2020 Kawasaki Z900 Video Review

John Burns
by John Burns

Following last Friday’s critically acclaimed 2020 BMW F900R vs Kawasaki Z900 video comparison review, one disgruntled Youtuber commented: Never understood comparison videos. Why not just review the bikes individually? You will always annoy people and everyone disagrees. Both bikes are good but are different, some like Kawasaki some like BMW and… well, it digressed from there.

But not before giving us the brilliant idea, why don’t we review bikes individually?! Great idea. So, Sean Matic and I rushed out to film this stand-alone one of the Z900.

I kid. We actually shot this one way back in May, but technical difficulties shunted it onto a sidetrack, then other more important things kept pushing it to the back of Matic’s queue. At last the wait is over, and I’ll apologize up front if it more or less repeats all my favorite things I already pointed out about the Z in last week’s vid – and leaves out some facts I didn’t learn until after. And the sound is kinda weird, which was the original problem. And, oh, never mind. Watch it if you wanna, but I think we can all agree print remains my forte, sorry.

2020 Kawasaki Z900 ABS First Ride Review

Spoiler alert: The 2017 Z900 was MO’s Best Standard of the Year, in that year, and the 2020 only improves upon it. It’s a very tough act for any $8,999 bike to follow, much less beat.

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John Burns
John Burns

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  • Starmag Starmag on Aug 25, 2020

    Why are axially mounted calipers not as desirable as radially mounted? The calipers look like they are in the same place. I guess this is a question off the last comparo video with Trizz and the BMW.

    Spectacular spot for this shoot. I hope you Californians realize this exists in very few other places in the U.S. I'm aware that you pay a fairly huge price for it in freeway traffic though, which explains your filtering focus.

    Informative good vid John. Thanks for the laugh at the end. These are still too lumpy for me. I would take the 20RWHP penalty and get the RS which is also better for my passenger.

    • See 1 previous
    • John burns John burns on Aug 26, 2020

      I liked B2R's esplanation also, but I have to say unless you are on the racetrack and using maximum braking a few times per lap after lap, you'd have to be pretty damn sensitive to tell the difference. These Z brakes have more than enough power to bump into ABS with two fingers whenever you feel the need, and plenty of feel too. For streetbikes, I have to say more a matter of street cred and marketing. Def. saves a few dollars of course.

  • Randy Moran Randy Moran on Aug 26, 2020

    I enjoyed the dad lecture at the end. We'll try better, John.

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