#H2

What’s this? A cruiser claims the Motorcycle of the Year title even though we’ve called 2015 the year of the Superbike? Yes, it might provoke a little cognitive dissonance until you think a little further. First, because the Indian Scout was introduced at Sturgis this time last year, many riders mistakenly thought of it as a 2014 model. To qualify for a MOBO, a motorcycle must be on sale to the public prior to the nominating process at the end of each July, and the Scout wasn’t available until late last year. Additionally, our MOTY must be something special, and the Scout is more than just a class-beating cruiser.

By the time you read this, I will be off the clock and lost somewhere on an island, away on a much needed vacation, just the wife and me. The destination? Japan. I’m not bringing my helmet with me, and my only interaction with a motorcycle will be if I bump into one while darting from sushi joint to ramen house. Airplanes, bullet trains and our own two feet will be our method of travel this time around. It’s a little ironic in a way; me being in the middle of a country that has contributed so much to motorcycling, yet choosing to remove myself from two wheels as much as possible. Sometimes, however, the best way to recharge the batteries is to get away from it all. Luckily, there’s more to me than just motorcycles.

The idea of a Kawasaki sportbike that costs $25,000 might seem incongruous. That’s the realm of Italian exotics and, though Kawasaki ends with a vowel, it’s not a swanky European marque that commands an exotic price tag.

Last time I was at Auto Club Speedway, the MO crew was testing the three fastest streetfighters, and it was a rush to see speedometers creep past 160 mph on the banked front straightaway. This week I watched numbers rush past 175 mph on the same track, this time aboard the quickest-accelerating production vehicle on the planet, Kawasaki’s 2015 Ninja H2.

Awesome [aw–suh m] adjective: Causing or inducing awe; inspiring an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, or fear: an awesome sight.

Kawasaki’s H2 street machine and H2R racebike are likely the most talked about motorcycles of 2015. Engineering a supercharger into a liter-class sportbike is a mighty technological feat, and the H2/H2R shifts the paradigm of what’s possible in a sportbike engine. The EPA-legal H2 is said to produce about 200 crankshaft horsepower, while the closed-course-only H2R claims at least 300 hp.

If you’re like us, then you must be salivating over the 2015 literbike prospects. With no less than eight new bleeding-edge sportbikes on the table from both European and Japanese marques, the bar is being raised in the quest for track domination or, in the case of the Kawasaki H2 and H2R, simply having the rider experience intense acceleration like they’ve never felt before. However, there’s an interesting trend in the method in which each manufacturer is going about upping the literbike ante. More and more, a greater emphasis is placed on technology and electronics rather than hardware. Sure, hardware isn’t being ignored, but with today’s bikes making so much power, being able to harness it effectively is of utmost importance.

Milan, Italy, hosts the world’s largest motorcycle show, EICMA, in November each year, where the latest and greatest motorbikes are on display, most of which are receiving their first public display. The Esposizione Mondiale del Motociclismo, as it’s officially called, celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2014, and I was pleased to be one of the 6,945 journalists attending the November 3-8 event.

One of the questions I’ve heard frequently asked about the Kawasaki Ninja H2 and H2R can be summed up with one word: Why? Why the H2R? It doesn’t fit the requirements of any international racing series. It’s not street legal. And why the H2? Isn’t it just a detuned H2R, designed not to break the European and Japanese manufacturers’ gentleman’s agreement of keeping streeting machinery to under 186 mph (300 kph)? As if a motorcycle we expect to make in the neighborhood of 200 horsepower and go right up to an expected software-limited top speed can be called detuned. That’s before we even consider the massive torque bump the supercharger should deliver.

Since he started racing in the late 1990s, San Diego, California racer Jeremy Toye has lived a storied career. His extensive domestic resume includes several top-five finishes in AMA Pro Racing competition. In 2006, Toye set the fastest lap for a rookie at the Isle of Man. On his sixth trip to compete at the Macau Grand Prix, Toye’s third place finish in 2010 earned him the distinction of being the first American to podium the event in 10 years. The following rain-hampered year, he fell just short of the podium. Although he’s raced several motorcycle brands, the last couple of years have seen him focus on Kawasaki’s ZX–10R.

There’s been a lot of buzz about Kawasaki’s relentlessly teased H2 sportbike, but information with any details is thus far practically non-existent. The only things certain are that it will be powered by a supercharged inline-Four engine and packaged in a fully faired sportbike platform.

Kawasaki is building hype around its new, and potentially groundbreaking, Ninja H2 sportbike with a series of short videos. Each one highlights a certain aspect about the bike, and last week’s third teaser video was an audible delight, as we got to hear the supercharger discharge get expelled every time the throttle was closed.

Today, Kawasaki released the second in its series of teaser videos for the much anticipated Ninja H2. Not much is revealed visually in the teaser video, but the audible notes tell a completely different story. The video starts off with a run through the gears and in it we hear the clear sound of the centrifugal supercharger’s wastegate as it regulates intake pressure.