Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Well, they did try turbo's in the 80s with mixed success from Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki (and some 3rd parties messing with Kawasaki). In the end, a 500-650cc turbo bike did perform like a 1000cc bike, but in the end, the complexity and cost it was just easier to sell the rider a 1000cc bike.

Even then, strapping a turbo to a 650cc bike didn't net you x2 the power. The Seca 650R Turbo was a great example (and I owned the non-turbo one), I had around 72hp, the turbo version pumped out an amazing 90hp with approximately 7 psi stock to about 12 psi as modified.

So if you use those numbers, that's a 25% HP gain with a turbo. So if we took the new 2015 Kawasaki ZX-10R (188hp with ram air), then we would end up with a 235hp bike with 7-12psi boost). 235hp would be the highest HP of any production bike, but far from 300hp.

The flight for more HP = more and more money. Easy hp is cheap (exhaust or air filter) but gets more and more expensive the more you try to find (port and polishing, bore job, etc).





Mike

I love any bike that helps me self actualize my Batcycle fantasy.
This one does.

All those carbonfibre winglets look badass (and add to the batcycle look), but do look like a lot of expensive bits that'll snap off in even a minor shunt or drop.

with that machine there will be no minor drops off idle you can make 60mph

Awesome, if there were a higher vote I would put that. I don't think a lot of people on here understand that this is not a street bike, there won't be kids riding it through traffic, plus it will be extremely expensive. I don't know how strong those winglets are, but they are carbon fiber not plastic and carbon fiber is something like 5 times stronger than steel.

Love it, but really how many people with own the race version? I think it will be very interesting to see the price and specs. of the street version.

I'm wondering what Kawasaki is going to use this bike for, I'm sure it doesn't meet MotoGP guidelines, so even though it's a track bike, it's not a race bike (unless they start their own division). Would it start a horsepower war? Sure. But I'm not sure how much more is really needed. Power to weight ratio is already silly and silly+ isn't going to change a lot.

Now for a street version, I know very few professional riders that could master 200hp, let alone 300hp. A 225hp street bike with a super charger makes headlines for sure, but how rideable is it? Great for a straight line if you can hang on, but pure horsepower doesn't equal more fun, after all, horsepower = top speed. Torque = acceleration (generally). Sure, the bike will blow past 300kh/h, maybe even 350km/h, but there are very few places in the world you can legally use it.

For the cool factor, it's very cool. You have a supercharger on a bike! Wowzers. For a bike though... hmmm, many will just shake their heads at the stupidity of it all.

Whatever the reason Kawasaki has built these, I fail to see (other than a superficial reason that is).

Mike

totalmotorcycle wrote:I'm wondering what Kawasaki is going to use this bike for, I'm sure it doesn't meet MotoGP guidelines, so even though it's a track bike, it's not a race bike (unless they start their own division). Would it start a horsepower war? Sure. But I'm not sure how much more is really needed. Power to weight ratio is already silly and silly+ isn't going to change a lot.

Now for a street version, I know very few professional riders that could master 200hp, let alone 300hp. A 225hp street bike with a super charger makes headlines for sure, but how rideable is it? Great for a straight line if you can hang on, but pure horsepower doesn't equal more fun, after all, horsepower = top speed. Torque = acceleration (generally). Sure, the bike will blow past 300kh/h, maybe even 350km/h, but there are very few places in the world you can legally use it.

For the cool factor, it's very cool. You have a supercharger on a bike! Wowzers. For a bike though... hmmm, many will just shake their heads at the stupidity of it all.

Whatever the reason Kawasaki has built these, I fail to see (other than a superficial reason that is).

Mike

Stupidity doesn't even begin to cover the foolishness of this bike.

ceemes wrote:

totalmotorcycle wrote:Whatever the reason Kawasaki has built these, I fail to see (other than a superficial reason that is).

Mike

Stupidity doesn't even begin to cover the foolishness of this bike.

Oh, we are in the same boat. I guess it all depends on how Kawasaki markets it and who their market is. Right now it's racers, which is fine with me as they don't let you on the track without full gear to crash in and it's harder to injure yourself vs the street.

Mike

totalmotorcycle wrote:horsepower = top speed. Torque = acceleration (generally)

Actually engine horsepower is much more relevant to acceleration than engine torque.