Kawasaki’s
Japanese-market
ZXR400R invades the
States and finds plenty
of competition in
Yamaha’s FZR400
Those who don’t consider
400cc sport bikes serious ma-
chines need only throw a leg
over one of these two bikes, hold the
throttle open and start shifting gears.
Thirteen seconds and a quarter-mile
later, the speedometer needle flashes
past 100 mph, and after one mile a ra-
dar gun records a top speed near 130
mph. That’s serious. Steer one of these
off the straight and level and point it at
the curviest road you know to experi-
ence a thrill unavailable in any other dis-
placement class at any price: handling
nirvana. Yamaha’s FZR400 and Kawa-
saki’s ZXR400R take to corners like Ma-
donna to a microphone, offering light
weight, unhindered cornering clearance,
blink-quick directional changes and sur-
prising stability in a package cute
enough to hide in a Christmas stocking.
The willy-nilly race to produce the best
400cc sport bike in Japan has new mod-
els popping up as frequently as every
nine months, but the United States sees
little of the technology that is currently
roaming the streets of Tokyo. One of the
all-time best-handling street machines
and a staff favorite is Yamaha’s FZR400,
a bike imported since 1988 to a luke-
warm public reception despite unani-
mous racetrack approval. The all-alumi-
num Deltabox frame has been updated
for '90 with a slab-sided Deltabox swing-
arm and new paint. We count ourselves
among the fans of 400s and jumped at
the chance to compare what’s reputedly
the best 400 available in Japan, Kawa-
Not many sport bikes offer ride-height ad-
justment at the rear, but all race bikes do.
The ZXR's racing intentions extend far be-
yond the multiadjustable rear shock.
saki’s ZXR400R Sports Production,
against our U.S.-market FZR400.
WAR OF THE WORLDS
Our racing-green ZXR came to us
through the good graces of George
Kanemori, a sport-bike enthusiast who
purchased it through Exotic Motorcycle
Imports (22130 S. Vermont, Suite E, Tor-
rance, CA 90502; 213/320-9844). In the
past EMI has supplied us with such jew-
els as the Pepsi-edition 250 Gamma Su-
zuki and continues to tempt us with exot-
ics from all over the world. Kanemori’s
limited-edition ZXR Sports Production is
currently the rage in Japan, offering
items unavailable on the regular ZXR,
such as a solo seat, remote-reservoir,
multiadjustable rear shock, close-ratio
tranny and Kawasaki’s traditional racing
colors. Officially called the ZXR400R,
the Sports Production finally puts Kawa-
saki in the lead in the competitive 400cc
production-racing class, a class in which
Team Green hasn’t been heard from un-
til now. Kanemori’s bike makes the
FZR400 look positively pedestrian; if the
FZR400 is razor sharp, the ZXR400R
cuts like a laser.
The Kawasaki’s parts list will impress
case-hardened motor-heads. Imagine a
downsized ZX-7 that weighs 391 pounds
wet, rides on wide aluminum wheels, a
3.5-by-17 front and 4.5-by-17 rear, and
controls front-wheel movement with an
inverted fork previously reserved for fac-
tory racers or unobtainable exotics. The
Kayaba inverted fork measures 41 mm at
the sliders and 50mm at the upper stan-...