A 200hp, supercharged touring bike was always going to get my vote. But now, the Kawasaki Ninja H2 SX isn?t just a 200hp supercharged touring bike, it is the most comprehensively specified sport-tourer ever created. Or so say Kawasaki. And they?re probably not far wrong, because now, as well as it?s supercharged engine, it?s fully kitted out with radar.

Ok, it?s not the first bike to roll off a production line with radar technology (that was the Multistrada V4 a year earlier), but it?s the first supercharged one. And as per previous radar enabled motorcycles, the new H2 SX has Forward Collision Warning (FCW), Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and Blind Spot Detection (BSD).

I?m a big fan of BSD. This is the system that, using a rear radar, lets you know, via a light on the rear-view mirror, if there?s a vehicle occupying your blind spot. Brilliant. That?s definitely something that?ll make motorcycling safer.
Whilst I?m personally not a massive fan of ACC, I can see the point of it. The Kawasaki system, developed with Bosch, has three distance settings, so you can decide how close you want to get to the vehicle in front before you?re bike slows down to their speed. If you want to plod along at the speed of all the other traffic, then ACC is great. But if you want to get a move on (you are on a bike after all), it doesn?t make a lot of sense.

Nonsense

But what makes no sense at all if FCW. You get a notice on your dash if it thinks you?re getting too close ...