Kawasaki’s MotoGP machine sharpens up

These are the latest pictures of Kawasaki’s ZX-RR four-stroke Grand Prix bike and it shows how much the designers have drawn from Honda’s successful RCV design.

You can read more on the Kawasaki MotoGP machine in this week’s MCN, out June 26, but here’s a few of the recent chages:

*The fairing now has a more angular and cut down nose, while the sidepanels also have larger notches in them than earlier versions.

*The bike appears to have an all-in-one carbon-fibre subframe, and possibly an underslung fuel tank allowing a smaller main tank.

*The frame still looks like a modified ZX-7R superbike item, but suspension parts include the latest nitrogen-charged Ohlins forks.

The picture shows former WSB star Akira Yanagawa on his way to second place in a round of the All-Japan Superbike series. The ZX-RR has already won a race this year in that series and it’s expected to make appearances at selected MotoGP rounds towards the end of this season.later