Splitting Heirs: Kawasaki ZZ-R1200 v ZZR1400

The latest ZZR1400 has rapidly achieved iconic status. Back in 1990 the ZZR1100 was able to stand proud as the fastest production motorcycle ever, with its genuine 168mph making it the quickest by a good margin. The ultimate muscle statement, it usurped GSX-Rs and the EXUP with flippant candour. Now that production motorcycles have been speed limited by manufacturer's agreement (not legislation), so the ZZR1400 has become instead the most powerful, nudging the 200bhp threshold in brochures around the country. Even if that translates to a more genuine 170bhp-ish at the back wheel...

We like it, with no end of superlatives and tales of jaw-dropping performance, and the British buying public love it too. The first year's shipment was sold out ahead of arrival, and even today new supplies are tight, making for strong residuals on second hand machines.

BUT HOW GOOD IS IT?

We pitched the ZZR1400 up against the Honda Blackbird, a contest convincingly won by the ZZR where it only lost out on solid motorway work, where the superior comfort and silky-smooth motor of the Honda won it a gong. So pitching the 14 up against its four year-old forebearer, the ZZR1200, should seem a foregone conclusion. And of course with the ZZR1200 being a sports tourer, not a super sports (the ZX-12R was Kawasaki's big-capacity super sports back then) the old bike's soft-focus should see it steam-rolled.
Only we'll give you a hint as to what's coming, right now. You see, the touring ZZR1200 of 2002 in fact had a powered-up motor, making in the order of 8% more power than the ZZR1100, and therefore making the 12 significantly more powerful than the Super Blackbird...

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