Kawasaki ZX4RR Did you or will you buy one?

Seems Kawasaki was testing the waters in North America for light weights in 2023.
Aiming something at racers, track day enthusiasts and newbies willing to pay 600 money.
Dealers were only allotted one for this Spring and options for one or 'maybe' more, later this season.
So,, How's this experiment going on the 'racer' side of things?

 

Waiting for them to be clapped out and all spare cranks to be used up/unobtainium. Why change things for me now?

 

So far, none have arrived in Maine so my decision is made for me by Kawasaki. That said, I’m on the fence… the desire to buy and build one is strong… but I don’t want to race my local series which keeps coming up with more reasons for me to stay away, I can’t afford to chase CCS which would be my next closest option. So instead I’m sitting on this fence getting a major wedgie and not accomplishing anything productive.

I’m thinking these bikes aren’t going to fare well in Superstock/Supersport form, going to have to go all in Superbike. I don’t think there will be enough sold in the US to see a dedicated class in the next year either unfortunately.

 

I would Love to have one,but not at that price.As mentioned above,Im gonna have to wait and find one thats already been loved on a little.I havent been excited about a lightweight in forever,but Im diggin this little ride.

 

maybe it if was ACTUALLY lightweight. if you can get an aircooled Duc below 300lbs., this one should be too. then i'd be interested.

 

Mine is at the shop, waiting for me to tell them to build it. I'm not suppose to be riding now, so taking my time to get it picked up. Street and hopefully track day bike for me, eventually.

Thanks for starting a new discussion on these, @SpeedWerks Racing. The original discussion has seemed become a discussion and debate between many vintage bike owners. Some neglecting to remember that this is a new relatively high tech bike, with a factory warranty, somewhat available for purchase right now. I spent a lot of time racing various FZR400's back in the day, both sprint and endurance. I'm looking forward to having a modern 400 to ride! My first new sport bike purchase since 1988, if I don't count my wife's '21 twin ZX400 Ninja.

 

The street market for all sportbikes sucks along with the fact under 600 cc streetbikes don't sell because most street squids/track nerds want HP and big ccs.
But the short version is in IMO the biggest influence whether these sell is if the sportbike segment grows at all in the next 3 years.

 

The current economic trends in the US aren’t going to help much either, too bad this thing couldn’t have launched two or three years ago. Still, fingers crossed ‘cause I love the idea of this class of bike.

 

Not sure if it's just my area but sport bike sales are way up and the amount of 400's and 650's I see running around is pretty staggering. It's almost like the slow/beginner bikes are starting to get cool now. Tons of big bores getting sold too of course but now instead of everyone wanting to start on 600's it seems like riders are actually wanting to start out on real beginner bikes now. This has been a trend the last couple of years and seems to be continuing this spring.

 

Was very excited by the news of this bike, wanted to buy one, then saw it in person and was no longer interested.
Hope it sells well and sparks renewed interest in the segment, but it's not for me.

 

Was it that ugly?

 

Well, the styling wasn't to my taste, no. But that wasn't the big problem.
More that it was (or seemed to be) about the same physical size (and weight) as a 600. If racing a large, heavy-ish inline 4 appealed to me, I would just get a sorted R6.

Also, I couldn't get past the frame on the 400. It was just, I don't know, wrong somehow. At least for the track.
Either way, I was completely put off by it. And disappointedly so. As always YMMV and it may prove to be a great racebike.

 

I think the frame is the biggest question. The engine is really cool but how will it handle...

 

It will handle amazingly…

But will it cost 50% of the bike’s MSRP to get there?

Or 100%?

 

Forget the appearance of the frame. Look at the R7 frame. It looks like a piece of junk from the 80's, but that bike can be ridden / raced well past the abilities of most racers without an expensive to manufacture and design aluminum perimeter frame. Even the RS660 with its superior chassis looks like Chinese garbage compared to an R6 frame.

 

For another grand you can have a 600? I understand the allure of the little 400 for us racers but for the normal street bike consumer walking into a showroom you know they are going to pick the 600 when comparing the costs of both machines.

 

Looks like a piece of shit rubber band frame

 

I’m closing on a private rifle range/dirt bike track that comes with a house, the end of this month Otherwise I’d love the new 400! Frame?……it’s better looking than any of the 300-400 twin offerings IMO

 

RS660 frame. yes it's bolted together. R7 frame