Kawasaki Ninja 600rx

KAWASAKI NINJA 600RX

CYCLE WORLD TEST

Designer Ninja: Stop-gap measure or a look at things to come?

IF CALVIN KLEIN OR BILL BLASS were penning a middleweight sportbike for the new fall season, Kawasaki's 1987 600RX Ninja would be it. The 600RX, you see, is the equivalent of a designer motorcycle, a one-time-only, limited-edition version of the standard Ninja 600. Only 1000 of these “ebony and cosmic gray” specials were shipped over from Japan, so if you like the looks of the bike, don’t get your hopes up; your smiling Kawasaki dealer will probably get only one of them, and chances are that he has already moved the $3999 package into the hands of a willing buyer.

What the RX’s added cost ($300 above the standard Ninja’s price) brings with it, besides the understated paint job, is an aluminum frame, a nicely done piece that rewards in two areas. First, the quality of its welds is light-years ahead of the painful-to-look-at globs that hold the garden-variety Ninja’s steel frame in check. And the frame’s lightweight material allows the RX to rest 13 pounds lighter on the scales than the porky standard version. Even with the Richard Simmons treatment, though, the RX still has a way to go to catch up with the class lightweight, Yamaha’s positively anorexic FZ600, which, at 444 pounds wet, is 25 pounds lighter than the RX.

Now, before you start wondering why Kawasaki’s product planners went through all the trouble to design a new aluminum frame for a meager 1000-bike production run, you should know this: They didn’t. There were plenty of these aluminum frames kicking around the warehouse, waiting to be fitted with GPz400 parts for the Japanese home market. Since the lookalike GPz400 and Ninja 600 share the same engine cases, it was an easy matter to appropriate 1000 of the frames, order up some ebony-and-cosmic-gray pigments, and whip together an instant limited-edition 600RX.

Along with the 400’s aluminum frame came its tucked-in, 26-degree steering head angle (compared with the standard 600’s 27 degrees) and a slightly narrower front tire (100/90 vs. 1 10/90). These two changes, in conjunction with the decrease in weight, give the RX a different feel than the standard Ninja 600. For one thing, it feels slightly less top-heavy; and for another, it steers very, very quickly.

Considering that the previous 600 was far from being a truck in the steering department, this newfound quickness can take some getting used to. In our test of the 1985 Ninja 600, we noted that with a rider in the saddle who was unfamiliar with the bike, the 600 could feel slightly twitchy, and needed “only the slightest of inputs at the controls.” But if that’s the case, the 600RX requires the practiced hands of a surgeon.

This is bv no means a condemnaJ tion of the RX\s handling, for an expert rider can laser-beam the bike down a twisty backroad with digital accuracy. It's just that with a less-capable rider, the first few miles of a ride generally are marked with a series of steering corrections and overcorrections until the rider learns how' to apply just the right amount of pressure to the stubby handlebars. And just in case you're wondering, no, even with its new frame and razoredge steering accuracy, the new' Ninja still comes out second-best to the Yamaha FZ600 during backroad play-racing.

Nevertheless, the RX has the same strong points as the regular Ninja 600. meaning that it has the same rev-happy, liquid-cooled, inlineFour engine, currently the class powerhouse. The RX is also blessed w ith the same compliant, fully adjustable suspension components that we raved about last year. And wTile the same slightly cramped riding position is still with us. compared to the nocompromise racebike ergonomics of the FZ600, the RX feels like a crosseountry cream pu ft'.

But the question still nags: Just why has Kawasaki chosen to give 1000 of us a chance to ow n this tarted-up. honed-down. sharpersteering version of the Ninja 600? Well, you’re reading one of the reasons: good old public relations. The 600 made a big splash right after its introduction early in l 985. but because it saw little more than graphics updating for 1986, magazine reviews of the bike have been minimal for the past year and a half. Not that the 600 needed any puffing up; Kawasaki won’t open its corporate ledgers to the press, but it’s a good guess that the Ninja 600 was the Big K’s bestseller in 1985. Indeed, in some areas of the country—notably Southern California, where squadrons of the things patrol the beach highways—every third motorcycle seems to be a Ninja 600.

But the other manufacturers are sorely aware of the Ninja's sales success. More to the point, they are aware of the kinds of buyers who were taking Ninjas home: for the most part, young riders, the kind who are likely to trade up to a bigger bike in future years. So for l 987, the other makers are loading up for an assault on the Ninja faithful. If you've been reading these pages, you know about the rumored Suzuki GSX-R600. Honda is tired of having sand kicked in the Interceptor 500's face, so a revamped. 600cc V-Four is in the pipeline. And Yamaha will continue with its FZ600. which is already making a dent in the Ninja ranks, perhaps even adding liquid-cooling for '87 to augment the FZ's battle-readiness.

Faced with that kind of aggression, Kawasaki had to do something to protect its hilltop position in the middleweight sportbike clash. Although no one at Kawasaki is talking, it’s likely that the RX is intended as a two-wheeled telegram to Ninjaph iles. a motorized message for them to keep the faith. And if our travels with the RX are any indication, the ploy seems to be working. Cries of “bitchin'.” “way rad” and “choice” echoed after the new Ninja during our coastal jaunts. For those of you fortunate enough never to have been subjected to SoCal's teen beach lingo, that means they like it. a lot.

But w hat all this means to someone thinking of buying a standard 1987 Ninja 600 is not clear. In a depressed marketplace that is putting more and more emphasis on easy-to-afford, entry-level middleweights (read Yamaha Radian 600), it seems unlikely that Kawasaki w ill bite the bullet and retool for a totally new 600cc sportbike. Still, we can expect the standard '87 Ninja 600 to have an aluminum frame, perhaps one designed especially for it and not just a 400-class holdover. Mechanically, the bike should remain unchanged, but don't be too surprised to see slightly reworked body panels. After all, there's nothing quite as out-of-date as a trendsetter that stays too long at the party.

Until the new bike is unveiled, though, the 600RX—on the basis of its greater flash appeal, lighter weight and plus-perfect steering —is the Ninja to have.

Even if you can't have it.

KAWASAKI

NINJA 600RX

$3999