Kawasaki H2 is voted SA’s 2015 Pirelli Bike of Year
Supercharged hightech Ninja is mega in both power and price
KAWASAKI’S supercharged Ninja H2 has been voted the 2015 Pirelli South African Bike of the Year.
The high-performance Japanese motorcycle was announced as the winner of the 2015 competition at an awards function held in Johannesburg earlier this week. With breathtaking power and an eye-watering R310 000 pricetag, the 998cc sports bike got the nod ahead of 15 other finalists that were tested on the roads of Gauteng and Mpumalanga last week by a 15member jury of motorcycle journalists, including this writer.
The H2 is Kawasaki’s halo model, a technological showpiece for the Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) Group which has its fingers in many different technology pies. The supercharged engine was designed with knowhow sourced from many arms of the company, and its aerodynamic mirror stays were designed by Kawasaki’s Aerospace Company. As homage to this collective in-house effort, the H2’s the only Kawasaki to wear the River Mark, the symbol of the KHI group.
The metaphorical horseshoe in the H2’s boxing glove is that the supercharger gives it an acceleration advantage over normally-aspirated rival superbikes at power-sucking high altitude. Included in its hightech package is a speedshifter that allows clutch-free upshifts to be made with the throttle yanked wide open.
The H2’s thrust is managed by a suite of electronics including ABS brakes, traction control, and launch control which prevents unintended wheelies.
The Kawasaki H2 scored 76 points to win the competition, with the Triumph Tiger 800 XCx in second place on 66 points and the Yamaha R1 third (54 points).
The other finalists scored as follows: Aprilia RSV4 (42), KTM 1290 Super Adventure (26), Yamaha MT09 Tracer (20), Ducati Scrambler (13), Ducati 1299 Panigale (13), BMW S1000 RR (10), Indian Scout (8), Ducati Multistrada (5), Aprilia Caponord Rally (2), BMW RnineT (2), Zero electric motorcyle (1), Suzuki GSX-S 1000F (0), HarleyDavidson Street 750 (0).
Other competition sponsors included TomTom and Total.