Kawasaki ZZR 400

This is my 3rd bike, the smallest engined bike I've had or riden after my test.

Its a great looking bike, excellent for nipping in and out of busy traffic.

I find the engine is slow on acceleration (but then again the smallest I've had is a 500), so open roads is hard work, you have to red line her and work the gears quickly to build the speed.

Kawasakis are known for carb icing which can be embarassing when you've just overtaken a line of cars to the traffic lights and she cuts out and doesn't fire up straight away.

Another thing I have experienced, they cut out when its too hot, fuel evaporates before it hits the chamber, so need to restart using choke.

Owned for 2 years covering just over 17,000 miles - never let me down. All servicing except valve clearence and tyre changes done by myself. Has been the most reliable and lowest cost to keep on the road bike that I have ever had. Only bought as a second bike but I love it - and I'm keeping it.

This is my second bike after the ZZR-250. The first thing I noted was the sound of the engine. I have the stock exhausts, and they are really silent. I love it ... Also the 4-cylinder sound is so lovely compared to the ZZR-250. Also the tapping sound of the valves is less.

The fairing is really good on the Kawasaki ZZR-400. Very good wind protection with my flip-up windshield. The bike stays remarkably stable with side winds (compared to the ZZR-250). You still feel there is a wind, but the bike goes straight on.

The bike is rare here in Belgium, so are spare parts hard to find? Nope! Almost all the parts are the same as the ZZR-600.

A bad point is the fuel economy. I do 5-6l/100km, and I'm not the most sporty rider. I do 250km with a full tank (not on reserve yet, but close), and I have to refill. That's a lot for a 400cc!!

I also have a minor bad point, which is power loss when the engine is cold. The engine goes off sometimes if you don't use the choke correctly, and during the first 500 meters you can't rev it higher than 5k rpm. The second km is 8k rpm ... It just doesn't go higher. I consider it a minor bad point because I always wait to rev the engine until it is really warm.

This Kawasaki ZZR 400 is my first "big" sports bike, I've had it for about 5 months but have only done about 2000kms, not as many as I would like. It has been entirely reliable over this period, though I have had it serviced once (air cleaner, spark plugs etc) and this didn't seem to make much difference to the performance.

The ZZR is identical in appearance to the ZZR600 (except obviously, for graphics) and was Japanese Domestic Market only. However, the chassis is from the ZZR600 and most of the engine parts are from the ZXR400 (block, gearbox). I believe the head and the carbs/airbox/ram air are different.

It's about 10% slower than the ZXR400 but I've had mine (maxed out, I think) doing 185km/h (115mph) pulling 12000rpm in 6th (peak power is meant to be at 11000rpm). The ZXR will do about 125 mph. I still find the open road performance more than acceptable though - I can still leave almost any car for dead.

The fairing shakes over sharp bumps in town, which I initially thought was the steering head bearing - but wasn't - but the forks still give a shuddery feedback under hard braking.

Ambient air temp seems to make quite a difference to performance, when it's cooler than about 7 or 8 C the performance falls by about 10 or 15%.

The engine pulls acceptably from as low as 3000rpm and really pulls from 4 to 6000, but doesn't rise between there and about 7500, where the screaming top end kicks in and doesn't abate until about 13000.

The gearbox is firm and deliberate without needing too much force, it's a lot lighter to shift than an FZR1000 I've ridden, though it does clunk into first from neutral quite often.

Changing the oil filter is made more difficult by being directly behind the primary exhaust pipes - a real pain if you're being good and doing a "hot" change. Also for some reason all my dashboard bulbs blew within one day. However I changed them and they seem fine.

The semi-touring fairing is a good compromise between aerodynamics and protection. It's just wide enough to protect your legs, but not high enough to obscure vision in any way. I'm 5' 10" and the airflow just gets the top of my shoulders.

The brakes are awesomely strong without having too much initial bite (good for a newbie like me!) but need a pad change so this should improve bite a bit.