The newly designed Kawasaki z400 came out last year to complement the ninja 400; same engine standard position, fun little orange color on this one. So same 6-speed transmission as well. This one is equipped with the ABS great looking a little motorcycle. Go ahead and look at the air goes and controls on this. Alright, so on the right side, you have your engine, cutoff switch. It is a fixed brake lever, not adjustable start switch there key here, flash the pass behind right selection. There turn signal horn and clutch is also not adjustable, but also that nice feather light one finger type clutch that Kawasaki is really well known for on the dial here. You’re going to see a digital tachometer digital speedometer digital fuel, digital coolant. You do have a clock there, the off side of trip, a trip, be a regular odometer right there. You can reset it on that side.
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Z400 Specs
Of course you have oil indication or fault indication course. It’s not start. That’s the only reason why i see the oil indication line service engine abs, neutral, turn signals and That’s about it with a coolant warning light as well and bright. So after looking that over, let’s take this for a ride and see how she does alrighty. So when we’re hopping on this motorcycle, this one’s going to be a little bit different than the Ninja 400, not as aggressive of seating position. It’s more upright. The bars do come out more solid bar versus the sport bike type bars on the Ninja 400. Like I said that clutch is just so lightweight, go ahead and get this Gator started here, all right, all right, so the first thing that I’m going to mediately notice on this motorcycle versus It’s a ninja, 400 sibling.
Ergonomics
It’s just how you sit into the bike. You know you really do grip the tank with your knees. It’s very much well an engaging position, but the feet aren’t not as far back. They are actually more forward on this bike, not by much, though so my feet more aligned with where my shoulders are right. Now I do lean forward you’ll see that my arm does bend slightly and then leans forward to the bars. So It’s not a full-out Bend position, That’s very kind of similar there, but I’m a little bit more upright on this machine altogether, because it feels shorter between me and the handlebars.
Gearing
As you can see, I’m in sixth gear right now we’re doing 40 miles an hour 42 miles an hour somewhere in there and we’re right around 4000 rpms. So this is going to, be where this bike is going to be out quite a bit. It’s going to be one of those city type bikes, and you can actually do some warming range on this bike too. It’s actually rather comfortable. Actually nice upright position makes it really easy to ride here. All right engine braking is actually super good on this machine as well, and regular breaking is very good as well, so you get a little bit of dive there and if we break pretty hard you’ll see that diving on the front fork. So it is a little bit lightly suspended. That’s kind of no big deal, though little z400 twin is quite plucky for the city, It’s just as good as the ninja 400 in pluck it actually has a decent power coming off the line. It’s actually very smooth operating little twins. First right now we’re not really pressing her that much and we don’t want to It’s a brand new bike, so we don’t want to be bad to it and break it up before it breaks in now. This runs a little bit smoother than You’re accustomed to seeing me ride, but you can still get an idea of what the suspension is like.
Suspension
We do actually have some bumps in here that just don’t show on the video, but I could tell you that, like I said it is a very softly sprung motorcycle, but It’s not anything. That’s bottoming out or anything with my weight on it away around two hundred and nine pounds. My inseam is 32 inches long, I’m 6 foot tall, so I’m kind of a weird proportion, human, but I can sit comfortably on the bike. I also hit the ground flat-footed. Just fine, the suspension is holding me just fine as well. I don’t feel any weird choppiness or anything like that. When you see me brake here, you’ll see that front end. Do that nice little dive there and That’s going to need you to because It’s a little bit. You know lightly sprung, but That’s no big deal. It’s not It’s to be expected on a bike like this. It’s not going to be something that’s a complete like track motorcycle like It’s a ninja 400 brother, this one’s more for the street ability.
Now the seat does have enough movement where I could iron enough room. I should say that I could move back and forth and kind of angle, my body and position a little bit different here and there and, like I said, you’ve really hugged the tank on this machine for a brand new rider or somebody who really likes to feel The machine out, I really like that aspect, because you could put your whole body into the motorcycle. It can flick your hips around and it causes the bike to have a little bit more flick ability as well versus just doing it all by arm control and everything. All right getting even more broken road here, so you can get a better suspension test. You can see. The suspension is handling it. Just fine. This clutch is just so buttery light. That is one thing. I’ve always been impressed with Kawasaki, and the clutch has always been cable operated. Never liked us, you know never a hydraulic, clutch and they’re so light that one finger usable. Of course these are ours in some cases, with an assisted clutch or slipper clutch and stuff.
Z400 Engine Performance
So it makes those coach poles really light, but it engages really buttery smooth and the transmission is very precise. It’s not notching at all, of course, with this being a little bit shorter displacement, you do fly up through the gears. Pretty quick, not realizing You’re, about to hit the top gear that quickly, I’m going to remain seated for this truck here and I didn’t even get bucked off that it won’t actually kind of indent itself in a little bit. So I went up and over and kind of into au shape and back out didn’t throw me off the seat, didn’t even upset the bike at all. It’s like. I said it is a lighter suspension, but It’s really well sprung. Now the mirrors on it are a little narrow for me. I can see a little bit behind me, but I see a lot of arm in each of those mirrors, but the image is very clean. Like I said this z400 engine is very smooth. It doesn’t really vibrate at all when You’re running around at this speed around 4000 rpm. It’s not lugging its way down. It’s doing this very well and nice and compliant its engine. Braking for such a small, parallel twin is actually really good.
Sometimes, when I’m on these kind of machines, it just does not seem like It’s going to stop that well and this one you just start going into that compression braking, That’s taking its way down nice and easy all right. So, as you can tell, it gets up to speed to regular Road speeds wonderfully It’s very, very smooth and it doesn’t seem like It’s that small of an engine. I know It’s a 400. I know It’s a little less actually, but it really does power. This motorcycle quite well. The ergonomics overall give a big hand like mine, It’s okay. It actually has this nice swoop on there, so you get a good hand, grip on the brake and also the clutch is well they’re, not too far away. I will say I do long for a little bit wider bar on this, but That’s not this kind of bike.
TFT Screen
It’s a nice little standard and then so far this TFT screen has been very visible, even in the Sun, which is currently over my shoulder, as you can kind of see by the glare off this vehicle in front of me here, but I can still read it. Just fine now feeling on this motorcycle since we’re kind of having to do this back and forth a little bit of slow riding here is nice and precise. I have not felt a dead zone in this. At all friction zone is if You’re going to pull it all the way in for number one is about a three three and a half so you’ll see right here, I’ll, pull it out right there around three and a half or so in the numbering. So when the clutch goes to engage, so It’s not too far out there and not too close there to throw you off It’s perfect now this is a Saturday and I don’t. I usually expect this much traffic, but we had snow earlier this week and it is a you see where it melted off over there caused some puddles and stuff, but caused a little bit more people to be out here today, since It’s a beautiful daytime all supposed to be more rain, so expected a little bit more traffic, but not this much more, but it does let you know how the bike feels and it gets at a time to warm up.
I know today we’re in the upper 40s lower 50s right now in temperature. So we’re not incredibly cold or anything, but at least I get to sit here and see if any Heat randomly comes off the motorcycle at all, and I don’t feel anything at this time still. This bike is very easy to hold to you can see – hopefully, maybe a little bit I like to keep my right leg up on the brake that way that lights on and then I just land with one foot and this bike is so light. It’s like I’m not even sitting on anything right now, which is grapefruit. You know moving around the city. If you got to do this quite often, if You’re in stop-and-go traffic, all right back up motion here, all right so really easy to get through. These turns and stuff I mean I mean now yeah. I know I’m an Oklahoman there’s not very much here wish. We had some better turns to really take this to show you guys. This chassis is really flickable very lightweight in a very nice package. That is like how smooth and everything is operating clutch transmission. Everything is just spot-on with this machine all right.
Highway Speeds
Let’s take her up here and see how she does at highway speeds, at around 5500 rpm for this 400, so It’s actually turning nice and comfortably. I’M going to go ahead and spank her a little bit and get her up to a more appropriate highway, speed all right so for every ten and speed You’re going to get around a thousand and rpm, because here we are around seventy five RP or seventy-five miles. An hour and were around 7,500 rpm and he worth between 7,000 and 72 or 7,000 7,500 got a little hard to tell with the digital tachometer right there and then, but it does get up there and It’s actually very comfortable. You do feel some buzzing at this speed. Of course, some of that does work its way out, especially during break-in, but really in all actuality, there’s not much coming through the handlebars. It’s worn my feet right now at this higher rpm and higher speed. We didn’t have some pretty decent winds today too, and this bike is handling this perfectly.
Handling
It’s a nice chassis and It’s handling the higher speeds, just fine, there’s no wobbles or anything to bespeak up. It’s very planted on this road, despite all the turbulence from the wind and the way this is going. So It’s actually really nice go ahead and hop off here and on these more broken roads. Much once again, here a little chop in my voice, but really It’s really well sprung, getting down to first gear and just plodding along easy to balance to its low speeds. It’s just a wonderfully done machine. I’M just like how everything is nice and light to the touch on this machine. You don’t have to like try to rip into it or anything like that. You just It’s like a just like part of you just an extension of the body to the machine. That’s really what a good motorcycle should be now the sound on it.
People always ask how the sound is well being that this is a you know, stock motorcycle everything stock on it is a very silent machine, not very loud at all, and it sounds like your typical parallel-twin, especially small displacement, so it doesn’t sound like anything. Rip-Roaring and you could probably get to talk a little bit louder, but It’s not going to smell going to let the world on fire. Alright, go over this big hump. There didn’t even get bucked off the bike once again, very well done Kawasaki with this machine.
Comfort
I think I actually like this better than the Ninja 400 for the sheer fact that It’s much more comfortable for somebody like me when the Ninja 400 around the same amount of time that I had with it. I was already getting a little bit of an inkling of a cramp going into my right hip and this one I don’t feel that way at all. Like I said I have enough movement in the seat. I can position my body a little bit differently here and there, and that way I get a little bit of rest from the pressure points and from the pinch points, if you want to call it that as well, you can see that the suspension is really nice. Yes, It’s a little floaty a little bit. You know a little soft, but It’s not bad at all. You could actually probably do a little bit more work to it. You can do a little bit of pre adjustment in the back, and that way it does say just take care of a little bit on that much heavier than probably where this is set for It’s probable, I’m probably good. 50. 50 60 pounds more than what It’s pretty low deceitful right now, but, to be honest, I really have enjoyed it. Even in the stock position I mean the bike rides beautifully. The feeling of the z400 is beautiful. The way this thing runs is absolutely wonderful. I’M getting no heat on any side of my foot or any side of my leg or anything like that. Left and right side is perfect. Bike rides rather well. It’s really well put together. Everything is smooth and very easy to operate. You don’t even have to think about what You’re doing this bike is just so precise and everything is just in such a predictable position that you don’t worry about anything. That’s strange on. There goes or anything, It’s just a great riding machine.
