Episode 24 of the Brap Talk podcast is now out for your two-wheeled audio pleasure, and as always, it is packed with some interesting motorcycle discussions.
In this show, we give a preview of things to come at the EICMA show in Milan, but first we recap what we have seen from the Ducati unveiling event in Rimini, as well as the Tokyo Motor Show.
Perhaps the most talked about motorcycle from the Tokyo Motor Show, at least when it comes to fans and journalists, the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-25R was also the least talked about machine, in terms of manufacturers releasing details.
Kawasaki pulled the wraps off a four-cylinder 250cc sport bike, and then said…nothing.
In fact, the only official thing that Kawasaki has said about the motorcycle since its unveiling is to put out a press release reminding us that the Japanese brand has said nothing of substance about the new model.
No price has been mentioned. No marks on the calendar, or hints on which markets will get it first (or get it at all).
The release of the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-25R is a great example of why brands need to have an engaged hand on their public relations, because all hell can break loose when you let go of the wheel.
While Kawasaki is still dropping the ball on this, let us try and bring some order to this chaos, both with what we know as fact, and what we can reasonably discern from those facts.
Fresh from the Tokyo Motor Show, Team Green has released truly a tantalizing machine, the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-25R.
I have to be honest, I didn’t think the internet rumors were true on this one, but I love being wrong about this model release.
We didn’t think we would ever again see the day, but here is a four-cylinder 250cc sport bike that by our quick math, could be the most powerful 250cc motorcycle ever made.
Here it is, the next installment in Kawasaki’s supercharged future. As predicted, the 2020 Kawasaki Z H2 is a supercharged naked bike, with 200hp (147.1 kW) on tap and 101 lbs•ft of (137 Nm) torque from its 998cc four-cylinder engine.
Unlike the Kawasaki Ninja H2, the Z H2 fills the role of the Z family of bikes, and is a true naked bike. But like its H2 siblings, the Kawasaki Zh2 features a green steel trellis frame.
It is finally here! Our favorite time of the year! I am of course talking about the new bike season, where the majority of the new motorcycles for the coming model year are debuted at events around the world.
For this round, the model year is going to be a year filled with new bikes, primarily because of the changes required for the Euro5 homologation. As such, we expect to see virtually every manufacturer coming out with something new, especially at the EICMA show in Italy and the Tokyo Motor Show in Japan.
What is interesting about this year’s edition though is how many bikes we will see before these to stalwart events. This is because the brands are finally catching on that their products get lost in the sea of unveilings that occur in Milan and Tokyo.
Accordingly, we see Ducati setting up its own special event in Rimini for October 23rd. Similarly, other brands have teased late-October and early-November unveiling dates for select models, though we expect more will follow Ducati’s lead in the coming years.
With a number of intriguing models teased and rumored ahead of these events, it will be interesting to see what actually comes true. To get our A&R Pro readers ready for the onslaught, I have put together one big fat awesome guide to the new motorcycle releases for 2020.
This list is as comprehensive as I can make it, and quite frankly a lot more detailed than what I’ve seen elsewhere on the internet, probably because it involves A&R pestering our Bothan spies for info all year.
I will update this story as more rumors surface ahead of the trade shows and unveiling events.
Motorcyclists who bleed green will be happy to hear that Kawasaki has FIVE new models to show us, between its unveilings at the Tokyo Motor Show and what is to come at EICMA.
From the company’s website, two of the upcoming machines will debut in Tokyo, while the other three will be launched at EICMA. Best of all, we have a pretty good idea what those bikes will be.
Here is one for a bit of nostalgia, as Honda is set to bring a concept motorcycle that riffs on iconic machine from Big Red’s lineup. The motorcycle shown above is the Honda CT125 concept, which is to debut in a month’s time at the Tokyo Motor Show.
For those that know their motorcycle history, the “CT” name should be a familiar one from Honda, as the trail-oriented motorcycles were the off-road counterparts to the popular Super Cub street bikes.
There has been plenty said about the next generation of the Honda CBR1000RR, and lately the rumors have been heating up.
Solid news of an all-new machine for next first started in the WorldSBK paddock, where it was tipped that HRC would come back into the paddock with a factory team for the 2020 season – and on a new motorcycle.
Since then, we have seen some patents hinting at possible features of the new Fireblade, the most impressive of which is the idea that the 2020 Honda CBR1000RR could have active aerodynamics.
Now, we get word from our German colleagues at Speedweek that the new Honda Fireblade will debut sooner than we thought, making its arrival in October at the Tokyo Motor Show.
This means that we could see the 2020 Honda CBR1000RR as soon as October 23rd, instead of having to wait several weeks longer to see the bike debut at the EICMA show in Milan.
Let’s just say that Yamaha’s concepts are a bit…ambitious. Take the Yamaha 07GEN concept, for example – a three-wheeler from the Tokyo Motor Show that we seemingly overlooked.
What a colleague called like a “tribute to Miyazaki“, this oddly styled electric three-wheeled motorcycle for urban travel is a interesting mix of new-world technology with old-world aesthetics. It might even be too hippy for the hippest of hipsters…maybe.
Episode 65 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast is out, and in it we cover the recent Tokyo Motor Show, as well as the unveiling of the new Honda Gold Wing.
Finally getting to see the venerable tourer up-close in California, Jensen reports back on the new features that have come to the Gold Wing, which is much lighter and more compact than the outgoing model.
We also briefly discuss Suzuki’s recent decision to halt its MXGP and All-Japan motocross racing programs, which is curious considering that the Suzuki RM-Z450 got a significant update for the 2017 model year.
Turning to the Tokyo Motor Show, there were a bevy of significant releases making an appearance in Japan, which we discussed in detail: Honda Neo Sports Café Concept, Kawasaki Ninja 400, Kawasaki Z900RS, Suzuki SV650X, Yamaha Niken, and Yamaha MOTOROiD.
There’s plenty for everyone in this show, and we think you’ll enjoy it, but beep an eye out next week for our coverage of the EICMA show in Milan.
You can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well.
The Honda Grom is a motorcycle I cannot explain. I don’t know why Honda built it; I don’t know who that bike is for; and I don’t know where you would actually ride a Grom…I just know that I want one.
Interestingly, the Honda Grom shares an ancestry with the Honda Monkey lineup – a series of small-displacement, and curiously sized, Z-series motorcycles from the 1960s and 1970s.
Now paying homage to the Monkeys of yore, Honda has one last concept from the Tokyo Motor Show that we need to cover: the obviously named Honda Monkey 125 concept.