It’s freaky accelerating into a heavily banked turn because you can carry so much more speed than you think you can. People who were more aggressive on the throttle than I lofted the front wheel to the limits of the wheelie control. Each lap was punctuated by a trip into the infield chicane to give us the chance to brake down from speeds approaching 150 mph.Īccelerating up onto the banking from second gear with the throttle wide open, the rider is pushed back into the seat as the front end lightens. The exercise was designed to allow journalists to experience both the brutal acceleration from the bottom end and high speed acceleration coming out of the banked corners. The high point of Kawasaki’s plans for the Z H2 introduction was the trip to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s 20° banked tri-oval. of bike and rider down from speed with excellent power and feel. The Nissin/Brembo combo hauls the 700 lb. The quickshifter snicks through the gears as the front end gets light, and before you know it, the brake markers are rapidly approaching. Exiting corners in Road mode allows a little rear slip as the bike straightens up and rockets down the straight. For a bike capable of such impressive acceleration, the ease of the throttle control, particularly in the lower rpm, belies the brute force that the engine can put out when you want it to.
First, Kawasaki made a big deal about saying the Z H2 has balanced power, and when you’re encountering slips front and rear, tractable power is paramount. Still, a remarkable amount can be learned when riding at what is closer to a street cornering pace than a track one.
(claimed), 197-hp bike with kid gloves for the remainder of the chilly road course sessions. This and one more waggle of the handlebar in the first session made sure that I treated the 527 lb. My role in the recovery was entirely that of not making a bad situation worse. Just moments later, I’m happy to say that the front Pirelli Diablo Rosso III gathered itself back up, sending me on my way just ahead of the adrenaline rush. When last we met, our narrator was in the middle of a corner with the handlebar doing what you never want it to do mid-corner. To that transmission, Kawasaki adds an assist and slipper clutch for easy clutch manipulation in traffic and prevention of rear wheel hop in the case of ham-fisted downshifts. Kawasaki claims this results in improved feel with lighter, quicker shifts. Kawasaki says it turned to MotoGP technology (though we don’t know whose) for the transmission with the inclusion of a dog-ring transmission setup which utilizes fixed gears on the input shaft and rings that engage the output shaft’s gears by moving between them. This, in turn, allows the oil pump to spin at a lower speed for less parasitic power loss, while the deep sump makes sure that the oil gets to where it needs to be, even under hard acceleration. The 11.2:1 compression ratio contributes to fuel efficiency and thermal management, allowing the use of a single oil jet to cool the backside of each piston. Since the Z H2 is a street-focused motorcycle, the cam profiles are directed towards real-world power delivery and fuel economy. A sizable ram air intake on the left side of the headlight feeds the supercharger with cool air to compress.įor intake efficiency, the Z H2 borrows from the World Superbike spec ZX-10R in the form of the two-step cylinder head machining to smooth intake flow and minimize any intake loss. Then the irregular-length intake funnels contribute to the engine’s bottom end and mid-range performance – a necessary rpm range for a naked bike. Additionally, the intake chamber has been volume-optimized to enhance the supercharger’s efficiency. Instead, the aluminum intake chamber between supercharger and throttle bodies helps to manage the heat generated through compression.
This process creates an extremely efficient blade shape, with 6 blades at its tip and 12 blades at its base, negating the need for the space and weight of an intercooler. The special sauce is a 69mm planetary gear driven supercharger impeller that is massaged out of a single chunk of forged aluminum with the assistance of five-axis CNC machining. A modern 998 cc DOHC four-valve per cylinder inline-Four is nothing to sneeze at, but what makes the Z H2’s engine special – and helps it crank out a claimed 197 hp – resides on the back of the engine just above the transmission.
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