While the new bike may look outwardly similar to the current model, the truth is that barely a nut or bolt has been left untouched. The raft of changes to the engine, chassis, suspension, fairing, electronics, brakes and exhaust is extensive, and even parts that look identical have had the magic R&D wand waved over them. All of the changes, say Kawasaki, were to sate requests from the factory WSB team, with former world champion Tom Sykes playing a pivotal role in the development of the bike. Kawasaki says this is the closest thing to a factory superbike it has ever produced.
The changes to the engine are indicative of the changes to the rest of the bike, in that outwardly it appears largely unchanged, while close examination reveals that very few parts are carried over. All of the changes were aimed at keeping the bombastic power of the 2011 bike, while boosting low to mid-range power to help with acceleration out of corners. With a completely new cylinderhead and crank – that has lost 20% of its weight – Kawasaki claim the new engine’s reduction in inertia allows it to spin-up much faster.
The airbox is now two litres larger, at 10lires, giving the engine a large volume of air to draw from all helped by a ram-air intake which has been moved further forward for greater efficiency, and an air filter with a larger surface area and higher flow rate. All this conspires to deliver a claimed 207bhp (with ram air) at 13,000rpm, and 84ftlb torque at 11,500rpm.
