Kawasaki Ninja H2 (2019) real world review part 2

NUMBERS, funny little squiggles that humans have used for millennia to keep track of stuff. They help us to solve problems, tell us how old we are. And to us bikers they provide us with hours of fun as we muse about which theoretical bike will be quicker than another. Now, you may be wondering where I’m going with all this but, hang with me – there is a point.

As you may know, Visordown has been lucky enough to get our grubby little mitts on Kawasaki’s awesomely bonkers 2019 Ninja H2. And the numbers that accompany this machine are simply staggering. 230bhp (239bhp with ram-air) from a tiny 998cc engine. The whole bike weighs in at 238kg ready to ride. So, taking the rider out of the equation here, we have roughly 1bhp per kilo of mass. That’s works out to over 1000bhp per tonne, which is more than a Bugatti Veyron.

Amazing as these numbers are, they still don’t really do the bike the justice it deserves. And that’s nothing to do with the size of them. It’s because until you’ve ridden the thing, it’s pretty much incomprehensible to fathom what it’s like to be sat on something with that amount of power and torque.

Take today for instance, I popped out on my lunch to make the most of a bright and sunny half hour break in the autumn gloom. There’s a shortish route near to my house that I regularly ride. It’s the kind of route you know like the back of your glove, where you can spot when traffic is coming the other from the gaps in the hedgerows that you’ve gazed between for years.

Halfway through the lap there’s a decent straight, it’s just over a mile long and it splits the countryside in two like a giant sword. There are no junctions, no driveways and most importantly, no houses for miles around. The hedges are all low so you can clearly see into the fields, which means your fairly sure farmer Giles isn’t going to park his combine in front of you at any point.

Rounding the corner at the bottom of the straight in second, I get that warm and fuzzy feeling creeping over my shoulders and down my arms – there is not a car in sight. Pinning the throttle and the H2 hunkers down, scrabbling for traction for a split second before firing me at the horizon like some sort of leather-clad mortar bomb. Keeping my eyes fixed firmly on the end of the road I snick second, then third and then make the biggest mistake of my life. I glanced at the speedometer. Sitting straight up I manage to haul the bike up with just enough time to exhale the longest string of swearwords this side of a Frankie Boyle gig. I’m not going to divulge the speed I saw, but it can’t of took me any more than 20 seconds to complete the mile-long straight. You do the maths. What's more amazing is that if I could see what BHP I was actually using; I bet I wouldn't even have managed 75% of what the machine can offer.

Now my point is, regardless of the numbers at the top of the page and the ratios and ft-lbs bollocks. They aren’t what you feel when you open the throttle. You don’t feel power or torque, all you feel is thrust. And I’m willing to bet that regardless of what new bikes are launched at EICMA this autumn, I doubt there will be anything that provides the amount of thrust that the supercharged H2 engine does. The fact they are now making the naked Z H2 is just going to make it all seem even more bonkers!

Kawasaki Ninja H2 (2019) specs