Motorcycle specifications KawasakiNinja 1000 ZX-10RR 2023 Razor's song

When you've spent a good few years dominating the toughest championship for production motorcycles, there's only one thing you want to do: add another layer. The ZX-10RR is back for a few more seasons, with the necessary package plus the R's series of evos. So, what does the new model say?

That it's going totally green. Rarely has a Kawa hypersport been so soberly decorated, yet this simplicity is even more tangible when the color is allowed to run almost bare. Clearly more Hulk-like than usual, it contains a heart devoted body and soul to the circuit. In the RR, he prepares for the big assaults. The result is a little more power, but that's not the most important thing.

A single horsepower difference between the R and RR engines is merely symbolic. It suggests an additional strength, one that just needs to be revealed by proper preparation. With this in mind, the RR's 4-cylinder benefits from titanium connecting rods and lightened pistons from Pankl. Weight savings amount to 102 grams per connecting rod and 20 per piston, reducing crankshaft inertia by 5%. At full throttle, the engine has to turn half a kilogram less moving parts every 4 thousandths of a second. That's a lot of revolutions for this mill. 400 more than on the R, i.e. a red zone at 14,700 rpm.
To reduce friction losses and lower piston height, the piston rings are shortened by one.

to make the most of its thirst for performance, the ZX-10 RR sharpens its chassis. Its suspension settings have been revised, and the height of the swingarm pivot point can be modified (by 1 mm). The wheels are Marchesini forged aluminum, and the rubber chosen is Pirelli Supercorsa SP. A tauter character, built on a significantly reworked 10R. In 2021, the Ninja changes its silhouette, adopts winglets integrated into the fork head, gains a TFT display, modifies its geometry (a little), offers more riding mode memories, shortens its transmission and retains its essentials. The ZX-10 R boasts 203 or 204 horsepower, a large perimeter frame, Showa suspension adjustable in all directions, Brembo M50 brakes with aviation hoses (RR only) to bite into 330 mm tracks, electronic assistances galore and a multiple WSBK world champion ambassador in the person of Jonathan Rea.

There was once talk of a super-ZX-10R to counter the Panigale V4R. The latter having been partially strangled by the regulations, Kawasaki has not produced a subsonic rocket, but a sharpened version of the ZX-10RR. It uses the same recipe for improvement as the standard version (itself upgraded), adds Pankl pistons, limits production to 500 units, increases the price difference and eliminates any hope of a passenger. Logical for a machine that can only conceive of one trajectory: that of competition.

M.B - Manufacturer's photos