STILL THE only production forced-induction superbike, Kawasaki's awesome supercharged H2 is an incredible piece of kit. But Team Green has ratcheted up the awesomeness still further for 2019.
Launched this weekend at Bonneville Speed Week, fittingly enough, the updated H2 gets a stack of tweaks for 15 per cent more power, up from 200 to 230bhp, thanks to mods to ECU, intake, air filter, plugs and more. Kawasaki reckons its experience with the excellent H2SX sports-tourer has helped it gain this power while keeping fuel consumption the same. We reckon that, like most owners, we say a big fat 'meh' to fuel consumption on a 230bhp sports weapon.
Elsewhere, sweet sweet mods abound. Brembo Stylema calipers, only seen on the Ducati Panigale V4 up till now, a colour dash similar to that on the H2SX, with a Bluetooth connection app and new Bridgestone RS11 rubber are all spot-on for the bike, and will give it a solid uplift in terms of performance and tech.
The other thing is both practical and technically impressive. The shiny paint on the old bike is a total bugger for owners who actually, er, use the bike - it picks up tiny scuffs and scratches and is immensely difficult to repair to as new standard. So, the firm has developed a new self-healing finish, which in warmer conditions, is able to smooth over small scratches and damage. Wow.
It's an impressive update - but you could argue it's definitely been needed. The Ducati Panigale V4 didn't only have those fancy calipers, it also had a few more peak horsepowers (199.5 vs 196.8bhp on the Big CC Racing dyno) and much less mass (195kg vs 240kg wet) than the stock H2 - which isn't a cool thing to happen to your fire-breathing Japanese megabike.
We'll be seeing the new H2 at the Cologne show in October, if not before. We can't wait to ride it...
