It might have won six out of the last six World Superbike Championships, with Johnny Rea onboard, but the Kawasaki ZX-10R (or RR) hasn?t been flavour of the year in the real world, for some time now. It wasn?t that it was too slow. It?s just that it seemed to take the engine a bit too long to get spun up. Oh, and the tech?s been a little bit old fashioned. It just generally needed a big injection of 21st century excitement. Particularly if it wanted to compete with its contemporary litre sportsbikes.

Now, I’m a bit of a Kawasaki fanboy. In fact I own a ZX-10R myself (a 2017 race bike), so when the 2021 ZX-10R and RR press pack arrived in my email inbox, I couldn?t wait to see what they?d done to close the gap up to the competition.
The headline updates to both the new models were all about aerodynamics and chassis improvements. There?s a few minor tweaks to the engine but, if I?m being honest, it left me a little disappointed.

?Downforce? has obviously been the name of the game for Kawasaki?s designers. Thanks to some new integrated winglets and a redesigned seat unit, they?ve been able to achieve an extra 17% more downforce compared to the 2020 Ninja.

They?ve also made it feel even racier by lifting the foot pegs by 5mm. The screen’s 40mm higher too, and they’ve replicated Johnny Rea?s World Superbike handlebar position. It?s one of Kawasaki?s ?next step WorldSBK features? for 2021. The new TFT dash is pretty ?racey? too. And the new C...