It’s fair to say that Kawasaki haven’t reinvented the wheel with the new ZX-6R. In fact they have boxed pretty clever really. They have taken an old model and made a bit of a fuss about chucking a handful of saucy upgrades at it. Well considered saucy upgrades, I might add. Styling has been modernised with sharper looking bodywork, new LED headlights and a new slightly higher tech (but hardly space-age) dash. Electronics-wise, the ZX-6R has upped its game with KQS (Kawasaki Quick Shifter) now complementing the Kawasaki Traction Control (KTRC) and power mode selection. Engine tweaks have not only ensured that the 636 passes the Euro 4 emissions tests, but have added a little more mid-range power and bottom end grunt. Kawasaki have also shortened the final drive gearing to give the bike a little bit more punch. So it’s far from a ground-up overhaul, but we were really excited to see if the ‘improvements’ to the little Kwacka were exactly that.
So after winning the quiz on the Cap Finistère (okay we didn’t really win, but I had Frodo on my team so what do you expect?) during the 24 hour Brittany Ferries Crossing from Portsmouth to Bilbao, my vertically challenged friend and I disembarked and prepared for a 450 mile blast to Almussafes, near Valencia in Spain. We’re both massive fans of the GSXR1000R, but on this occasion Frodo and I were arguing, instead, over who would be the lucky first rider of the box-fresh Ninja. To stop the quarrelling in its tracks, I produced a coin of the realm which I duly tossed. Frodo, on this occasion, wasn’t sharp enough not to fall for the old ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ trick, so when the coin landed tails side up he lost and it was decided. The ZX-6R was mine, for the time being anyway.