A BLOWER FOR THE MASSES
At 250km/h on Gardner Straight, Phillip Island Raceway, all I can usually hear is the wind rushing past my helmet. Not today: there’s a hair-raising scream out of nowhere, then the machine creating it is rushing by, a 300hp Kawasaki H2R making my ZX-10R look like a 400.
Gobsmacked is the word that comes to mind. Yes… Kawasaki’s supercharged sportsbikes are mental, especially the track-only H2R.
The Z H2 is the fourth supercharged model from Kawasaki. In addition to the H2R there’s the H2 SX sports tourer and the H2 sport bike. Compared to the H2R, the naked Z H2 receives a dose of vanilla, but the engine is still 98 per cent H2R. It’s still special…
When designing the Z H2, Kawasaki’s top priority was making riding it a “survivable” event (and correctly so). Hence the sophisticated electronics. This philosophy has produced an easy-to-ride, exciting machine. Good plan.
It wasn’t always so. In 1969 Kawasaki released the H1 500cc Mach III, a bike that took giant steps down the road eventually leading to today’s
