VOL. 55 ISSUE 7 FEBRUARY 21, 2018 P85
L
ittle bikes are fun. Big, big, fun.
The above statement should come
as no surprise to anyone who has spent
more than five minutes on a Kawasaki Ninja
300, the bike now unceremoniously booted
into history by the all-new, 2018 Ninja 400.
The 300 was one of those bikes that taught
riders how to extract every ounce of avail-
able performance—it served as an exercise in
maximization—and those riders who learned
the ways of the Ninja, especially at a young
age, were in very good stead for their riding
careers, either on the track or on the street.
The 300, however, has served its purpose,
and for 2018 it has been replaced by a new
Ninja in the 400. Starting at $4999 for the
non-ABS version and increasing to $5499 for
the KRT liveried bike we tested, it's not just an
increase in capacity, horsepower and torque
that 400 riders have at their disposal; there's
an all new chassis that weighs a claimed
17 pounds less than the 300's, as well as a
significantly larger front brake disc and totally
revamped styling much more in line with the
big brother Ninjas in the ZX-6R and ZX-10R.
It's all part of keeping the bloodline flowing,
with the new 400 a much worthier machine
when you think of the extreme performance
differences that come from jumping from a
400 to a 600 to a 1000.
NINJA
SPIRIT
THE JUNIOR NINJA IN THE
KAWASAKI SPORTBIKE RANGE IS
BACK—BIGGER, AND TOUGHER
THAN BEFORE. IS THIS THE NEW
BENCHMARK IN THE JUNIOR
SUPERSPORT SEGMENT?
BY RENNIE SCAYSBROOK
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEVIN WING
AND BRIAN J. NELSON
Punching above
its weight
Our chance to test out the new
Ninja 400 came at the national
press intro, conducted around the
rolling hills of Petaluma, California,
and a day around the divine bends
of Sonoma Raceway—the perfect
venue to exploit the new Ninja's
strong points.
However, before we start, there's
an elephant in the room we must
address. Much like the Ducati Pani-
gale V4 S we tested a few weeks
back, the Ninja 400 is substantially
larger than its competition in terms
of capacity. At 399cc, there's a
100cc advantage over the similar
parallel-twin configuration of the
Yamaha YZF-R3, with the KTM
RC390 sitting at 375cc but with
one cylinder less.
