Kawasaki’s Upcoming Supercharged 600cc Sportsbike

By Sreejith

Updated: Friday, September 23, 2016, 16:14 [IST]

Kawasaki's patented photos have surfaced showing the upcoming supercharged 600cc or 800cc four-cylinder sportsbike. The company is calling it as the "R2". This could be a replacement for the ZX-6R. In the past, superbikes with forced induction were pretty terrible like the 1982 Honda X500 Turbo and the 1984 Kawasaki GPz750 Turbo.

Kawasaki’s Upcoming Supercharged 600cc Sportsbike

The technology has moved on since then. Kawasaki was able to produce the 210 bhp Ninja ‘H2' and the immensely powerful 300bhp track-only monster ‘H2R'. The new bike R2 will be using a 600cc or 800cc ‘Balanced Supercharged Engine', a second generation supercharged inline-four motor. The new model will be a middle-weight with the same level of performance as a 1000cc.

A compact motor producing around 200bhp and a better torque low down will be a great threat for current superbikes. The supercharged engine has been designed to be balanced, featuring a variable geometry intake with radial electronically-pivoting blades that can change pitch to regulate the flow of air into the supercharger.

R2 and ‘R2R' names have trademarked by Kawasaki in Japan. The name indicates an even faster version of the motorcycle is also available and that model will be track-only one. Motorcycle enthusiasts are waiting for this ‘Hyperbike babies'.