Return of the pocket rocket! Kawasaki ZX-4RR screams to 15,000rpm on track | MCN Review 

What should we group test the ZX4RR against? What would you like to see on the channel?

Brilliant presentation .Glad to see 400 Fours back....hope others follow . Compared to twins the fours have so much more excitement to give imo cant beat them.

I hope the other manufacturers follow Kawasaki, so glad to see 4 cylinders back!!

What a desirable little bike especially for young riders compared with all the twins around nowadays. More like the bikes i grew up with.

I moved down from a 1000cc fireblade. Doesn't have the same power but i can ride the wheels off it in the streets and not hit breakneck speeds to lose my license, most fun I've had in years TBH

Love the way it sings to the top but you’re left almost asking more because it can take it! Power to Kawasaki for keeping bikes like this alive!!

The coolest motorcycle of the last 5-10 years. I hope we get more high-end low-displacement bikes for the street

If I was younger recall my Honda RVF400 think it was NC35 back in the 90’s loved that bike.

Just to clear up some confusion in the comments section already; the 250cc 4 cyl Japanese bikes could rev to 19k, the 400's revved to about 14-15k (ZXR, VFR, GSXR, CBR FZR).

My very first bike was a ZXR400, absolutely loved it and wish I still had it!

Great review. Looks super fun. Would definitely have this over the 6R if I just wanted a fun weekend sports bike. It sounds like an F1 car at legal speeds. Less is more!

I find it just fine around town. It provides me with a lot of pleasure out in the country, either slow or just blasting the curves. I can wind it out on the straight aways as fast as I want at least. I fill up the tank and empty it out. That's a great day of riding.

I f*** love this class of bikes. Sure they aren’t that fast, but firstly for real roads - how fast can you actually go without getting in serious trouble!? And secondly, you can thrash these properly if you do go to track days etc at a fraction of the costs of the big bikes!

13:00 Agreed! And they can do it, during WSBK in '21 they had a beautiful ZX10R livery harking back the the ZXR750 which has a similar paint job to the 400.

Good review! Thanks

Cannot wait to ride it eventually. I dont think it has to be for young new riders only. I heard a lot of experienced track riders interested in it as a second bike for smaller tracks. Its nice how its better equipped than other low powered bikes that feel all a bit crap when you go from something bigger.

That sound is just amazing, goose bumps. Sounds like a racer

Good to hear! I still miss my NC30 after all the litre bikes etc it's an awesome class the 400cc pocket rockets!

Fantastic review Michael! Thanks MCN! Also first time we can see you in a Shoei not an Arai..

This bike will (continue to) sell like an absolute hot cake in japan. Which many don’t mention, this whole bike exists because of japan. Where there is a 400cc limit and you otherwise need another (really expensive extra) license, need to pay way more taxes, insurance, and most importantly more often and more expensive shaken (MOT). Also you need a different more expensive parking spot in Tokyo at least. The bike makes absolute perfect sense here.

Nice review ❤❤

great review two thumbs ups

What a bike, i ride a VFR 800 but this bike looks the business. Looking forward to test riding one at some stage. Great video.

Thanks for a fun review. I don’t want one, but I’m glad bikes like this still exist.

Neevesy loves that rev limiter 🤣

As always excellent review I have one in my garage currently can’t wait until the snow melts so I can take it on it’s voyage run.

Moore Mafia tunes one of these on YT.. Went from 56whp to 72whp!!

Having had the KR1S and the ZXR400 (in a lovely candy red) back in the 90s and even though I’m knocking on the door of 50 and a little heavier than I should be I’m really excited about this bike and it’s the only new bike release for some years that I actually want to go buy new And it will look good parked up next to my ZX7R in the garage

Would love one of these as my second bike, but it’s perhaps a bit too pricey. Still, as a former mid 90’s SuperSport 600 owner, it’s great to see a fun I4 for the kids.

I'm really looking forward to riding one of these. A ZX4RR makes sense on most of these tight roads. I love my liter bikes but certain tracks and certain roads this is going to be a lot of fun.

Not a fan of the subframe being welded to the frame. When you crash that thing at the track it's going to be a hefty repair bill.

such a fantastic review Neevesy.. this bike is ripe for tuning and may be custom made alumunium or carbon fibre chassis and bodywork...one of the greatest bikes of the last 10 years

Looking forwards to the review on the website and in the MCN Newspaper. Also would be interested to see the road test video. Hopefully all in the works 🤞

So cool to see, I'm tempted 😁

Great video Michael as always, looks like a good fun Bike for a fair budget, I've seen some people's comments saying it's too expensive and I'm like it's absolutely priced spot on...

I have the ZX25-RR that is shown in this video (now road registered), and its a great, fun bike to ride. So this can only be a little bit more fun to ride, with the extra power. Get the exhaust swapped out for a full system and an decent air filter, and youll be hearing those rev's for miles around. And its nice theybe based the bike around the 250, be easier for me to get some spares too. Would love to see you test them both together with some of the bikes from the late 80's early 90's like the original ZXR250/400/ CBR / FZR etc.

Absolutely lovely bike. Having had the ZXR400 as a first bike since 18 years, it seemed so fitting to buy the ZX-4RR to join it. The 4RR has a much more forgiving rider triangle and is so easy and precise to ride. And of course awesom brakes by comparison. But the ZXR400 excells when pushing with its more commited seating position.

been waiting for this piece since i ordered one a year ago!

It’s a shame they couldn’t have made it a bit lighter. I rode all of the 400s back in the day and loved them - huge fun.

It's amazing actually they've brought these back 🎉

I need this to accompany my CB-1

Lovely bike 😊

So excited for this bike! Would also be interesting to comapare witht he Ninja 400 Twin. The UK bikes are far more capable than any other tests or comparison of the US bikes with that extra power 💪 🇬🇧 Incomparible 👍 More comparisons please 🙏

I can't wait, I've got one on order, not had anything less than 1000cc for twenty five years, and I want something to thrash without going to jail! I'm just waiting for the UK launch date, it's well past september...

💚 ...let the good times roll.

Having had a fine career around Honda motorcycles, I have to say that today, Kawasaki has it going on. Great review.

Great video. Such a shame only one design available. What happened to the cool candy red and blue and of course the retro race paint?!

I love the idea of this. It takes me back to my first bike, a Yamaha FZR-250 that revved to 18,000 RPM. Bit disappointing that this bike doesn't have an alloy frame, but maybe with some more attention and sales in this segment they can start to up the performance. Still, it looks like one hell of a road bike.

went to a trackday last weekend, brough my ninja 650 and cbr1000rr, the cbr didn't run due to a bad fuel controller, had a fricking blast on the 650, learned to shift and use all the gears.

What a cracking machine.

I ride a mt 09, but the little 4s always appealed to me as I liked 600 super sports that I had and had modern small parallel twins, but wish I could try a 400 4 cylinder

That change in the (induction?) sound when he cracks the throttle open makes my hair stand up 😁

nice....a bike that is not 200 horse power make perfect sense on a winding road

Could also do a ZX-4RR vs superbikes (600cc) on a track day to see how competitive they can be. I'm sure it'd be closer than most think depending on the track

I love it!

Great bike

Old school: you have to work hard to have fun. Not sure the young guys will appreciate that. Thanks for the review!

@5:12, I consider myself a fairly competent rider on my GSXR750 but the way you just enter that corner that hot and casually fly around it really puts what the ZX4RR is capable of into perspective. Even at just over 400lbs, the GSXR would really be on its edge trying to take that. Inertia is an unavoidable rule of physics and the light weight shows. This bike rips on corners unlike any 400 I've seen! Also, your exceptional riding skill, nonetheless!

6:18 is the sound of my people ❤

I owned an nc35 which was imported from UK to SWE and the 55 bhp it was dynoed at the back wheel felt more than plenty on the road. As fast as an 200hp car. And the 201kph was plenty as well. All I wished that it would be lighter and smaller as it was a pig compared to my ss600 bikes like d675 and zx636 from 05. If this had a proper alu frame I would be all over it but this is too low budget/ entry level for that price.

I'm a simple man, it's Neevesy, i like. Have to go some to get close to the FZR400RR-SP but nice one Kawasaki.

Kawasaki ZX series are all track focused. Great machine 👍

i got one it’s great

Still the best bike reviewer by a 1000 rpm 👌

Group test? Yamaha R7 vs RS 457 vs the Ninja. Maybe a Chinese competitor thrown in. Definitely include one of the original 400 cc bikes from “back in the day” I’m assuming someone would lend you one also

Nice bike

I think they did a 40th Anniversary color option for this bike recently, so maybe Neeves bought one of those ? :)

Aprilia RS250 was my dream bike

Recently refurbished my CBR400RR (NC29} and have had one of the best summers riding it, with todays tyres these pocket rockets are awesome. No TC or ABS on mine though, so that begs the question, which one Neevesy would go for if mine was on sale for about 5K?

Awesome review Neevesy looking forward to seeing these new zx4rr in the flesh and seeing the general publics response and comments on the coming months. Keep it up

Hi. Looks fun. When you goin to test ride the new 2024 zx636r ?

I think that 400 to 600cc is the ideal size for the U.K. roads

litre and 600's are cool. but for 99 percent of us human beings who rarely, if ever, go to track days this 400 is much more usable. this awsome bike here is my new dream bike. used to be an RSV4. while it would be nice to have an RSV4, ill only ever get to use so little of its full potential while this, I can def use a lot more it. def will get one soon!

I just put a down payment on a ZX-4RR 40th anniversary with the retro 90's paint. Funny how you mention that you would buy a retro colored ZX-4RR at around 13:00. So are you buying one now that the retro color is available? From what I am hearing from dealers the retro ZX-4RR 40th is going to be very limited production.

3:28 that's not actually correct. The rear shock is PDS and not linkage one like on the ZX10R.

That's our bike!

Wow same peak hp as my old vfr 700 with less weight and a warranty. This looks like it’ll be an absolute riot to ride hard.

I miss hearing that, just like my fzr250 3ln3 sounded

Im trading in my Z900 for one, love it

No adjustable fork at that price range? Ninja 400had a joke of a fork, absolute terror on the track. This should have full adjustability.. esp for the money they ask.

I might be a bit heavy for a bike like this nowadays but i think this is kind of the perfect bike for a normal human. The old zxr was so hot. Agree it looks way better, but the new one isnt hideous.

I would go out and buy one if it wasnt green, but so good to see the small displacement 4's returning to the market, hopefully will make honda and yamaha bring something along to compete with it

I love my FZR400. Nothing beats a little in-line four on a twisty back road.

Now they have the 40th anniversary vintage colors. Put me over the top had to get one myself.

About the ZXR400 colors not being used on the ZX-4RR, look at what they just announced for the 40th Anniversary editions coming out in 2024. :-) Already put an order out for mine, gonna look great between the ZXR750 and ZXR400 in the garage!

I'm looking at buying a bike for track days. Would this be a better option than the 2013 ZX6R? This bike is costing about 10.2K euros while a used 2013 ZX6R costs about 8K 😅😅

I can't get past the steel frame on a bike like this, but then I'm old and remember the exotica from the '90s and 2000s

I’d love a Versys 400rr for my daily!!!

These are seriously limited from the factory but there plenty of flashes out and upgrades, Even at this early stage a 50% power increase is in the ballpark if you spend a bit more cash

With an open can that thing is gonna sound incredible coming up a canyon. And with one tooth down on the front sprocket? ❤️

A friend of mine paid someone to bring in a new Kawasaki 250four-cylinder from Japan back in 1990 or 91. Four-cylinder, full fairing, 19,000 RPM. He still has the motorcycle here in 2023. we went out on two of his bikes, one day, this, 250 Kawasaki, water, cooled, four-cylinder, and one of his Yamaha 400/4 cylinders.. We took them on some back roads into Ohio through basically farmland roads. Both of us were X roadracer’s… So we could process information traveling at higher speeds like braking points.. after about an hour of flogging, these two machines, which was great fun, he asked me which one I liked better. I told him I like the Yamaha better, because I thought I had more power. He said, of course, it has more power, it’s a 400, the Kawasaki is a250. I did not know that until he told me that. But both of the machines were very close in Performance, the Yamaha head more low end 0:15 grunt..

welldone Kawasaki, hope other manifacturers will follow this triend!

Would love track day operators to make groups by capacity. Trouble is there would be too few ín the smaller capacity groups.

Should be a great race series next season in bsb. Why on earth its so large is beyond me.

When is the road test?

Really nice video!!..but how does this compare with the Z900 as both having an inline four and the Z having 50 odd Horses more? Also in India both the bikes are priced the same..

Will there be a carrier for my topbox?

Easy test for this customer is if they ask can it make more power(through mods), then it is not the right bike for them. What it comes with is what cha get and you as a rider have to bing the skills to make it faster. Well done Kawasaki Heavy Industries.

Sounds like these will be popular race bikes next year.. better get your deposits in folks!

Please pay attention! I respect your opinion. I have made the last two Daytona 200s on my Ducati V2, but I can't seem to get a start number for the Manx GP, where I completed the Newcomer training in 2019 (may get an ultralightweight nod for 2024). The question is, are you faster on the 90s zxr400s or the new zx400rr?