#H2

It’s posts like these that helped spawn the idea for these Friday Forum Foraging posts in the first place. This particular one comes from one of our sister sites, NinjaH2.org. We don’t know the seller, nor do we know the life circumstance that has caused them to sell this basically new 2022 Kawasaki H2 Carbon with only four miles on it, but this is definitely out of the ordinary. And that’s what we like around here.

I thought I was picking up a new Z H2 naked at Kawasaki, but there was some miscommunication. I got this H2 Carbon instead, the full-zoot sport version barely removed from the track-only H2R instead of the slightly tamer naked I was expecting. Damn the luck! I’d really prefer to be sat a bit more upright. When I climbed on and reached for the clip-ons, the H2 Carbon hurt my lumbar and impinged upon my liver compartment. Then it cracked my knees when I picked my feet up onto the pegs. And the way the thing revved and the supercharger chirped in the parking lot frankly was a bit frightening. It seemed angry. This is ridiculous. Nobody needs a motorcycle like this outside of the Bonneville salt flats.

Has it really been 20 years since the world didn’t seize up at the stroke of midnight, as we feared it might? Yes. Every time I walk out into the garage, my 2000 R1 sitting dormant on its stand (the last year of the first-gen R1) reminds me of what a long time ago that was. Next to all the new bikes it sees come and go, the old girl is positively archaic. In a good, Ann-Margret way, but still. While we’re still quarantining seems like a good time to look back upon what bikes have moved the game forward the most since the millennium.

When one thinks about Las Vegas, thoughts naturally tend towards gambling, bright lights, overpriced restaurants (or buffet food), and desert heat – not standing beside the road course at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with the temperature on the wrong side of 40° while a 200-hp beast idles its way to operating temperature. This is the type of scenario where having track rubber with tire warmers would be significantly less desirable than the Pirelli Diablo Rosso III street tires the 2020 Kawasaki Z H2 I was about to mount was sporting. The first lap would suck the heat out of those toasty warm sticky track compounds rendering them useless. Street tires, however, have a much broader operational temperature envelope.

Kawasaki is acquiring a stake in Bimota, breathing new life into the Italian brand best known for its hub-steering motorcycle designs. Once the deal is completed and passes regulatory approval, Kawasaki Motors Europe, through its subsidiary Italian Motorcycle Investment, will purchase a 49.9% share in Bimota, with the controlling 50.1% being retained by its current owners (formerly Bimota S.A. but officially renamed B and Motion S.A.).

Kawasaki released another video teasing its latest supercharged motorcycle, showing a glimpse of the bike’s silhouette and confirming it will be called the Z H2.

Kawasaki released a second video teasing a supercharged Z model, showing a few glimpses of the naked bike and confirming it will be revealed Oct. 23 during the Tokyo Motor Show.

Kawasaki Europe dropped a video teasing a new Z model – and it’s supercharged!

Kawasaki announced a number of updates to the 2019 Ninja H2 and Ninja H2 Carbon, making the supercharged engine more powerful, while maintaining the same fuel efficiency as the previous iteration. While Kawasaki USA hasn’t released any power figures for the H2, its European counterpart claims a substantial increase from 197.3 hp to 227.8 hp. We’ll have to wait to see if the North American-spec version gets the same boost. The 2019 Ninja H2R also receives some updates, though its engine remains unchanged.

About That Ninja H2 SX First Ride Story

Kawasaki will introduce a new sport-touring model featuring its new balanced supercharger technology next month at EICMA.

Rickey Gadson has been hard on the gas. The multi-time champion drag racer recently hit the small screen with a co-starring role in a new TV show, Caffeine and Octane airing on Velocity, and he’s recently ridden to the highest speed ever clocked on a supercharged Kawasaki Ninja H2.

The L.A. Auto Show is, naturally, mostly focused on the realm of four-wheeled vehicles but there was one motorcycle displayed that caught our attention here on MO. Pictured here is the Dagger, a concept bike pairing a 3D-printed frame with a Kawasaki H2 engine.

A few days ago, some images began floating around reportedly depicting a supercharged 600cc Kawasaki expected to be called the “Ninja R2.” But just like we did last week with a design patent for a 125cc Honda Monkey prototype, we’re going to explain why these reports probably aren’t true.

It has been a year now since Kawasaki strung us along with what seemed like endless teaser videos for its Ninja H2 and Ninja H2R superbikes. Let’s revisit what made them so popular. Boasting 998cc from its inline-Four, the H2 brethren represents Kawasaki’s flagship motorcycle. Let’s not forget the supercharger attached to both models, giving them a healthy amount of torque without the need for an intercooler. The trellis frame, Brembo M50 brakes, and traction control, among other things, helped the H2 line handle about as well as it accelerated.