Kawasaki set the motorcycle world alight when they unveiled their supercharged H2 machines at the Milan Motorcycle Show in November 2014. The ground-breaking new motorcycle was the first supercharged mass production motorcycle in history, and the first to offer forced induction since the brief appearance of turbo bikes in all four of the Japanese manufacturers’ line-ups in the 1980s. With so much hype flying about there’s always the risk of the real thing not meeting expectations in real-world road tests, but ever since the bikes went on sale in March 2015 a tsunami of positive reports have been published. The Kawasaki H2 has been voted Bike of the Year in various countries, including South Africa and Japan, and the world’s biggest science and technology magazine, Popular Science included it in its 2015 list of the 100 greatest innovations of the year.
Some of the most respected international motorcycle magazines have also lauded the Kawasaki H2 / H2R as being beyond compare, including Motorcycle USA, Motorcycle News in the UK, and Cycle World who waxed lyrical when rating it as their superbike of the year; “This is “Superbike” with a capital “S” and the most intense motorcycle we’ve ever ridden. And while this blown batbike might not come with a cape, it does have wings. If it doesn’t blow your socks off, your boots are too damn tight” they say. The British Mail Online even gave it an unwitting plug by reporting the comments of a top Australian cop, Assistant Commissioner Robert Hill who said he was concerned that it was “too powerful”, whatever that may mean. “Reports of a new high powered motorbike potentially being made available for sale in Australia are very concerning,” Mr Hill told Daily Mail Australia. The article goes on to comment that the bike can hit 100 km/h within 2,5 seconds, and has brakes “bigger than a Holden Commodore V8”. We presume the writer meant the discs are bigger than those of the Holden, rather than the entire car. What starts off as a criticism of the Kawasaki as the work of the Devil ends up paying tribute to the superb motorcycle, complete with photographs, a Kawasaki promotional video and a spec sheet for the bike! You can see it all HERE.