Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1257026
2020 KAWASAKI NINJA 1000 ABS R I D E R E V I E W P74 The rear suspension comes with the handy preload adjuster and is the same basic layout/unit as it always was, which isn't a bad thing because the ride is love- ly and smooth until you really wick it up. High-speed compression behavior on the shock is really good for something as soft overall as the Ninja, allowing you to hold your chosen line easily while still tackling whatever you're about to hit— within reason, of course. You're riding a bike that weighs a claimed 516 pounds, so it's no featherweight and you can feel that weight as your speed increases. Be that as it may, if you treat the Ninja as a bike that can hustle through can- yons at a respectable pace that main- tains good chassis poise and feedback, you'll be rewarded with an ultra-smooth ride on the way home, one that's happy to have a passenger or a boot-full of lug- gage and still be fun to experience. On that note, the 28-liter luggage on our test bike does not come as standard and will set you back $1129.95 from your local Kawasaki dealer. The Ninja comes with the rails and luggage points already fitted, however, the luggage largely failed the ever-important full-face helmet test. I tried an Arai Corsair-X, a Shoei X-Four- teen and a Scorpion EXO-R1 Corpus, all mediums, and none of which would fit (although I did get a Shoei Neotec II to fit, barely). If you're a smaller head than me, you might be in luck, but you may have to invest in a helmet lock cable, as well, with your Ninja. Braking performance of the KIBS (Kawasaki Intelligent Braking System), which is Kawasaki's ABS algorithm, is enough for general cruising. If you reef on the lever aggressively, you get a pulse of ABS-ness at the lever but no- where near as bad as what you'll have on the Z900, for example. The KIBS com- bines with the KCMF (Kawasaki Corner- ing Management Function) and Bosch IMU which, in a nutshell, basically helps maintain chassis balance while turning and braking. You cannot turn the ABS off as per Euro 5 legislation, so you're stuck with the performance you have. I didn't have any real issue with how the system operated. A little extra feel at the lever might be nice but all-in-all I didn't have half the braking problems I had on the Z900. One of the nice features of the Ninja is a part often overlooked by OEMs when bringing out new or revised bikes—tires. The Ninja comes out with Bridgestone's (Top to bottom) The seat is reworked for 2020 and very comfy for long rides, but tall riders will want the more leg room offered by the tall seat. She sparkles in the sunlight with her metallic paint, baby!