Kawasaki Ninja ZX-4RR test on the 2024 country road

A motorcycle that revs at around 16,000 rpm belongs on the racetrack! At least that's the assumption. This thing can't be any fun on the country road, let alone in everyday life. Okay. But then I got on, rode off - and immediately threw this preconceived notion overboard. The Kawasaki Ninja ZX-4RR is also a hell of a lot of fun on the country road!

There's the riding position. Throw your leg over the saddle, reach for the handlebars, put your foot on the footrest - and be amazed. The small ZX-4RR is of course sportily dimensioned, a naked bike is definitely more comfortable, but for a real sports bike it is still extremely comfortable. The handlebar stubs are not mounted quite so low on the fork, so that the load on the hands is unexpectedly low, and the footrests are at a height that does not necessarily require the body measurements of a parade racer - even people just under 1.85 meters tall find excellent space on the small Ninja.

The handling of the lively Japanese bike is also wonderfully pleasant and almost playful, although I must make it clear that the Ninja ZX-4RR is a far cry from an everyday sports bike that is willing to compromise and only looks like a supersport, but uses the components of its affordable naked sister. No, the Ninja ZX-4RR has a finely tuned Showa fork, whose diameter of 37 millimetres may appear very slim, but it is a high-quality SFF-BP fork (Separate Function Fork - Big Piston) with adjustable spring preload. The rear monoshock can even be adjusted in terms of spring preload, rebound and compression. This means that it is easy to handle, but also very mature and remains pleasantly stable despite its pronounced agility.

Stable is also the right word for the brakes; the dual disc system with a 290-millimeter diameter and radially mounted monoblock calipers is definitely not undersized and decelerates reliably without being too aggressive or brute. Suitable for everyday use, but sporty enough to decelerate the not-so-light ZX-4RR properly. The weight is by no means as record-breaking as the rev limit; 189 kilos ready to ride is not much, but many a 400cc bike weighs less.

Well, the sturdy steel frame on which the Ninja ZX-4RR relies naturally contributes to a certain extent to the weight, but the engine certainly weighs more than many a single-pot with this cubic capacity. And that brings us to the element of the ZX-4RR that makes this machine truly unique: the 399 cc in-line four-cylinder engine. Somehow unimaginable that you can feel so sporty with 77 hp - but when the limiter simply doesn't want to intervene, revving up is addictive! And it's really fun to wind this little rocket out properly, as the maximum power is only available at 14,500 rpm and you can and should even wind it out to around 16,000 rpm - it thanks you with a shrill but not unpleasant, unmistakable sound.

The torque of just 39 Newton meters at a proud 13,000 rpm seems even more useless on paper than the power - and yet the easy-going Kawasaki Ninja ZX-4RR manages to rev up almost effortlessly even from below. The electronic engine management does an excellent job and gets the best out of the small displacement. The available rev range is record-breakingly wide anyway, even if you could wish for a little more power at the bottom end. In the middle, it pulls up nicely, at just under 8000 rpm it really gets going, and the rubber ring doesn't stop until 16,000 rpm! Of course, you shouldn't compare the Ninja ZX-4RR with larger displacement machines and certainly not with big 1000cc bikes, but what the greens can tease out of the little Kawa is impressive.

A standout feature that perfectly complements the sporty nature of the ZX-4RR is the quickshifter with blipper. The gears shift seamlessly, making it incredibly enjoyable to flick through the gears both up and down at astonishing revs. The electronics in this little green rocket are impressively comprehensive: while a color TFT display might already be standard in this class, with ABS, three-way adjustable traction control, four riding modes (Sport, Road, Rain, Rider), smartphone connectivity, and LED lighting, the ZX-4RR is certainly well-equipped.

Anyone interested in a ZX-4RR has it pretty easy, at least in terms of color choice and comparison with the competition - it's only available in green and if you want a wonderfully high-revving engine in the 400cc class, you'll look in vain. You could be forgiven for thinking that the Greens should actually charge a uniqueness premium for this poison green supersport bike - but fortunately they don't. If you refrain from comparing the Ninja ZX-4RR with other, far less performance-oriented 400cc sports bikes, you might consider the everyday sports bikes with just under 700 cc, such as the Yamaha R7, Triumph Daytona 660, Honda CBR650R or the in-house Ninja 650 - but these are hardly cheaper or even more expensive. For the fact that the Ninja ZX-4RR is even surprisingly suitable for everyday use, just under 10,000 euros/Francs is not too high and the potent injection of poison will certainly (and rightly) find numerous fans and buyers!