How Kawasaki Ninja Became the Fastest Motorcycle and Took Down Harley Davidson | Up to Speed 

if you could race Thomas Cruz on any motorcycle, would your dad finally pay attention to you?

Fun fact about the apple green color: Apple green was considered bad luck in motorcycle racing, so Kawasaki started to paint their bikes with that color because they said "we dont believe in luck, we believe in engineering" something like that. Hope you guys like it.

Fun fact: 1 in 3 bikes sold in the USA is a Harley Davidson. 2nd Fun Fact: Anything a Harley Davidson can do, a motorcycle does better.

When I was a teenager the Japanese bikes were described to me like this: "Honda's are smooth, Suzuki's are quick, Yamaha's are Fast, and Kawasaki's actively want you DEAD"

I vividly recall the first time I saw the first GPZ 900 "Ninja": My family's auto repair shop (going on 55 years, same location) was right down the road from the Kawasaki dealership, and my Father and oldest brother were best buds with the manager. He would jump on the newest models and ride up to show my dad and brother when I was just a young whelp hanging out. All the mechanics would gas up their work at our shop also, so I saw tons of machines. I bought my first street motorcycle from their when I got my motorcycle license the summer after I turned 16. I was in love with the KZ's and then the GPS. I had my eye on the GPZ550 for my first bike (but my dad, a Harley rider since post-WW2, insisted on the 454LTD. Wasn't a bad choice after all.). The GPZ750 turbo was INSANE! Then, during my senior year of high school, Denny, the manager rode in on a freshly assembled NINJA! How crazy that bike looked! Imagine my poor teenage brain dreaming of screaming on that thing. One of my buddies bought one right after graduation, but that machine was way out of my price range. I'm currently shopping for a Ninja 650 to purchase before the spring. My wife hates the green, I don't like the red. Black it is.

"Young and cool becomes old and lame. But speed. Speed is forever." -James Pumphrey That is the best auto-related quote I have ever heard from anyone besides Jeremy Clarkson. That is some great writing, James. Well done.

"It was too far ahead of its time. Like Nolan..." I felt that.

I'm a Brazilian old man. Sixty two years old. First motorcycle when I was 11... I had a 1971 H1A, a 1973 H2 and today I have a 1984 GPz 900 R, ZX9 A1, Californian model. I understand and agree 100% what you are talking about. Very good, inspired, inspiring, realistic, respectful, intelligent and more than everything else, funny VIDEO. It was a joy for this old man here, to watch your very good REPORT about this particular period of motorcycle history. Best regards from all of us here, in BRAZIL!

Being from the UK and having our own industry taken over by Japanese bikes, this was quite interesting. Thank you.

Haven't even watched it yet but HELL YEA MOTORCYCLE CONTENT

"Styles change, young and cool becomes old and lame but speed, speeds forever." This line man ufff.

Back in the day I rode my 600 Ninja to meet my girlfriend and her parents to see Top Gun. I'm now 58 yrs old and have a GSXR750. Yep this old dude is still built for speed.

My dad had Harleys and Triumphs in the early 70s. He always said he was jealous of the CB 750 Honda with the riders never having to tune up every single ride. Honda effected Harleys a long time ago.

"Young and cool becomes old and lame. But SPEED, SPEED is forever." Needs to be on a shirt.

Lmao, the part with James miming Jeremiahs words behind him 😂

Knowing that Kawasaki also having a stealth helicopter named "ninja" makes it 100x better.

Styles change, Young and cool becomes old and lame. But speed, Speed is forever. -James Pumphrey 2021

James, please never change. You have to be hands down one of the funniest hosts of any show on RU-vid.

"Styles change, young and cool becomes old and lame, but speed... speed is forever." Put this on my gravestone

In Australia we had a pretty famous biker film called "Stone" in which most of the bikes were Z900's. Yeah... Harleys are mostly ridden by 60 year old dentists down here.

the editing in these is just stellar. Not to mention the research, script, acting. Top Gear for the best of british humor; Donut for the best of american humor. You guys rock

I feel like this definitely needs a mention: Suzuki named it the 'Hayabusa' as that's the Japanese name for a Peregrine Falcon, because Peregrines eat Blackbirds. Brilliant bants from Suzuki.

The Scene for Tron: Legacy made me want a Ducati for such a long time.

"Harley - Everything else is LESS." That ages like parmesan cheese xD

Just to have it mentioned, since it got jumped over, ZX 14 one of the most well balanced and nimble monsters I've ever been on. And it did get up on the world record thingy, slapping the 'Busa stepdad anyhow, just not as buff looking.

I remember vividly when my older brother brought home a brand new zx9r back in 99, I was 10 years old and new virtually nothing about motorcycles but as soon as I saw it I knew it was the most dangerous and badass thing I've ever seen in my entire life as soon as I was old enough I went out and bought a ninja and never looked back even to this day.

Japanese manufactures knows how to name their Bikes. Every names, be it Ninja, Fireblade or Hayabusa all are absolute badass.

I have no idea where you come up with these funny little bits, but it's amazing.

i was born in 96 and it was Road Rash on the Sega Genesis that made me fall in love with sport bikes.

"Young and cool becomes old and lame but speed, speed is forever" Man that's a cool quote, philosophical in some sense.

“So how fast do you want your bike?” H2 owners: Yes

Thank you for this one, so informative and entertaining! Love you too James lol

This video is definitely in the best top10 sh*t I have ever watched on RU-vid! Great history lesson with a great amount of humor! Thanks guys!!!

It would be so dope to see everyone come together on one project. History, theory and a build?! Sound pretty dope to me

Now when kimi retires at end of this season, WE NEED up to speed on Kimi " Iceman" Räikkönen

I love what you guys are doing, keep doing it.

The little "ninja" always gets me

That blackbird bit. Damn, James. Please start making these every week again. Please.

Nice

Soooo entertaining Donut! Man i always get lost iin these videos. Love em all

Love where kawi went, my ‘21 636 is the best thing I’ve ever ridden, but I started my Super bike journey on a 98 gixxer 750 first year of fuel injection!!

The highest quality content, always extremely educational and accurate, and funnier then a lot of top tier high budget comedy. I don't know how you guys continue to meet those standards with every single piece of content you drop but I sure as hell am extremely grateful that you do. I also pray every night that this streak you're on will never end

"but Speed! SPEED is forever!" Dom Torreto level cringy line. I love it.

Love this video! Thanks for the two wheel love!

Awesome bikes. Great video. Keep up the good work.

FINALLY, been waiting on the Ninja ever since the Hyabusa episode lol

"All those rebels without a car who made Harleys cool had gotten older, and started ruining the world." That's an under-appreciated line right there.

Hey Skippy, I appreciate your video it’s definitely got some good information in it and there’s definitely been many evolutions that have brought motorcycling to its current zenith; Grew up in Central San Francisco Bay Area and my dad used to take me to Galiguna sa in the 70s and the 80s and that was something that I definitely appreciated grew up riding minibikes and dirt bikes and eventually had a pretty nice can em 250 that I ran around the race courses with the dirt tracks and Enduro little bit of motocross but Can-Am had long legs lotta horsepower anyway I digress, so growing up going to Laguna Seca watching road racing events Kenny Roberts was the guy for me, and I’ve always been a tuning fork guy you know for Yamaha and no one Kenny Roberts came on the scene with the RZ 500 and the TZ 750 and he helped Yamaha develop the aluminum frame that become the X up frame that they used so that the motor was a stress portion of the frame and eventually that is morphed into the YZFR1 and you know not just like something with blazing power for the sake of the high top speed but the ability to go around corners, and King Kenny was one of the first guys to develop the technique of dragging your knee on the ground going around those corners I used to race in our six up in Spokane Portland Seattle for a couple years and that our six is definitely a razor but you know I appreciate the Kawasaki is the quacks and everything like that and the green machines they definitely got some serious power and their triples made a definite Dan you know but they had that that death wobble ST sometimes the steering dampener wouldn’t even curate but anyway so for me it’s all Yamaha and they are six R1 legacies they are one even from 2009 came out with a cross plane crank shaft to take advantage of white Honda developed in the 90s called the big bang motor which had uneven piston firing to help slow down the power surges on the tire Talpa person get around the corner without shredding that tire in a few were high sides but anyway watch this video and you know watch some watch the video clips of Kenny Roberts and in and that tradition which led up to Wayne Rainey and continued all the way up to you know the top Yamaha guys but that’s kind of like the evolution of the true sport bike which is the canyon Carver and the bikes that handled where is you know I’ve driver I’ve driven the night at the KZ 900 Cowie and that’s kind of a I mean it’s a very fast bike but that’s a drag bike I mean I had a friend who had an 1175 kid in one of those in the mid 70s it had little blue nitrous oxide anodized nuts we can pull it off and put on the nitrous system and he used to run to steal struts on the back of that thing and take it to the drag races but not the same as a TZ 250 the YZ 500 DGP champion bikes you know the bike that Norika Hoga ran in the 90s in the 2000s they are seven and then anyway check out this video and you know these aren’t just posers pretending the racing a jet aircraft that’s cool I got it and you know I’m I’m I’m not a big follower of tax dodging religion see that I’d have to say so not not not a lot of not a lot of faith in guys like Tom Cruise but I do like motorcycles and I appreciate Kawasaki a lot anyway give this video watch thanks I appreciate it your videos are top-notch and I appreciate the donut media! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZrvPyA-m68g.html

This had me so mesmerized with the delivery of this information....couldn't help smiling. "The step dad".....LOL

Kawasaki: we can't name it "ninja"; they're considered outlaws! motorcyles in America: MOTORCYCLE OUTLAWS

Super Stepdad 🤣

You really dissurve my subscription man in the middle of ur vedio i don't want ur video to finish ! Hats off man thanks for content!

Few days ago I met a guy who had an exact same motorcycle as Tom Cruise in Top Gun. The guy was super friendly and the bike was super clean! No scratches or anything. Same year some model same build, it was soo cool

I'm one of those 50%. I started on a Ninja 300. Excellent bike, incredibly easy to ride and handle, and so light it was awesome in canyons... until the highway. Any highway above 70 mph was terrifying on that thing since it was blown around so easily and had a budget suspension. I stepped up to a ZX-6R briefly, and then to a Ninja 1000 and I'm done. The Ninja 1000 is an amazing all-around street bike and does everything well. I am not a brand loyalist in most things, but I'm a Ninja guy for life.

"Styles change, young and cool becomes old and lame. But speed, speed is forever." Ladies and gentlemen, there's a poet between us.

Gotta admit, I love this guy's enthusiasm.

Haven't had a bike in almost 10 years, finally picked up a Vulcan S 650 & absolutely love it 🥰 dream bike will always be a gen 2 VMAX!

Day 424 of asking James to do an Up to speed on his Dad

this makes me so happy to be the proud owner of a ninja. episode hits different when the vehicle your learning about is sitting right in your backyard!

That white R32 in your background... I'm freaking drooling. The R32 is hands down my favourite car of all times... 3 times I almost bought one... but just didn't have the money realistically and bailed... I'm still dreaming...

Keep doing more motorcycle stuff. I always laugh at these. And love motorcycles

I think the most underrated joke in this whole episode is when James said, "1986's Top Gun was the blockbuster the world needed to take its mind off of Chernobyl"

James mouthing Jeremiah’s lines had me rolling.

"Nothing's cooler than danger" 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 Bravo James

Very funny, entertaining and fluid. Congrats, and informative too. Best Regards

my god this was good .The music, the lines, the editing everything was TOP NOTCH .I didn't want the video to end . keep it up guys.pls do one on Yamaha

"Cars are metal covering human, and motorcycles are human covering metal. " - Sun Tzu Imagine losing control at 195 MPH on a motorcycle.

As a Navy vet, i can confirm that everyone being sweaty is the most realistic element of Top Gun.

I have owned both most of my life. The Kawasaki Ninja ( 750 and up ) and three out of four generations of T/As. The H2 Is my dream bike. Good video.👍

I love this non linear story. My ADHD is keeping up just fine

usually im sitting here watching james' videos for entertainment, but when he said 'but speed.. speed is forever' I got chills. so f'n true.

Well done! I enjoyed this vid all kinds...

Glad to see some motorcycle content! Especially Kawasaki is amazing, I owned a Ninja 650 before I bought my BMW S1000RR 👌🏻 It was a great bike

Hell yes!!! More Up to Speed please!

Brilliant production guys. Bravo.

Donut!! Ur videos are totally dope and hilarious!! Glad l came across them!

I've been waiting for you guys to talk about the Ninja. Also fun fact the Ninja 250 and Ninja 500 went unchanged from 1987 to 2007.

I grew up on a busy bustling urban street in the 80's, wonderful times we idolized the local car and bike guys. One evening out of nowhere, a Kawi Ninja came thru with a loud exhaust at what felt like 10000 mph. It was the most stimulating thing of my childhood I still get goose bumps thinking about it. I own 7 sport bikes now. 😋

Speed is forever! Bought my first bike this year, 2006 kawasaki ninja zx6r :)

Love it Jimmie! Nice one!

This has the energy of old school up to speed episodes. Thing of beauty.

Not gonna lie, I said verbatim “Speed is Forever” with you James and now I’ve peeked and it’s down hill from here. But this is one of my favorite up to speeds because of the emphasis on the motorbike scene in Top Gun (my favorite movie)

I own the the 2 of the legendary precursor to the Ninja, 1978 KZ1000 and a 1975 H2 750. Awesome bikes so as long as you don’t want to brake quickly or turn. Ninja’s became iconic because legendary perigee stock they were breed from.

Dude you are truly entertaining to watch!

"Styles change, young and cool becomes old and lame But speed.. *speed is F O R E V E R."* - James Pumphrey, 2021 Remember that quote when we finally broke the Lightspeed barrier, lads

Ever since I was a small child , my dad promised me to buy me a motorcycle when I turn 18. Now I'm 20 and I still love motorcycles more than cars. Thanks Dad

The gpz900r was a joy to ride back in the 80s, it had a tendency to over heat, which could be easily fixed by installation of a electric fan toggle rather than the stock temp fan, having maxed it's top speed out once was enough, I don't have a need for speed and ride a Harley, but the 900r was awesome.

Had a '99 Ninja as my first bike. It had reliability problems, but I sure did love riding it.

Really would've liked to see them talk about the gentleman's agreement here, as it's basically the reason the Japanese manufacturers stopped chasing the title of "fastest"

What I like about sport bikes, is that pretty much anything from the 90s going forward is still relevant in terms of tech and sportiness, and reliability. You can get a V4, 11k reving engine with gear driven cams for like 2 grands.

Bravo bravo, bravo, this is a fascinating video. Bro, I'm teen Kawasaki all millennia. And seeing this. Put a huge smile on my face. I own a ZX-9R, by the way.

James really love his job

When he said Things got gnarly..I distinctly saw Chris Farley peering from his soul.

"not everything you read in the papers is true, but it's based.." -james, 2021

my first bike was the Ninja 500... loved that bike!

I accidently watched this exactly 1 year later and this is really cool for some reason.

You missed the best part about the Hayabusa. It is the Japanese word for the peregrine falcon whose favorite prey is... BLACKBIRDS

seeing as we’re back onto bikes for up to speed, can we get an episode on MV Agusta? they’re beautiful bikes and have a loooong history

I was already on the edge of wanting a motorcycle, but this video just solidified me going to get one

I swear James is the BEST thing to ever come out of Kentucky!!!