Kawasaki H2 SX SE vs the world
The 200bhp Kawasaki Ninja H2 SX SE is the most sensational sports tourer to hit UK roads in decades. RIDE’S biggest-ever road test answers the biggestever questions
KAWASAKI’S NINJA H2 SX SE is one of the most important new bikes in a decade, as it takes potentially game-changing 200bhp supercharging technology and packages it in an advanced, but conventional, sportstouring road bike. This is no impractical, high-performance show pony, fit only for parading in a car park. The SX SE is designed to be a useful, convenient and useable everyday tool; as good at filtering through snarled-up streams of city traffic on a hot day as it is hitting the open road two-up with a full tank of gas and panniers locked and loaded. Only, with 200bhp on tap.
But does such a potent sports tourer make any sense on UK roads in 2018? Or is it just a good way to lose your licence really quickly? How does an old-school sports tourer, even with a supercharged engine, fare against the UK’S best-selling, and the new de facto sports tourer, BMW’S R1200GS? What’s it really like in town and on motorways? Is it hard work at night, when you’re tired? Is it any good for pillions? Where does the SX SE fit with Kawasaki’s other great, big-bore sporty tourers, the Z1000SX, ZZR1400, 1400GTR — and is there any of the insanity of the full-fat H2 left in the SX SE? Is it the new king of the traffic lights?
RIDE is the only place you’ll find answers to these questions and more...
“Does such a potent sports tourer make any sense in 2018?”