of the stroke speed and compression information.
Tied into the Ninja ZX-10R SE’s inertial measurement unit (IMU), the Showa suspension is able to detect suspension changes every millisecond, while the IMU and ECU on the bike adjust every 10 milliseconds.
This allows the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R SE to add a more robust and technologically advance motorcycle into Kawasaki’s lineup, which can rival the BMW S1000RR ($19,145), Honda CBR1000RR SP2 ($19,999), and Yamaha YZF-R1M ($22,999) on features.
Source: Kawasaki USA
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