Kawasaki Z900RS

In its latest iteration, the Kawasaki Z900 boasts of several visual tweaks and feature additions over its erstwhile iteration, which makes it a much more modern motorcycle while still retaining its muscular and aggressive design. The new feature updates have brought it in line with the premium range of upper-class middleweight motorcycles from European bike makers.

At the front, the fascia has become much more aggressive than ever before, with the segmented design for the all-new LED headlamps encased within a shaper-looking cowl. This cowl has a dual-tone design and is assisted with a small black tinted cowl above the headlamp. Also new to the front fascia are the sleeker-looking strips for LED turn indicators on the lower sides of the front visor. The front fender of the motorcycle now gets minute decals towards its front.

Kawasaki has made no changes to the side profile of the updated Z900, and the motorcycle continues to possess a handsome and bulky visual appeal. The large fuel tank with broad and sporty looking fuel tank extensions, the beefy looking black-themed engine, and the minimalist side body panels with the exposed part of the green coloured trellis frame add to its extrovert design. The four exhaust outlets emerging from its engine merge beautifully into a single-piece exhaust pipe, which like the rest of the motorcycle has a beefy appearance. The design for the five-spoke alloy wheels looks rather plain, but they do get nice looking pinstriping job around their circumference.

In a true sports bike fashion, the seats of the Kawasaki Z900 are placed separately, with the pillion seat set at a height and a sloping angle. The rakish tailpiece ends up with a small clear lens Z-shaped LED tail lamp, with the new, LED turn indicators mounted on the large rear fender.

The rider’s cockpit of the Kawasaki Z900 has been revised with a full TFT 4.3-inch instrument console replacing the difficult-to-read negative LCD cluster. The new console has been shared with other Kawasakis like the Ninja 650 and Ninja 1000 SX, and gets all the necessary information on the display, like speedometer, tachometer, fuel gauge, odometer, trip meter, gear indicator, and a basic MID. The wide handlebar is well complemented with premium switchgear and alloy brake and clutch levers.

For a premium middleweight motorcycle, the Kawasaki Z900 has been armed with the best possible mechanical hardware under its skin. Sitting on a trellis frame, the middleweight motorcycle gets 41mm inverted telescopic forks at the front and horizontal back-link mono-shock at the rear, both of which are compliant with rebound damping and spring preload adjustability. The Z900 gets a sharp brake as well, with the front getting dual 300mm petal disc brakes and the rear having a single 250mm petal disc brake.

At the heart of the Kawasaki Z900 is a four-stroke, inline-four, liquid-cooled, DOHC, 948cc engine, which was brought in as a perfect upgrade over the 800cc odd engine of the Z800. The displacement upgrade ensured a significant performance bump, with the engine of the Z900 claiming 124 bhp of maximum power and 98.6 Nm of maximum torque output. Being a high-capacity inline-four engine, the Z900 shows exemplary levels of refinement and power delivery, which rank as one of the bests in its category. The engine is coupled to a 6-speed gearbox as standard.

While the Kawasaki Z900 is not as feature-rich as its European rivals in terms of riding aids, it still manages to get the necessary electronics for its segment. On offer in the Kawasaki Z900 are a dual-channel ABS, traction control, three riding modes, assist and slipper clutch, and bi-directional quick-shifter.

The Kawasaki Z900 undercuts all of its rivals in the premium middleweight motorcycle segment by a good margin, which makes it a stellar value-for-money option despite the absence of a few riding aids. The incredibly smooth and refined inline-four experience of the Z900 is something that is not available in any of its direct rivals.