Kawasaki Ninja H2R pictures leaked

You’ve heard it one time too many but what you’ve been waiting for is to see how the Kawasaki H2R looks, right? The images have been leaked, and the H2R looks like every leather-clad rider’s motorcycle videogame fantasy came true. 

The first impressions are mixed – it is a work of art, but it isn’t pretty. Kawasaki has taken many items from the European motorcycle school of design, like a single-sided swingarm, an impossibly short tail section and a trellis frame painted in the company’s most recognised shade of green. At the front are two air ducts where the headlights will sit on the production version. The nose has a whiff of Honda DN-01 to it in the way the top of the ducts are farther ahead of the lower ones, rather than the traditional Ninja way of a single smooth line that originates at the bottom of the headlamps and goes up to the screen. The entire fairing suspended by the headlamp stay is left naked to satiate our fetish for carbonfibre, with small but effective green accents above and below the air intakes. The mirror stalks are elements that help duct airflow over the rider’s shoulders (and we’re sure Kawasaki will tout them as elements of downforce as well) – this makes sense. With upto 300bhp available at the right wrist, you won’t need mirrors very much because they’d only be a distraction. This philosophy is reflected in the instrument cluster, which has a minimalistic layout of an analog tachometer with gradations but no numbers, a large gear indicator and large digital speedometer. Warning lamps are arranged around the tacho in a neat border. The console is so neat, the shift light seems absent. Controls for the programmable ABS and traction control are present on the left handlebar. The view from the hot seat is new, yet familiar: the steering damper of the ZX-10R and the evidence of a hydraulically assisted clutch like in the ZX-14R’s is present. 

The front rim is all but invisible because it is hidden by the giant brake rotors which are surprisingly not petal-shaped, leading us to believe that they might be made of exotic materials. The callipers are standard dual radially-mounted fixed-piston Brembos with four pistons each. An ABS counter is visible as well, and we’re expecting programmable ABS  and traction control system .The lower half of the fairing is absent in the leaked images to better show off the engine, but from what we can see, Kawasaki has retained some elements like the side fins that draw hot air from the radiator away from the rider, but the rest of the fairing remains something out of a video game like Halo – impossible angles and curves mixed with more naked carbonfibre shouldn’t look this good, but it does. The front of the tank also has some plastic elements and faux vents, which is a standard for the segment today. The trellis frame takes a leaf out of the Ducati book and is painted in Kawasaki Racing Green, and it peeks out from underneath the fairing. The crankcase cover on the right has a “supercharged” badge. 

The rider footpegs are as rearset as any other supersport motorcycle. The subframe houses only a single rider’s seat, with distractions like a pillion seat and footpegs and bungee points absent.  The rider’s bumstop is a pronounced one, and beneath that pert tail is a combination of a 4-into-1 megaphone muffler on the right side, and a stunning single-sided swingarm on the left. The ‘starfish’ spokes are visible on the right side, and the rear tyre is also a slick one.

The original H2 is what gave Kawasaki its reputation for slightly scary yet bonkers-fast motorcycles, and its 2014 namesake promises to take that a quantum leap ahead. A full reveal is due in a few short hours, so do stay tuned to BikeWale.