Kawasaki Is Planning A Superbike Attack With Its New Supercharged Ninja R2

Historically, superbikes with forced induction (like the 1982 Honda X500 Turbo and 1984 Kawasaki GPz750 Turbo) have been pretty terrible. Sure, they looked cool, but they suffered from colossal turbo lag and a number of reliability problems. Thankfully technology has moved on since then, allowing Kawasaki to produce the 210bhp Ninja H2 and the mind-bending 300bhp track-only H2R.

Both bikes demonstrated that supercharging is now a viable route to producing more power, but that power certainly comes at a price, with the bikes costing £22,000 and £41,000 respectively. Thankfully for us, Kawasaki is now planning to build a supercharged superbike for the masses.

According to MCN, registered trademarks and various rumours suggest that the new bike will be called the Ninja R2. It’s expected to use the 800cc ‘Balanced Supercharged Engine’ that was unveiled at the 2015 Tokyo motor show - a second generation supercharged inline-four motor. Technically this will make the R2 a middle-weight with the same level of performance as a 1000cc. And because superchargers are banned from domestic and international racing championships, Kawasaki won’t be constrained by the rule book, allowing them to experiment with new technologies.

For us, a compact motor with upwards of 190bhp is a tantalising prospect. The new supercharged engine has been designed to be ‘balanced’, hence the name, featuring a variable geometry intake with radial electronically-pivoting blades that can change pitch to regulate the flow of air into the supercharger. The design will allow the R2 to produce better torque low down and better top end power than conventional superbikes, while still retaining good fuel economy.

Both Ninja R2 and R2R names have been trademarked by Kawasaki in Japan, indicating that an even faster version of the bike will be available. It’s also important to remember that the manufacturer revealed two supercharged concepts last year, the SC-01 and SC-02, hinting that the technology might be used throughout the Kawasaki range.

MCN’s sources in Japan have suggested that the bike is likely to hit showrooms in 2017. A new era of superbikes? We hope so.

Source: Motorcycle News