Director Dan’s Kawasaki Dealer Demo Days in Spain!
I visited Mojacar in southern Spain with Kawasaki UK for a couple of days riding the new model Kawasaki’s including the new Hybrid motorcycle, along with a representative from each dealer in the UK.
On the morning day one we had the opportunity to ride the new ZX6R, ZX4RR and the Eliminator 500. My favourite bike from the collection was the ZX4RR.
I was concerned that riding the all new ZX4RR was going to be uncomfortable to ride being a relatively small sports bike, but it took me by surprise, and I found it a fantastic riding position. The 400cc 4-cylinder engine is super revvy and perfect for the twisty mountain roads I was riding, staying at around 10,000 revs was the sweet spot and what fun it was without being too scrunched up. I found this small sports bike to be even more comfortable that its bigger brother the ZX6R!
On to the all-new Kawasaki Hybrid, the HEV, Ninja 7
I was extremely sceptical about this bike; will Hybrid be the next big thing? Surely not.
We received half an hour’s tuition before riding this bike and we quickly became aware that the technology was awesome, and this was going to be a learning curve. The Ninja 7 has many modes and also creates a new way of riding, with no gear lever, just paddle shifts on your left hand for changing gear. We started in Eco mode, the bike swiftly moves away on the mid positioned battery, then quickly shifts into the engine for un-compromised efficiency. In this mode it offers you fully automatic gear change or you can manually change gear using the handlebar shifting.
Once getting into the mountains we shifted to Sport mode, the 450-cc parallel twin motor gives you plenty of torque and the display lights up with E-Boost! The E-Boost button is on the R/H switch gear and once up to speed you hit this button and it gives you a punch of electric power which was extremely exhilarating! This gives you 5 seconds of boost, then it quickly re-gens and you can hit it again and again, taking you up to some very impressive speeds!
Once we headed back into town, we switch the Ninja 7 into EV mode, which puts it into full electric mode, fully designed for slower town riding, max speed around 50mph, it smoothly glides through the town, changing gears automatically for your comfort, really was an experience!
All in all, this Ninja 7 Hybrid really did impress, the technology, economy and performance were an amazing combination, really is something to look out for.
