2024 Kawasaki Ninja 7 hybrid motorcycle first ride review
cycleworld.com
cycleworld.com
I've owned Japanese and German bikes from 300cc to 1000cc.
This hits a sweet spot of weight, speed, and price for me that's hard to match. Which is to say that 500 lbs. is as heavy as my Ninja SX 1000, but adds a reverse gear without lifting the front wheel at 100 MPH in third gear - not a good survival strategy for someone my age.
I'm still concerned about the weight, but in my tight garage, reverse will make a huge difference in maneuverability for the aged weakling that I am.
The EV range is nearly exactly what I need in the urban area in which I live, but the ICE makes mom's house in the sticks commutable on the weekend without needing to fuel up or charge.
That last part is the deal maker for me since just about any electric either makes the 100 mile round trip impossible without a recharge, or the purchase price so expensive I'd pass since a cage is cheaper and I'd be better off to spend the money electrifying my fixed gear bicycle.
What's the fastest you've gone on your Ninja SX 1000 and how do you balance the fear of dying/getting into an accident/danger?
As a taller person I find I feel way safer on a big bike over a small one. Theyre more comfortable (less hunched over, better for my back), more stable, have more grip due to more weight on bigger tyres, yet have the power to punch your way out of a sticky spot or overtake someone in a split second if needed. It’s all personal preference but I’ve ridden everything from 250cc to 1300cc and way prefer the upper end of the scale.
Plus they just put a stupid grin on your face and make the commute a happy part of the day rather than a boring one.
In saying that I’m far from your typical big-cc rider. I’ve never done stupid speeds or raced anyone and just love the feeling of vehicles with some oomph.
I find I feel way safer [in a car]...
The Bonfire X (and our UNU, a lesser moped) is definitely a hackers motorbike.
To me, this seems like a no-brainer for any techie to get into ..
I took my guy friends a few times too (and atleast 10 girls over the years), and one interesting thing I noticed was that guys would be shaking enough for me to feel when we hit the stoplight at the top of the 13. Women never did. They almost never thought it was too crazy, while my guy friends thought it was a crazy insane rush and thrill they'd talk about for days.
Fastest was/is about 175mph, but that is rare (and really uncomfortable on a naked bike). Most dangerous encounters are inner City during commute times when theres lots of "angry" drivers and the same on highways. When the road is empty, there is less danger. What I am uncomfortable with are tight bends with fear of approaching traffic that may cut corners, lane splitting is also not for the faint of heart and dirt in corners. And "idiots" that try to challenge me.
Edit: Also, my most used bikes (Ducati & KTM dualsports bike) have all the latest electronics, which makes a huge difference in dangerous situations (eg. slippery corner, emergency braking)
Edit2: what helps against fear? For me: Riding more, thoughout the year and security training on a closed track to keep a feeling for edge cases and not lose it when there's e.g. minor slide. After I kissed the tarmac in 2019 I did exactly that (got a new bike with latest electronics and kept riding, took some 3k miles to fully overcome the fear). Also: I only ride in full gear (helmet, gloves, riding suit with full set of protectors and motorcycle boots)
Job wise we spent years and hundreds of millions of kilometres draping the ground at 70 m/s (252 km/hr | 157 m/ph) with ~80 m ground clearance dodging birds and power lines so that's always seemed like a comfortable speed.
The risks of sudden-stop collisions are better controlled on the track than the street. In addition, traction control has greatly reduced the risk of high-side crashes. Airbags inside the leathers have greatly (almost completely) reduced the risk of torso injuries if you do crash. Helmets are a bit safer than they have ever been (FIM certification). Traction control, ABS and cornering ABS have reduced the risk of dumb crashes while learning, probably by 2/3rds. ABS eventually gets disabled when you get more experienced, but at that point it’s not really needed. Traction control is adjustable on the fly and doesn’t really ever get in the way because of that.
High-level racers have many crashes in their pursuit of faster lap times. The airbags have made an incredible difference in injury rates. I’m just a normal middle aged guy with a family and I find the risks to be acceptable with a fast bike on the track. I understand that most people may not, but then again most people don’t seriously consider the risks they take on a daily basis anyway.
Airbags weren’t fully mandatory in Moto2/3/GP until 2018, but you can see from the 2013-2017 data that it was already safer than you would expect given the high number of crashes. To be fair, some riders were using airbags prior to 2018. Also, crash rates while pushing the edge of the envelope racing are vastly higher than crash rates at track days.
I was curious what the corresponding data would be for brain injuries, and found the below, which is also surprisingly low.
Musculoskeletal injuries represented the vast majority (88.43%) of the 191 encounters registered in the acute setting, while concussions were diagnosed in only 1.57%. The most common orthopedic motorcycle injuries were upper extremity contusions while the most common anatomical area for fractures was the hand.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09493...
Sold it as I was becoming increasingly complacent and it was only a matter of time before something serious happened.
My first purchase as a grad was a sports car, followed a year later by a cbr1000. And I don’t mean first big purchase. I literally took my employment contract with wet ink to the bank for a loan.
Indeed - I've had cars with smaller engines.
A Japanese, inline-four that is that smooth, tuned to feel like a torque-y V-twin is unusual. I always wanted a fireblade for similar reasons though I hear Aprilia makes a 400 V-twin which is more to my lightweight expectations for most things.
My purchase of the liter bike was a transitional stage from my dearly-beloved SV650 to my equally dearly-beloved 310cc BMW GS world-beater.
The aside to other MPG commenters here is that indeed, the SV got 60 MPG, while the SX got maybe 40 on a good day.
I'll answer your primary question by chortling gently and saying speed was never the goal. Rather, acceleration was.
The numbers speak volumes: 0-60 MPH ~ 3 seconds, 100 MPH ~ 6 seconds, optic nerve compressed as the eyes approach the PFC, check.
The fun part is that 6 seconds go by quickly when your consciousness is overwhelmed by shifting 3 gears in six seconds without assistance.
Your second question is best answered by saying, "I've been lucky."
LSS: read both David Hough books, take whatever classes you can get cheap (in my state they're underwritten by the state - YMMV). Then, read the David Hough books until you've survived a dissertation committee's murder-board on the details.
Consider the implications of riding full-time with two fingers on the brake lever, and the FPS-downstream implications of that choice's improvement in reaction time to the cage pulling out in front of you, and you have a rough idea why the classes, while good, are not enough, given MPH and survival's inverse relationship in motorcycling.
The subtext is that I'm paradoxically hyper-vigilant, over-trained, and fearless; in other words, I'm a human robot. That included 20 years of urban summer commutes, 80 miles per day. Not the million miles I've traveled by cage, but still.
Be safe out there!
Fixed it for you
I want to ride one.
Don't know of another large motorcycle company that's willing to try wonderfully silly things like this.
When I was a learner the hot bike to have in Aus was a 90s MC22 CBR250RR, all the newer 250 "sports" bikes were sad single or parallel twins
750cc liquid cooled two stroke.
"The 7 Hybrid differs from those models in its attempt to be three motorcycles in one. Think of it as a zero-emissions bike for heavily restricted city centers, a fuel-sipping urban cruiser, and a fully capable canyon carver able to take on 200-plus mile days, suggests Kawasaki."
It's less about fuel economy and more about emissions. Also FTA:
"the Kawasaki Ninja 7 Hybrid, the first mass-production strong hybrid motorcycle—Kawasaki’s two-wheeled solution for the modern world, where Zero- and Low-Emissions Zones are very much a reality. Even if they haven’t made their way to the United States, yet."
For me it would have to get at least 80mpg (3l/100km) to make any sense. And even then if your target is the highest economy, lowest pollution, practicality in town, something like Honda PCX 125 gets 100mpg at a quarter of the price.
But maybe it's just the start and future generations will have some real advantage other than "hybrid" in the name.
If I wanted to have cheap motoring I'd probably go for the Toyota Yaris hybrid which gets those fuel efficiency figures and is a lot more fun to be in when it's dark and wet.
I get they need to get something out to start this process but this seems very underwhelming given the price, the weirdness with the transmission, the extra complexity of the whole thing, etc..
Probably a big issue with getting the fuel economy up is simply that bikes aren't very aerodynamic. So they suffer even more than a car with highway riding. But acceleration, etc.. is just not a problem with bikes in any way, there is absolutely zero need for an electric motor to help with anything. Even a 250cc bike can move out with authority at low speeds.
I'm in the US. I had the SV650 quite some time ago, but it would cost me maybe $10-12 to fill it even today. It was VERY cheap to run.
Later on I had a Honda Interceptor, that got 40-45mpg in street riding despite being a big heavy bike with excessive power (as opposed to so many even faster bikes that are just absolutely ridiculous) that I usually had luggage on.
I can't imagine what one would be like in an actual performance bike. So, did you mean 'slam open the throttle' as in kick down 3 gears and give it everything you've got or 'slam open the throttle' as in I'd like a nice low RPM burble to hasten us along to an increased speed limit.
Lightweight, not too tall (as I am relatively short at 5'7"). Capable with good performance, but not too fast.
Consider this: I can do 200 miles, refill, continue riding, then refill, continue riding, then get to my destination as it turns dark because on these adventures it's hard to plan exactly ahead.
With EV's however, it's a different picture. You don't have a way of charging on real adventures (going mostly offroad), the weight of the bike would be even worse, the range questionable.
Will a proper alternative ever exist? The energy density of Lithium ion batteries is so far far off.
Even today - using gasoline, you can easily find yourself in situations where even 200 mile range is not sufficient (especially if there's an incident and you need to back track 50 miles, etc).
I don't think an EV will replace the GS's capability for decades. I'm much more interested in replacing the capability of my DR-Z400 or WR250.
For the extra 134 pounds over the original Ninja 400 you get a whopping 7.5 miles EV range
Why not just get a full electric like the Zero?
Apart from that: it depends if the snapped belt just flies away or if it obstructs/blocks the rear sprocket (very dangerous instant blockage of the read wheel). A chain is probably more prone to that than a belt.
On a m/c it is, particularly when leaning in a turn. An experienced rider should recover, but it won't be fun. Also, other traffic participants don't expect a m/c to suddenly stop in the middle of the road for no apparent reason.
Never had such a drastic mechanical failure, just ran out of gas (on the GG bridge of all places) and had a blown main fuse (fortunately on the down-hill section and was able to coast through multiple lanes of traffic to a stop at the side of the road).
As far as the rider is concerned, this seems similar to Honda's DCT bikes: automatic dual-clutch transmission, which can be either fully-auto or (mostly) rider-controlled.
I'd argue that it's better for muscle-memory to have a different setup. My regular bike is of the DCT persuasion, so having different controls allows me switch my mind when I ride a regular bike. I once rode a rental with a quickshifter [0], and after longer stretches I'd forget to grab the clutch when stopping or starting.
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[0] A quickshifter isn't an automatic gearbox, but an augmentation of a manual one. Since motorbikes gears are unsynchronized, you can do clutchless gear changes by accelerating or cutting the gas briefly and simply pushing or pressing on the gear control.
Same reason I still like the idea of hybrid cars. In the cities, where people live and breath, you remove most of the pollution/wear on the engine, and on the highway you get more range and keep the engine at its sweet spot
Most interesting to me is the Ninja 7 smoking a zx10r, for a few hundred feet off the line, granted. Picture of exciting shit to come perhaps.
They wouldn't have opted for such a radical shift (no pun indented) in the way you control a bike unless there is a reason. Could it be because the control system of the motor needs to be aware of shifts ? I don't think so, as the response time is so low that it could detect the shift and act accordingly.
It could make sense that an electric motor which is not directly control needs to throttle down after an upshift, as traditional ICEs bog down because of the higher torque requirement when the RPMs go down, while the motor could just plough through, lifting the front and lowering your butt on the asphalt if you're not going straight.
Also curious why they opted for a TFT, and why is the design so.. meh in my opinion.
Anyway, it is great to see innovation like that in motorcycles.
Regardless of which gear you're at, the control input from the driver should dictate the power output, and it is up to the control system to figure out the split based on current conditions like state of charge, setpoints etc.
What am I missing ?
Since the transmission is not just for driving the bike, but is also the connection between the charging generator and the engine, it’s automatic control is necessary as part of managing the battery level.
Now if you had an old fashioned simple EV system like the first Honda Insight, where the electric motor and gas engine are directly connected and can’t spin independently, in that case you can have a regular manual transmission, as those vehicles did. However, they are much less efficient and versatile, and don’t have a useful EV only mode.
Is it ? The article mentions "Integrated Starter Generator (ISG), which saves weight by combining the functions of the starter motor and generator"
Also, in the "ECO-HYBRID" you have the both the options of the auto and manual shifting, with EV only mode in low speed.
I just don't understand why the motor and ICE are not connected directly but with two clutches, leaving the rest of the powertrain to the control of the user and having the ECU meddle with the throttle, clutches and power to the motor.
Anyway, thanks for the info !
I guess we will have to wait for more information.. I trust they know what they are doing :)
Maybe less than ideal procedure, but electric stuff getting on fire is a massive risk and regulators recognize it as such, especially when not out in the open.
I just can't imagine a small scooter being that difficult to contain. Usually reignition is the big risk here rather than containment.
I used to go to lots of track days and have sat through both emergency medical shut-downs and fire & chemical spill shut-downs.
At least for motorcycles the way the race track works is you have a bunch of people who either pay for a track day or for race entries. Depending on how much they are willing to pay you either get 1 or 2 ambulances and EMT crews and you have a certain size fire crew and this has to be factored into the pricing.
If you have 1 EMT crew + ambulance and someone has an accident IME the track shuts down and no one can ride again until the ambulance returns from the hospital. While it's shut down all the customers are wasting money and considering whether they want to come back.
It's the same thing with a fire. But an ICE motorcycle doesn't take very long to put out and get off the track. If the EV takes even an hour to put the fire out and get it off the track it wrecks the schedule for the whole day as you have races or sessions that are shut down. IME an ICE fire was a 20 minute delay. That's one missed track day session or one race that has to be rescheduled (amateur races are short). A 1-hour EV fire would cancel 2+ races/sessions, and realistically do we actually think the EV fire is put out in 1 hour? ICE motorcycles go out on the track with barely any fuel at all, especially in races they go out with minimal fuel to save weight, so the fires go out quick.