Kawasaki Wouldn’t Let This Gem Go
When the 2020 bike lineup from Kawasaki came out there were a few holes. One of the bigger ones was the Ninja 1000. Well, Ninja fans, you can now breathe easy. The company recently filed paperwork with CARB that is for a new 2020 Ninja 1000. So, it looks like we will get the bike after all.
The culprit for the delay on the 2020 Ninja 1000 is Euro 5 emissions regulations. Those regulations are tougher and that’s causing Kawasaki and every other motorcycle manufacturer out there to make their engines cleaner. The Hayabusa is a perfect example. It’s being sold in the U.S. because emissions are less stringent here, but it will not be sold in 2020 in most markets.
But enough about the emissions standards, what about the new Ninja 1000? The bike gets a 1,043cc engine that on first glance looks very similar to what was there before. However, Kawasaki has updated the engine designation from 1.04AAG to 1.04AAJ. The bike also conforms to the new Euro 5 standards. It’s actually quite a dramatic reduction in emissions, which means the future Ninja 1000 should be around for a while. It’ll be interesting to see when Kawasaki actually unveils this motorcycle. It has the new supercharged Z and a few others that it plans to reveal at EICMA.