One of the key aspects to Japanese motorcycles rising above the competition in the late 70s and early 80s was their incredible value for money. No other manufacturers have done this better than Yamaha and Kawasaki, with Yamaha there is outstanding quality balanced with performance, Kawasaki, on the other hand, will give you as much power as possible per dollar.
Both offer the consumer an array of options, from tiny run-about scooters to super-bikes, Kawasaki takes it a step further though offering bikes in the hyper-bike segment. That leaves us with the burning question; which manufacturer really offers us better value? After all, value isn’t all about pure performance, we want a bike to perform, but we NEED it to be reliable.
What we don't want is something that Honda always seems determined to produce; bullet-proof bikes that are so boring they actually last longer than you would ever want them to.
So between Yamaha and Kawasaki, who's offering offer the best ban for your buck?
Small Bikes
The world of smaller sub-400CC bikes and scooters is dominated by Yamaha. They offer incredible reliability and class-leading performance across the board in this market segment, Kawasaki continues to lag behind here, offering only aging inefficient bikes.
A lot of hope rests on the soon to be released Ninja ZX-25R which will have a 4-cylinder engine with around 43 horsepower and a red line set at a dizzy 17000 rpm! Prices are not yet set in stone, but if you want the race-spec version with all the add-ons, it won’t be a value option.
Yamaha offers an array of options in this segment, one which primarily caters to the booming Asian market. Yamaha will also start offering smaller electric bikes, which will also likely be a smash hit.
Off-road Bikes
One of the longest and most historically significant battles for Japanese bikes has been the battle on dirt. Although in the past decade a certain orange non-Japanese manufacturer has completely outgunned both, the two of them still offer better overall value.
With Kawasaki’s performance-oriented approach, the motocross scene was their obvious target. They still make affordable, competitive bikes but their glory days are well and truly behind them. Reliability has never been their strength, but almost all race bikes will get rebuilt after races with performance right on the ragged edge for these bikes, they got away with it.
Yamaha’s slow and steady approach won them fans all over the world, with tunable bikes that take an incredible amount of punishment. As a result, they have become a staple in endurance events for amateur riders all over the world, the Yamaha WR and YZ450s just represent better value than anything else out there.
Tourers
Kawasaki has a long history of making sublime touring bikes. A good example of this is the GTR1400, an astonishingly good touring bike if the owner just chooses to ride it that way. With 150 horsepower, there will always be enough power on tap.
On the other side, you have Yamaha who got far more into the adventure-touring market, starting with a bike like the XTZ750 and evolving that into the Super Tenere we see today. Their only real touring effort is the slow, soft Tracer that doesn’t hold a candle to any of the proper touring bikes other manufacturers offer.
Kawasaki offers unbeatable value in this segment and blows anything Yamaha has to offer out the water.
Performance Bikes
This is where things start getting really interesting. The Yamaha R1 quite simply revolutionized an entire class, starting the super-bike class all by themselves while everyone else thought Y2K was an actual concern.
Kawasaki went the other way on this, and said we don’t need to try and beat these guys on a level playing field; we can dominate them on our own terms. This gave birth to the hyper-bike we all know and love today. The first Kawasaki ZZR1400 was launched in 06, replacing the short-lived 1200 with an up-rated 1400CC engine. By 2012 it was refreshed and power went from 190 to over 200 horsepower; the ZX-14R Hyper-bike was born.
The new H2R takes it to yet another level, making a physics bending 310 horsepower from its 1000CC supercharged engine. In a straight line, nothing can touch the H2, theoretically capable of 250 mph!
So, which manufacturer offers more bang for buck? Obviously, a lot depends on what type of bike you looking at buying, but overall, even objectively speaking the Yamahas always seems to give you that much more overall value when it comes to build quality, handling, and dependability. If you just in the business of more power, then you would have to say go for Kawa, nobody, not even Yamaha can give you more horsepower per dollar!
August 21, 2020 at 05:15AM
https://ift.tt/3hsSg60
Yamaha VS Kawasaki: Which Offers The Best Bang For Buck? - HotCars
https://ift.tt/2ZqQevw
Yamaha
No comments:
Post a Comment