Here’s What Makes The Kawasaki ZX-25R Tick

More the merrier. Size does matter. There’s no replacement for displacement. All throughout life, we’ve been led to believe these adages. But every now and then, there comes something that threatens to upend the whole equation altogether. Something like that happened at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show. Meet the 2019 Kawasaki ZX-25R!

While it might be a bit too much to take it all in at a glance, we’ve broken it down into five easily digestible chunks which help define the ZX-25R. Let’s start off with the way it looks.

Looks like the Ninja 400:

Kawasaki’s new design language, which was first seen on the Ninja 400, now seems to be made uniform across the company’s faired lineup. The Ninja ZX-6R, 2020 Ninja 650 and even the new Versys 1000, they all seem to look the same lately. And it’s the same story with the ZX-25R, which is a little disappointing, to say the least. While some agree with the new design language, we would have loved to see the Japanese brand give the quarter-litre supersport its own unique identity as it did in the past with all of its bikes. 

Packs a powerful engine:

The ZX-25R uses a special 4-cylinder setup that’s liquid-cooled and only has 249cc to play with. That said, the brand hasn’t revealed any power figures just yet, but we expect the bike to produce around 60PS.

Features a host of electronic rider aids:

What reinforces this performance speculation is the fact that the bike gets a fair amount of electronic rider aids like Kawasaki Traction Control (KTRC) and different power modes to rein in all that grunt. It also gets a quickshifter paired with a 6-speed transmission.

Sophisticated underpinnings:

Going by its track-oriented setup, the bike features a sophisticated suspension setup like a segment-first Showa SFF-BP fork and a horizontal backlink monoshock, both of which are likely to be fully adjustable. Bringing the bike to a stop are disc brakes at both ends with a radially mounted caliper up front. A steel trellis frame holds it all together. Dual-channel ABS and Dunlop Sportmax tyres are offered as standard. 

Aggressive riding posture:

In terms of the rider’s triangle, the ZX-25R leans more towards the aggressive ZX-6R with low set clip-on handlebars and rearset footpegs. This isn’t surprising considering that the whole ZX range has always been about the supersport life and nothing else.