‘It’s captured the imagination’

The bike, with its aggressive, aerodynamic fairing from CRC, is stunning to behold.

“It heralds back to the original ZXR-400, which for me personally was and still is an iconic bike,” says Nick Morgan. “I think this new bike, which has so many similarities to the ZXR-400, will accelerate these young riders’ learning curve.

“When they move on from this to a 600cc/next-generation Supersport bike or a 1000cc, it will be a much more fluid transition.”

It takes Morgan and his team roughly two days to turn the road bike (right) into a racer, including use of the dyno and a running-in period to get the performance to where it needs to be for the racers.

For each rider and team the engine must be completely stock and sealed, as must the electronics system. In fact, Kawasaki will have three ECU systems at each round and, on the morning of the race, the polesitter will receive one to use, as will two other riders at random. This is to try and prevent any illegal adjustments being made.

MSS will have a support truck at each round, which will be kitted out with as many spare parts as possible, while suspension support will be provided courtesy of K-Tech, who’ll have a presence in the paddock at every round.

Engine

The inline-four-cylinder motor makes 76bhp at the rear wheel and, as mentioned before, must be left completely standard. The air filter is standard too, with a few tweaks, including mapping upgrades being completed by MSS.

As with the road bike, the redline comes at a giddy 16,000rpm. “You do have to rev it,” Morgan said. “It’s designed to be revved and that’s how it works and that’s what this is about. It’s like going back to the old days and I think that has captured everybody’s imagination and is why it’s selling so well as a road bike.

“In terms of looking after the engine it’s really nothing more than just your normal schedule of changing the oil and filter regularly. One of our partners, Silkolene, are giving each rider a pack to start the season with. They just need to look after it – that’s all they have to do.”

The bike has a standard six-speed gearbox with a quickshifter and auto blip system, which Morgan says is similar to the Ninja 400 gearbox and clutch assembly.

Around the bike

The MSS team spent time in Italy putting the Spark stainless-steel full exhaust system through its paces on the dyno (‘It has a lovely bark to it,” says Morgan), and they worked with Woolwich Racing flashing software on the bike’s ECU system.

All bikes must run K-Tech suspension and Brembo Replica HPK brake discs (5.5mm thick) and Vesrah ZZ brake pads. The HEL Performance brake lines are fitted at MSS Kawasaki. The rear disc is standard, as are the swingarm and drive chain. The rear sprocket is a Talon Engineering fitment.

The standard wheels wear Pirelli SC1 front and rear tyres, with two sets of each available to each rider over a race weekend.