I'm glad Kawasaki is trying to save motorcycling with hybrid tech but the Ninja 7 misses the mark

So, here we are at the end of a year on Kawasaki Ninjas that’s been fascinating and frustrating in pretty much equal measure.

It started reasonably well, setting out my stall with some big rides on the luke-warm Ninja 650 – a bike that endeared itself to me as time wore on. Sure, it’s no circuit-smashing performance hero, with its 68bhp and a riding position that favours comfort over craziness, but it is a capable machine.

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• Update one: First impressions
• Update two: My thoughts on the styling
• Update three: Fuel economy testing
• Update four: Is a Ninja 7 Hybrid really faster off the line than a ZX-10R?
• Update five: ‘Do not ride’ recall notice halts testing
• Update six: Final thoughts and round-up

After a few thousand miles I swapped from the 650 to 2024’s main event – the bike I pitched to run for the year: the Ninja 7 Hybrid.

Why? Because I’m curious about engineering and love assessing new approaches to traditional problems. In this case the issue is the rapid phasing out of petrol-powered internal combustion engines through ever-tightening emissions regs, and Kawasaki’s solution is adding electronic motive power and a big old 13.2kg battery.

This should take some of the strain from normal riding, with the ability to do relatively inefficient tasks – like pulling away from a standstill and coasting – on electric power alone, meaning you’re saving fuel, emitting less carbon dioxide and ultimately killing fewer polar bears in the process.

And indeed, Kawasaki’s claims are that it has the average performance of a 700 and the fuel economy of a 250, which sounds like progress. They also claim that it’ll pull away from a standstill quicker than a litre sportsbike, so naturally I had to put that to the test. It did indeed, up to 30mph, at which point the ZX-10R I’d tested it alongside left it for dust.

The fuel economy claims were fair too, with some careful throttle application making for 270 miles to a 14-litre tank and more than 80mpg. So far, so frugal.

You might be able to tell there’s 
a ‘but’ coming here. You’d be right: the Hybrid simply isn’t much fun. It’s uncomfortable, heavy, hard to wheel around your garage (despite walk mode with reverse), not great in corners, not that quick, and it doesn’t sound great either.

I wasn’t exactly gutted when Kawasaki recalled it, then, for a software bug. The replacement was another Ninja 650, this time a Performance, and the upgrade in almost every sense was palpable. Well, it’s been interesting.