It’s 20 years since I dipped my toe into the world of bike racing, riding a Kawasaki ZXR 400. That’s a model long gone from Kawasaki’s line-up, but there is a modernday equivalent in the Ninja 400. Older, balder and more desperate than ever to relive my youth, the idea was hatched to get my hands on one, clock 400 miles on it, and give it a run around Cadwell Park, the place where my passion kicked off in 2003 and my bank balance took a nosedive.
The Ninja 400 is by no means a direct replacement for the ZXR I used to love and abuse, so it wouldn’t be fair to compare the two in any way. The ZXR I had was a sportsbike with 64bhp from an inline four-cylinder engine that had a red line of 145,000rpm, whereas the Ninja has a slightly less sport-focused riding position with
