Kawasaki Z900 Review: Four Cylinders, Fair Price

In an era when middleweight nakeds increasingly lean on twins and triples to hit a price, Kawasaki has quietly kept faith with the inline-four — and the Z900 is all the better for it. Here is a machine that delivers the creamy, revvy character of a four-cylinder engine, dresses it in menacing Sugomi bodywork, and asks a price that undercuts almost everything with comparable performance.

The result is one of motorcycling’s great value propositions. The Z900 does not chase headlines with radar cruise or carbon wheels; it simply nails the fundamentals of a fast, smooth, good-looking street bike, then leaves change in your pocket. For a huge swathe of riders, that is exactly the right set of priorities.

The joy of an inline-four

The 948 cc four is the heart of the appeal. Producing 125 hp and 99 Nm, it serves up the smooth, linear delivery that only a four can, spinning freely and cleanly to a soundtrack that hardens into a proper metallic snarl near the top of the rev range. There is enough midrange to make it flexible in town and enough top-end fizz to reward a hard ride.

It is not the torque monster that a big twin is, so you work the gearbox a little more to keep it on the boil, but that is part of the charm — the Z900 encourages you to ride it, to chase revs and hunt gears. A 3.5-second sprint to 100 km/h and a 240 km/h top end confirm there is nothing sluggish about this bargain.