Riding the Ninja 600R
By John Ulrich
Kawasaki's GPz900 Ninja was a sensation at
its introduction for the 1984 season; 1983
Superbike Champion Wayne Rainey jumped
on one at the press intro held at Laguna Seca
Raceway and was turning 1:16
lap times within three laps,
slack tires. stands and all.
The Ninja was remarkable for
10
its outstanding power output, classo[-the-class handling and racebike
looks. It turned into a hot seller for
Kawasaki, many dealers selling all
they could get their hands on, quickly.
The Ninja proved that Americans
would buy a motorcycle on the basis
of all-around high-performance, that
brakes and an anti-dive system that
actually worked could be, then the
a machine with handling, brakes,
racer styling and good' power w.ould
sell even if other machines - llOOs
and ll50s - were faster and quicker
in the quarter-mile.
Which brings us to the Ninja 600R.
just introduced as a 1985 model. If the
original Ninja defined the best in
streetbike handling, then the Ninja
600R re-defines it. If the original
Ninja showed how good streetbike
inja 600R proves that anything can
be improved upon. And if the original Ninja pushed the outer limits of
how race-uack-radical styling could
get and still appeal to the American
sport motorcycle buyer, then the Ninia
600R stretches the limits just a lillIe
bit more.
Jump off a Ninja 900 onto a Ninja
600R and the 600 seems small, the
riding position cramped, the pegs
high, the seat low, th,e bars stubby.
The Ninja 900 came with great
cornering clearance for a street bike,
but aggressive riders taking injas to
the race track soon started wearing
holes in the bike's full fairing and
touching the pegs down.
Nobpdy is going to wear holes in
the Ninja 600R's fairing, at least not
while it's on two wheels; and while
it's possible to just nick the tips of the
high-mounted, rearset footpegs, it's
not something anybody should expect
to do on the street or in most race
track corners.
There's a reason those pegs are
high; it's cornering clearance. There's
a reason the Ninja 600R has fairing
and pipes and stands tucked in, way
in, farther in than the equivalent
parts on any street bike seen before.
Kawasaki built this thing to be the
closest street bike ever to a real racer,
and they have succeeded.
It has, of course, a water-cooled,
four-valves-per-cylinder DOHC,
plain-bearing engine based on the
highly-successful GPz550engine. The
Ninja 600R engine, as explained in
