KAWASAKI Z H2 SE PERFORMANCE
I’ll get straight to the point and tackle the obvious question of what the massive, overweight Z-H2 SE is doing here in the first place, let alone being ranked so high up. Well, notwithstanding the fact that the Z-H2 gets an automatic invite due to packing 200bhp, we loved it simply because when you get down to it, by far the most important thing any motorbike must do is put a smile on your face. It doesn’t matter how it does it, just as long as it does. It could be a nice-looking bike, a nice-sounding bike, or a bike that brings you of happy memories or makes you smile in appreciation because you know you’ll never be as good as it... you get the picture. In the case of the Z-H2, it is physically impossible to ride without smiling and laughing aloud inside your helmet, such is the way the power is delivered and the sheer velocity that it can move at.
Don’t for one moment think that the Kawasaki is a one-trick pony. The SE spec gets Showa’s excellent electronic suspension which is worth the extra money over the base model. What I’m not so sure about is if the Performance edition we had on test is worth the extra £1100 over the SE for an end can and fly screen. In much the same way, the Kawasaki suffers from the same positioning questions that the BMW does. The base model at £15,899 is extraordinary value considering you get all the same toys as the SE, the same engine and same brakes; it’s the suspension upgrade and nicer choice of colours that you get with the SE that make the difference. Like the BMW, the mid-spec SE is worth the £18,349 asking price – just, but at £19,449, the Performance edition is way more money than the Aprilia and KTM and is in the same bracket as the Ducati Streetfighter V4S, all of which are far more versatile. Of course, none of those bikes have a supercharger, which changes the conversation completely. Let’s face it, there isn’t a pub debate or game of biking Top Trumps that can’t be won with the response: “Yeah, but mine has got a supercharger… does yours?”
I could happily live without the Akrapovic end can – it’s a road legal one anyway so
doesn’t add any actual performance, and the fly screen is ugly as sin, so if I never saw one of those again, I wouldn’t miss it. But the suspension upgrade is brilliant. At 220kg, the Z-H2 SE is a fair old lump and the best part of 40kg heavier than the others, so it needs all the help it can get with its battle against the laws of physics. Having suspension that is set up and programmed specifically for the Z-H2 means it actually takes advantage of the bike’s weight when cruising around. Having the extra kilos in some scenarios can actually be good, and just plodding round at moderate speeds or motorways is where a softer set-up makes the Z-H2 the most comfortable bike on the test by miles. Then, as the loads and lean angles increase, the electronic brain tightens things up in the dampers to try and keep the mass in check and in line. In general, I think active suspension is more effective on heavier bikes, especially at broadening their range of handling, and the Z-H2 is a really good example of when electronically controlled suspension makes a big difference.
The riding position on the Z-H2 is massively different to the other bikes on test, in particular the handlebar position. The handlebars are clamped to really tall risers that are set in front of the forks, which initially creates this odd feeling of disconnect and a relationship between where your hands are applying the forces needed to turn the bike and where the actual forks are. It’s odd, but like the rest of the bike it doesn’t take a long time to get dialled into, and it all works. The Z-H2 is a surprisingly well behaved bike on the road and even on track, considering just how much power it makes in such a short space of time and how heavy it is. I managed to get one session on track on the Z-H2 and, to put it bluntly, I was genuinely surprised at how much fun it was. I expected it to be well out of its depth... to a point it was, especially if you’re comparing it to the others on the test. Ultimately physics wins, and you do have to brake earlier on it, and
the ground clearance limits how much it will lean over, but it remains composed and stable throughout without any of the wallowing or pumping of the rear shock under hard acceleration you might normally expect.
My handful of laps on track before rain stopped play were a really good laugh and notable for its good behaviour and how unbelievable fast it was; if it was the only bike I’d had to ride all day on track, I’d have been very happy – which is pretty much the same as how we all felt about it on the road.
Consider for a moment that the Z-H2 and the Streetfighter both make roughly the same power, but where the Ducati revs to a 15,000rpm redline, the Kawasaki revs to 12,000rpm; it’s cramming the same power into a much shorter delivery, so you get an idea of just how much is happening in such a short space of time. The engine on the Z-H2 is an absolute beast.
At the heart of the Kawasaki’s motor is the much-publicised supercharger that takes an otherwise fairly mundane engine to a whole other level. Essentially it’s the same configuration as the now discontinued H2-SX, itself a bespoke bike with virtually zero components carried over from the original H2, so the Z-H2’s blood line traces back to the H2-SX and no further. By using the SX as a starting point, and losing its single-sided swingarm in favour of the traditional (and cheaper) twin-sided swingarm for the Z, Kawasaki has now been able to bring its supercharger to the masses, and if there’s one thing we should all do while we still can is own or at least ride a supercharged motorbike in our lifetime – you’ll never forget it.
Consider that at maximum revs, the supercharger is drawing in 200 litres of air per second compared to a ZX-10R’s mere 100 litres, which means an intake air velocity of 100 metres/sec, compared to a ZX-10R’s 20 metres/sec.
Other fun facts about the supercharger in the engine are that at 10,000rpm, it is spinning at 91,800rpm and can peak at 140,000rpm, and the chirping it makes is the noise of the impeller breaking the sound barrier – a sort-of squeaky sonic boom. However, like all superchargers, it is also a parasite that uses 40bhp from the engine just to be driven.
Obviously, the pay-out is worth it, but superchargers are greedy buggers.
Pub ammo aside and the origins of the bike explained, the bottom line is that over the course of three days, the Z-H2 SE managed a 100% strike rate of making myself, Bruce and Tim lift our visors at every junction or set of lights and shout: “This bike is hilarious!”
We all rated it either first or second for fun, and we all rated it first for engine and comfort.
It got marked down for technology by virtue of having a fairly crude set of rider aids that aren’t adjustable, and the handling scored the lowest which seems a bit cruel, but it is what it is, and you can’t avoid physics.
It doesn’t handle bad at all – it’s just that the others on test have the benefit of being much lighter and, in most cases, derived from a superbike and not a sports-tourer.
Back in 2015 I was lucky enough to be at the original press launch of the H2 and H2-R at the Doha circuit in Qatar. Among all the information that was fired at us over the course of the two days we were there (and all the memorable experiences that happened), there are a few things that have stuck in my head.
One of them is the opening line of the presentation from Kawasaki’s marketing man.
He kicked off the whole event with this: “We don’t do lawnmowers or pianos, we do power.”
And true to his word, that mantra still applies to this very day.