Kawasaki brings back the “small bore” 4 cylinder

JesseeS

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Kawasaki has brought the zx-4rr to the states! 399cc and four cylinders. I told my wife a long time ago if they ever brought such a thing to the states I would buy it instantly but the chances of that were highly unlikely. Not looking forward to explaining this to her. Haha!

Claimed hp: 80 with ram air
Redline: 16,000 (my god)
Torque: low 26.5 at 11k
Claimed Wet weight: 415lbs. We all know when we get rid of emissions and unnecessary items we can probably get that below 400

I’m excited for this little screamer to be honest. Price point puts it near a zx6r at $9700 so I don’t see a lot being sold here. Definitely a niche bike, that I need in my garage.
 

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Kawasaki has brought the zx-4rr to the states! 399cc and four cylinders. I told my wife a long time ago if they ever brought such a thing to the states I would buy it instantly but the chances of that were highly unlikely. Not looking forward to explaining this to her. Haha!

Claimed hp: 80 with ram air
Redline: 16,000 (my god)
Torque: low 26.5 at 11k
Claimed Wet weight: 415lbs. We all know when we get rid of emissions and unnecessary items we can probably get that below 400

I’m excited for this little screamer to be honest. Price point puts it near a zx6r at $9700 so I don’t see a lot being sold here. Definitely a niche bike, that I need in my garage.

What a cool little bike! I didn’t think we’d ever see anything like that again! 😃 It harks back to an earlier time in history,

https://www.xs650.com/threads/japans-250-to-400cc-hyperbikes-from-the-80’s-and-90’s.59910/
 
That’s exactly why I want one. Not only do you know it’ll be fun, but who knows how long it’ll be here or if it will ever be back again.

Yes Smaller bikes are fun
But I hear people complain that you need to rev them
That one can be difficult to use on the road. Can have a pointy Torque Curve.
 
...and what's wrong with that? :rolleyes:
:wink2:

No nothing wrong -- But Problem is that when it starts to go fast .On the road You are in the Tunnel so to speak Tunnel vision.
Needs to find the apex and the brake point. And that on a perhaps unknown road.
Not having the exact right gear on the exit . if I say IF that is outside the Point on a Pointy Torque Curve
I dont know how this one looks.
I say if again --- It can be dead on the exit. And it is actually slower than a more Moderate tuned engine.
The Rossis and Marques in this world they have the multitasking capability.
And they drive many laps on the same track reducing the Input for the actions.

But the Multitasking problem can be interesting in itself
 
Posted this before the last time a thread on these came up, but there were loads of these little screamers on the roads here in Ireland in the late 90 and early to mid 00’s.

This was mainly due to the insurance situation which prevailed here at the time (Just two companies offered motorcycle insurance) which meant it was incredibly expensive for someone under 25 to own anything bigger.

Anyway heres mine, it’s a Yamaha FZR250R. Speed limits on main roads here are 100kph (approx 60mph) and at that speed in top gear the engine is spinning at 10,000 RPM!! They are a hoot to ride but not for very long!
 

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Posted this before the last time a thread on these came up, but there were loads of these little screamers on the roads here in Ireland in the late 90 and early to mid 00’s.

This was mainly due to the insurance situation which prevailed here at the time (Just two companies offered motorcycle insurance) which meant it was incredibly expensive for someone under 25 to own anything bigger.

Anyway heres mine, it’s a Yamaha FZR250R. Speed limits on main roads here are 100kph (approx 60mph) and at that speed in top gear the engine is spinning at 10,000 RPM!! They are a hoot to ride but not for very long!
I am jealous beyond belief. I wish they had brought a 4 cylinder 250cc here(I would prefer that over the 400 honestly), but the way Kawasaki has been flexing their muscles lately maybe that will happen. Europe and surrounding areas get a ton of cool bikes we will never see here due to the licensing system amongst everything else and I am envious all the time. Enjoy it for all of us drooling over here!
 
Don't be jealous, honestly the only thing I wanted back then was to be able to get a bigger bike! We didn't think these bikes were anything special, just steps on the capacity ladder that we had to climb here due to legislation. We were always jealous of you lot who could go out and buy a Fireblade or an R1 as a first bike!

Tatty but running 4 cylinder 250's could be had here for €500, decent bikes were around the 2.5k - 3k mark. The best of the lot were the honda CBR250's (the MC22 model) they revved higher, had gear driven cams, a cool z shaped frame. They were in all honesty, a generation ahead of the FZR's. But they were more expensive to buy. Wish I bought one back then as all the good ones were bought up and shipped overseas once they turned 30 years old and the American market opened up to them, so they are insane money to buy now.

Since you seem to be interested in the little bikes here are a couple of others I had on the stepping stones to something better. A pair of honda NSR's, they were both single cylinder two strokes and the 80cc version was my first ever road going motorcycle at 16. It topped out about the 65mph mark generally but could hit almost 80mph on long downhill stretches. Then I progressed to the 125cc version a year later, this topped out at 100mph but the skirt broke off the piston one day and exited via the crank case and that was the end of that!
 

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That's the one Jim, they were a great little bike, I had one of the previous model (the MC19) for a little while, but the MC22 was the daddy. As you can see in the video you need a ton of revs to get going. My FZR's rev counter only STARTS at 3k RPM, (Dialing in tickover is a lot of fun). Back then these were many young peoples only form of transport, (It certainly was mine) and I was stuck on these little things for 2 years after passing my bike test (we were restricted to machines of this power for the first 24 months of new licence) so really we couldn't wait to move on as soon as we could.
 
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