2017 KAWASAKI NINJA ZX-10RR
TRACK TEST
P62
The Ride
Motorland Aragon in Spain is the country's
newest MotoGP venue and probably its most
difficult. Lined with blind corners that have
deceiving camber changes, Aragon takes a long
time to get even remotely right, and all I had on
the RR was four laps to learn the track and try to
give the RR a bit of a thrash.
I had a good basis for comparison, though.
I've spent the last couple of months racing a
2016 Kawasaki ZX-10R fitted with many of the
special parts the RR at Aragon had, like the race
ECU and harness, as well as the Akrapovic tita-
nium exhaust system and stainless steel brake
lines.
The test RR had the race ECU/harness fitted
for Aragon, with their own maps worked out on
the dyno at the workshop.
From an engine point of view, the RR feels
crisper than the ZX-10R I having been racing,
although not much—if at all—more powerful. Ka-
wasaki was coy on the power figures, so I can't
tell you what rear-wheel horsepower numbers
were, but the mapping done by Kawasaki Eu-
rope was spot-on; on the side of the tire the RR
was noticeably smoother from a closed throttle,
spinning up fast and delivering serious grunt to
the rear Pirelli SC1 without a single hint of fueling
snatch or dip in the power curve.
The addition of the up-and-down quickshifter
has given a touch of extra stability during brak-
ing. This is something we experimented with on
our Cycle News project racer and makes a huge
difference, cutting down the time it takes for a
downshift and allowing the chassis to remain
settled for corner entry.
Kawasaki had also fettled with the suspension
for my four Aragon laps by slightly softening the
Less inertia equals
more speed. Those
lighter wheels are
awesome.
