Development Concept

Looking for an undisputed open-class king

Before drafting the plan for the new machine, the KHI product planner carefully considered Kawasaki’s three flagship models: the Ninja ZX-10R, the Ninja ZX-12R and the ZZR1200. As the quickest circuit bike, the top performance bike and the ultimate supersport touring machine respectively, these machines were the three pillars of Kawasaki high performance. Still, they felt something was lacking.

They knew that Kawasaki had to have an undisputed open-class king. Recognised as the world leader in high performance motorcycles since the 1970s, Kawasaki had not had a model with the presence to clearly appeal this fact since the ZZ-R1100. The new machine had to be both very powerful and stylistically avant-garde.