Kawasaki

Less self-consciously 'funky' thank its unfaired sibling - but has Kawasaki's new twin got what it takes to beat Suzuki's SV650S?

2006 sees Kawasaki design a bike to win 600cc supersport production classes.

Great fun, and looks the business. Should still be top of the class

Easy going and ticks all the boxes for Commuters and inexperienced riders, but if you've been around bikes for a bit it's charms pall quickly.

Perhaps it has lost just a fraction of the craziness that made the original such scary fun, but the 2006 ZX-10R has plenty of bad-ass character left.

For 2005 Kawasaki turned it down from 11, and in the process produced an almost perfect package.

Kawasaki prefers not to mess around. Other manufacturers might make lighter bikes, prettier bikes, or bikes that are easier to ride, but Kawasaki - quite rightly - sticks two fingers up at such sentimental softness and consistently delivers red-blooded motorcycles with more power and higher top speeds than anyone else.

Clear road, tuck in behind the screen and pin it. The speedo reads up to 280kph, but there’s an unmarked segment beyond that, where ‘300’ should be but isn’t. The needle swings up to and a millimetre or two beyond the phantom ‘300’ (186mph in English) with indecent haste; the tacho nudges past 11,000rpm and refuses to go further.

The world launch review of the Kawasaki ER6F, a Kawasaki budget middleweight naked aimed squarely at the SV650 and Honda Hornet

Warren 'Wozza' Pole blagged a Kawasaki ZRX1200R in 2005 and wrote this here review on it

A chunky lump of a bike that’ll do your street cred all manner of good down the local and which can do a little bit of everything

Heavyweight tourer comes with panniers, full fairing and rear carrier

Still a big, manly bike for big, manly man, but this time for those who like to duck out of the rain. The sweeties

As big trailies go, the KLV is on a par with the Honda Varadero, not quite as good as Aprilia's Caponord and no where near as good as the BMW R1200GS

For 2005 Kawasaki turned it down from 11, and in the process produced an almost perfect package.

Kawasaki sticks a fairing on the excellent Z750 in an effort to appeal to the more practically minded rider. Has it worked?