Kawasaki ZX-4RR (2024) REVIEW | On track

Welcome to Bennett's Bike Social. We are in Calafat, a lovely little track in northern Spain. But more importantly, we're here to ride Kawasaki's new 400. This is Kawasaki's new ZX-4RR. 77 horsepower, or thereabouts. 14,500 rpm. Calafat racetrack. We are on Forelli Rosso rubber. Because the standard bike comes on Dunlop, we are in the full race mode. But I've still got ABS, but no traction. But it is bloody hot. Now I'm old enough to remember the original ZX-R. Which is why I've been looking forward to this. And it is 4-cylinder, 399cc, revvy. Revvy bike. If you've never been to Calafat... Yeah, it's a twisty track. Now I have got a stack of notes, because this is a hugely informative and impressive bike. One that's been eagerly anticipated. An inline, 4-cylinder, screamer, that makes 77 horsepower. And if you're as old as me, you'll remember the original. As you can tell by my melting complexion, today has been a hot but enjoyable day. What a fun bike to ride around this type of track. That's kind of comparable to say, maybe Mallory or Cadwell. It's quite tight and twisty, but very flat. But just such an enjoyable bike to ride. It's not over intimidating. The quoted horsepower is 77, with ram air is 80 horsepower. In the real world, that's probably 60 to 65 horsepower. So you can just open the gas so early. So there's not a lot below 10. Scream. Careful on the tyres. We've got the race dash at the moment, so normally there's a different dash for the road. But this is like a race only dash. Oh, just smash it down the gears. The front end has only got preload. There's no compression or rebound. ABS on the front just kicking in a little bit there. Second. Front end is really good. Need a little bit more support on the front. We've changed the back. There's only compression and rebound to the back. You can't really help it. The front end is excellent. I was a little bit concerned by the front end, because you're asking a lot of it. And there's no compression, there's no rebound. There's just preload that we've changed a little bit. But great front end, great brakes. The rear, we've left preload the same. We've changed compression and rebound again, just to stiffen the bike up. Because in standard form, this is quite a soft bike, because it's aimed at new, relatively inexperienced riders. But just a few little tweaks, and it's really, really fun. The revs, around about 8,000 to 10,000, it feels a little bit strangled, which I think probably is more Euro 5 or Euro 5+. Above 10,000, it just goes to 16,000. Really good fun, just to thrash. There's not many bikes you can just jump on and thrash, and not feel intimidated, and this is one of them. The quick shifter is excellent, both up and down. It matches the revs beautifully. The traction control is not lane sensitive, but you can feel it working in the lower modes, but it's off in the full mode. The ABS is a little intrusive, but again, it's what you'd expect. We're pushing for decent lap times around here. Oh, ABS is kicking in there. It's just conventional ABS. It's not lane sensitive. Whoa! Yeah, we were running out of brake sense. Took the kerb. The thing is, I've changed the rear. The rear is much better now, isn't it? A little bit of compression and rebound, but I'm getting better drive. Oh, yeah, forks are struggling now. It's a downhill bike, isn't it? It's just so much fun. Oh, it's sliding again. Just on the edge of the fire. What a great little bike. I mean, oh, you're a dancer. Just let off the front end and it just jumps on its side. There's not a lot of peeding in of the car. It's just because we were just trying to make it have it. It's not really sliding that much in terms of power side. It's just sliding in terms of side roll grip. Doesn't live up to everything the old bike was. Is it fun? Yeah. Does it ride? Yeah. Does it make it like the old bike? Yeah. Yeah, brakes are struggling now. Deep. Turn. Gas it. Belt slide. Away we go. Really, really enjoyable bike to ride on track. We're going to kind of do a part two because here at Bennetts we're going to get this bike on the road and we're possibly going to ride the race version that we have in the UK. So there's going to be many other elements to this bike. But in terms of my high expectations of this bike, it's achieved them. I can see that when the suspension is wound off, it's going to be quite soft, it's quite manageable, it's quite roomy, it's attractive and it's desirable and it sounds good. And then a few little tweaks to the suspension, some grippier tyres and it's a fun track bike. This is going to be great fun for people who are a little bit inexperienced because rather than having something that's going to scare you, you're just going to be able to ride it. I can't wait to see them on the BSB grid, can't wait to try the race version. But it's first impressions, I'm really thankful Kawasaki have been brave enough to produce something like this.