#Kawasaki

UPDATE: We’ve added photos of the 2018 Kawasaki Ninja 400 from to Tokyo Motor Show where it debuted.

UPDATE: We’ve added some shots of the new Z900RS from Kawasaki’s display at the Tokyo Motor Show, including some customized versions including one with several carbon fiber components.

The California Air Resources Board has issued an executive order certifying a 2018 Kawasaki Ninja 400 with a 399cc engine. The certification confirms what we assumed earlier this year after a local television news program aired a story about Kawasaki filming a commercial in Milwaukee, revealing the Ninja 400 name.

In the 1960s and early ’70s, small dual-sport bikes were a common and affordable way for new riders to enter into the world of motorcycling. Today sees a resurgence in the tiddler dual-purpose bikes, with Honda recently offering up its updated CRF250L ($5,149, plus $330 destination charge) and the mechanically similar CRF250L Rally, an adventure-styled quarter-liter mount. Yamaha continues to sell its higher-spec WR250R, which offers greater performance but at an inflated price ($6,699).

Kawasaki will introduce a new sport-touring model featuring its new balanced supercharger technology next month at EICMA.

The big news from Kawasaki last week was the return of the KLX250 dual sport, now available with fuel injection. Along with the KLX250, Kawasaki announced several returning 2018 models with new colors.

Now that AIMExpo 2017 is complete, we’ve compiled our choices for the coolest stuff we saw while perusing the show. While the number of new 2018 model-year motorcycles was limited because of the show’s early date, that didn’t prevent the show from reflecting a vital motorcycle industry. So, as we reflect on last week’s show, here’s a list – in no particular order – of the top 10 products that we saw at the 2017 AIMExpo in Columbus, Ohio.

I must have a prodigious amount of mind; it takes me as much as a week, sometimes, to make it up!

After a three-year absence, the Kawasaki KLX250 dual-sport returns for 2018, now equipped with fuel injection. Arriving in showrooms in early October, the 2018 Kawasaki KLX250 is priced at $5,349 for the lime green color, with a special Camo edition priced at $5,549.

As roadracing fans, we know that the top racers ride that ragged edge between control and total mayhem. Often, when they cross over the line, they can gather the bike back up seemingly by bending the laws of physics. Then on other occasions, everything goes horribly wrong. Tom Sykes’ fiery crash during the final practice of this weekend’s WSBK event in Portimao provides a perfect example. While the crash is brutal and seems to go on forever, Sykes escaped with only a broken and dislocated pinky finger, presumably from when his hand thrusts between the front tire and the fender as he tumbles on top of his ZX-10RR (shown above). While he was chomping at the bit to race after having his finger temporarily repaired, the medical staff declared him unfit to race for the weekend.

See that gaping hole above? That’s the exit wound from a thrown con-rod after a Kawasaki Ninja H2‘s engine blows on a drag strip. Fortunately, the rider was able to maintain control at such a high speed and coax the H2 to a stop.

Kawasaki has an impressive stable of naked Z bikes (including our MOBO Best Standard winner, the Z900) but not everyone’s a fan of the line’s aesthetic. Sure, some people might like the Michael Bay Transformers look, but some people want their Bumblebee to look more like a classic VW Beetle than a modern Camaro.

This could’ve gone several ways and almost did. As all the world’s manufacturers scramble to fill a burgeoning need for what we used to call just plain old motorcycles, choosing just one becomes more difficult – especially since eligible new players have only recently been made available to us for testing. I liked the new 2018 Suzuki GSX-S750 very much a couple of weeks ago, also the heavily revised 797 Ducati Monster reviewed way back in March. It doesn’t help that “Standard” is such an amorphous category… last year, the new Triumph Street Twin took home the trophy.

How much do we like the Kawasaki Ninja 1000? We like it enough to unveil it today as our Best Sport-Touring Motorcycle of 2017 Honorable Mention.  In honor of that choice, we decided to take the wraps off the video review for the big Ninja so that people who don’t like to read as much as we do can still learn about all the cool ways that Kawasaki changed the bike. Although whole sections of the motorcycle remain mechanically the same, some electronic changes affect both power delivery and braking of the 2017 Ninja 1000.

Sport-touring motorcycles have a confounding job description. They need to be sporty and deliver plenty of performance capability while still managing to be comfortable enough for when the highway gets straight, flat, and boring. While both of our winners here lean towards the sporty side of the equation, they both manage to take the pain out of long days in the saddle while transporting us to distant locations with big smiles.