[TusharK]

Kawasaki has launched the 2024 edition of the Z900 in India, priced at Rs 9.29 lakh (ex-showroom).



The Kawasaki Z900 remains unchanged compared to the previous model. The 2024 version is available in two colours: Metallic Spark Black and Metallic Matte Graphene Steel Grey.

The Z900 is based on a trellis frame with an upside-down fork at the front and a monoshock at the rear. The bike features dual 300 mm disc brakes up front and a single 250 mm rear disc supported by dual-channel ABS. Other features include traction control, power modes, riding modes, LED lighting and a digital instrument console with Bluetooth connectivity.

The Z900 is powered by a 948cc, inline 4-cylinder engine. It produces 124 BHP @ 9,500 rpm and 99 Nm @ 7,700 rpm. The engine is paired with a 6-speed gearbox.

The Kawasaki Z900 competes with the Triumph Street Triple, BMW F 900 R and the Ducati Monster.

Link to Team-BHP News

[100Kmphormore]

Why Kawasaki why? Ditch the Bluetooth and give us a up/down quick shifter atleast starting from the 650s! Prices only will increase yes but the tech? Need to catch up big time.

[noo.b]

Originally Posted by 100Kmphormore

Why Kawasaki why? Ditch the Bluetooth and give us a up/down quick shifter atleast starting from the 650s! Prices only will increase yes but the tech? Need to catch up big time.

Its been there since 2020 update . I have a '21 bike and the connectivity option works for my bike too. Never used it though and also not sure if the navigation directions are reflected on the screen.

[bf1983]

Originally Posted by 100Kmphormore

Why Kawasaki why? Ditch the Bluetooth and give us a up/down quick shifter atleast starting from the 650s! Prices only will increase yes but the tech? Need to catch up big time.

Sadly even the higher-spec Z900 SE that get's Öhlins S46 rear suspension, stainless steel brake lines, and Brembo M4.32 calipers with Brembo front brake discs don't have an up/down quickshifter. No clue why Kawasaki is averse to giving a QC to a bike that makes 123 hp.

[Zyppher]

Finally got time to share my latest update.

Upgraded from a 2022 Interceptor 650 to MY 2024 Z900.

Got delivery of the bike in April and have ridden it daily since that day doing Delhi-Noida runs daily.

Thanks to Aurum Kawasaki Chhattarpur, Mr Lokesh there was very helpful and I literally got my bike delivered the same day. Paperwork and all the shenanigans were seamless.

Did get a chance to take the bike on the Yamuna expressway during the end of running in period. Absolutely loved the machine even though I was not pushing it hard.

1st service was done in last days of April itself as I was eager to let loose all the 124 claimed horsed, And boy I was smiling ear to ear listening to that inline 4 symphony and the thick torque curve which kept me on my toes literally.

I opted for the Kawasaki Ultra premium engine oil since I will be using the bike as my primary mode of transport. total cost of first service was close to 11k. Also got the factory front number plate holder removed and it clean up the look a lot. The service centre had good trained staff Mr Pradeep was very helpful and answered all my questions, unlike other brands, they allow you to be near your vehicle while it is being serviced. You can learn some basic things like adjusting the idle rpm, clutch freeplay, chain slack adjustment.

The low end torque is phenomenal it can easily pull from 40kmph in 6th gear, which does help a lot in city traffic. Lesser gear changes means lesser fatigue. Bike behaves completely different when in the high ranges of the rev counter. Rideability is top notch, amazing engineering from The Land of Rising Sun.

Mods: on the day of delivery I got the R&G frame sliders, fork protectors and the radiator grille installed from RedlineRacing store. And I wanted the carbon finish tank pad which was not available anywhere in Delhi, so I patiently waited and Retro Rides came to rescue 2 weeks later. I also had the Quad-lock and Clifftop charger lying from my older vehicle which installed seamlessly on this one.
Apart form this I did turtle wax ceramic coat by myself and boy it does make a difference, during the occasional showers There was no water marks on the bike and a one single spray of waterless wash and the bike was shining like brand new.
I do not plan on installing any kind of exhaust or do any changes to the powertrain apart for a BMC air filter when the stock one is done with its life.

Some misses: Bluetooth is just a gimmick for the marketing material no turn by turn navigation is not mirrored on the screen for those wondering, It just shows 2 icons, one if there is a call and another if there is any kind of message notification.
Lack of quickshifter is quickly visible when doing hard pulls on the highway, I am looking at options like HM or Translogic.

I have not gotten a chance to ride it for very long due to the excessive heat wave in northern India but still have done close to 2200kms on the day of posting this, and I have loved each and every bit of it. Attaching some photographs to savour upon the Sugomi beauty.

[Nilesh5417]

Congratulations- to me, this is the last of sensibly priced, mostly do it all, check all basics, in-line 4 available in India.

Happy riding! Hope you got yourself good riding gear cause Inty to Z900 is a pretty massive upgrade.

[NitNac]

Hi Zyppher,
Congratulations on the achievement. Wishing you lots of happy kilometres.

Few questions:
1. What did you consider before finalizing for Z900.
2. How good is the update from Int650. I am asking this because I too own an Int650 as a daily commute and in near future will be planning for an upgrade, but not sure how many horses is good for a long run (doest get bored of keeping budget in mind).

Thank you, Cheers.
NitNac

[Zyppher]

Originally Posted by Nilesh5417

Congratulations- to me, this is the last of sensibly priced, mostly do it all, check all basics, in-line 4 available in India.

Happy riding! Hope you got yourself good riding gear cause Inty to Z900 is a pretty massive upgrade.

Thanks mate, it is definitely the best and most sensibly priced inline-4 available in the Indian market,

I have been planning this from quiet sometime so most of my gears are upto Z900 mark. Thanks for the advise thorough.

[Zyppher]

Originally Posted by NitNac

Congratulations on the achievement. Wishing you lots of happy kilometres.

Thank you for the wishes. Much appreciated

Originally Posted by NitNac

1. What did you consider before finalizing for Z900.

To answer this I would like to setup some background. I got the interceptor in 2022 and used it mostly daily and for touring and by Jan 2024 it had 30k kms on the odometer. In that time I had a wonderful experience but I was starting to get too used to the power and the itch for more started to kick in.
From Feb I had started to look at probable options, there were few pointers in the mind:

• It needs to be by a foreign manufacturer and has to be manufactured overseas.
• It needs to be in the same ball park or lighter than the fully loaded Interceptor 650.
• It has to have power more than 100bhp for sure, as I want to keep the bike for longer and do not want to get too used to the power like it happened with interceptor. It needs to keep surprising me for long.
• It need to have good low end power and descent ride-ability to be used as a daily super-bike.
• My inclination towards naked bikes needs to be satisfied.
• If possible a Japnese

Fitting in this criterion in order of preference was Honda Africa Twin, Triumph Speed Triple R/RS, Suzuki Katana, Kawasaki Z900, Honda Transalp, Kawasaki ZX-6r, Triumph Trident 660.

All the bikes apart from the Africa twin, the Suzuki and the Transalp were test ridden and I had opted out the Africa Twin as the latest one was not available in India, The Katana was one the most beautiful machines with it very reliable engine was my goto but sadly it had to be dropped due to the low fuel tank capacity and longer rides would have been a minor inconvenience. The Transalp was dropped due to its waiting period as I wanted the vehicle as soon as April 2024. The trident was opted out because we had its elder sibling in consideration. ZX-6R was opted out as it was too aggressive for daily usage.

The Triple RS and the Z900 were the final contenders.
Now the deciding factor was the daily manners and My inclination towards Japanese manufacturers. Multiple discussion with friends who own a z900 or and RS were done and finally the conclusion was made to get the Z900 as it more tractable engine compared to the RS and I am totally agreeing with this fact, I can coast at 40 kmph at 6th gear without any lug from the engine, can easily pull from a speed breaker from 3rd gear without needing to shift down.
Triumph has been notoriously infamous for its service in India(Remember the incident from Keerthi Triumph reported here on the forum).
So the seal was set on the Kawasaki Z900 as the last standing contender.

Originally Posted by NitNac

2. How good is the update from Int650. I am asking this because I too own an Int650 as a daily commute and in near future will be planning for an upgrade, but not sure how many horses is good for a long run (doest get bored of keeping budget in mind).

I would say Z900 is a very worth upgrade from interceptor 650, it has close to three times the power than the 650.
Z900 can be easily used as daily like Interceptor 650, I have been using Z900 as my daily and have completed 3000kms. And I have not had any issues with it. Z900 is most of the time as hot as the 650 and being used it in 48 degree heat of Delhi I would not complain at all. In stop and go traffic its temperature sensors would rise to 105 but it would instantly come down to 92-98 range on open roads and in the evenings on open roads touching 90 degrees on the dash would mean you have been having some fun with the machine.
Overall I would highly recommend Z900, for the tractability and the reliability, and a lot of fun

[Aakarsh Gupta]

Hey Zyppher,

It's always great to see a new and happy inline 4 owner. Can you tell me what kind of fuel you're using for the bike? I've heard that the new generation Kawis exclusively require XP95 or equivalent. This is something that has always made me apprehensive as I find it to be quite a hassle to maintain a steady supply of XP95 over a thousand or more kilometre trip for instance.

[Zyppher]

Originally Posted by Aakarsh Gupta

Hey Zyppher,

It's always great to see a new and happy inline 4 owner. Can you tell me what kind of fuel you're using for the bike? I've heard that the new generation Kawis exclusively require XP95 or equivalent. This is something that has always made me apprehensive as I find it to be quite a hassle to maintain a steady supply of XP95 over a thousand or more kilometre trip for instance.

Thanks a lot.
I have been filling xp95 from Indian oil and once or twice I have filled hp poWer95. For longer rides I plan the stops in a manner that I get xp95 as it is readily available on most of indian oil petrol pumps, but for places where it is not, carrying a stp octane booster helps. But honestly speaking it all depends on compression ratio and z900 is not running very high compression ratios and for normal city riding and highway cruising normal 91 octane should work as per kawasaki service.

[i_rock098]

Hi Zyppher,

Congratulations on the bike. I wanted to ask how much the bike cost you on the road? I am assuming that the registration and insurance of such a premium bike would be expensive. If you could give a breakdown of all the costs from the ex-showroom price, that would be very helpful.

Additionally, I wanted to check if you got an opportunity to service the bike yet? And if yes, what is the service cost that you had to pay for it?

[Captain Slow]

Originally Posted by Zyppher

Finally got time to share my latest update.

Upgraded from a 2022 Interceptor 650 to MY 2024 Z900.

Awesome Review!
Couple of questions did you do a PDI before the delivery of the bike?
Kawasaki Bangalore was not very keen on allowing me to to do a PDI of the bike, They are insisting on a full payment before even allocating the bike to me.

[RodRowdyBiker]

Originally Posted by 100Kmphormore

Why Kawasaki why? Ditch the Bluetooth and give us a up/down quick shifter atleast starting from the 650s! Prices only will increase yes but the tech? Need to catch up big time.

Not to say you aren't right but clutchless shifting is a breeze in this bike. I use it ALL the time. Also the clutch itself is so light, it is effortless.

[Zyppher]

Originally Posted by i_rock098

Hi Zyppher,

Congratulations on the bike. I wanted to ask how much the bike cost you on the road? I am assuming that the registration and insurance of such a premium bike would be expensive. If you could give a breakdown of all the costs from the ex-showroom price, that would be very helpful.

Additionally, I wanted to check if you got an opportunity to service the bike yet? And if yes, what is the service cost that you had to pay for it?

Thanks for the wishes.
All In all I paid close to 11laks on road for the machine including the ex showroom of 9.4 for ex showroom, 45k for insurance, 85k for registration and 20k handling charges.

The first service at 800kms costed me 11k. I opted for ultra premium Kawasaki oil which was 1300₹ a litre and bike took 3.6 and the remaining was given to me properly packed and wrapped in shrink wrap which I have been using to top up. There was ~3.5k service charge and then I had the hideous number plate holder removed from the front and the replacement bolts were 500₹. And the remainder were for consumables and diagnostic charges.


If I had opted for Kawasaki premium oil(recommended for those who do not run the machine daily) it would have been 800₹ a litre so service cost would have been ~8k mark.

Originally Posted by Captain Slow

Awesome Review!

Thanks a lot, getting appreciated by the great Captain is very humbling.

Originally Posted by Captain Slow

Couple of questions did you do a PDI before the delivery of the bike?
Kawasaki Bangalore was not very keen on allowing me to to do a PDI of the bike, They are insisting on a full payment before even allocating the bike to me.

Regarding this I would say I had one of the best bike buying experiences in my life at Kawasaki Chattarpur Delhi(this is my 4th new bike and first Superbike)
I went to the showroom at 12 in the morning and was out with the bike 4 the same day, no prior booking just talked to The manager over the phone he was like you come here we will not let you go without the bike.
Regarding PDI, there was one bike which they gave me initially and I did the PDI as well all before paying anything as the payment was still under process at bank’s end. The manager there sensed that I was not liking the offering as it was sitting on the showroom floor imminently he showed me 3 more bikes and told me I can choose from any one before he started finalising the paperwork(mind you this all happened before the final payment as it was with bank and there was issue) I happily checked the 3 newer offerings and picked one from them. In the meantime the payment got processed and the bike was ready in the next hour and change to be ready to ride.
Once all the paperwork was done the delivery ceremony commenced and after that I was explained all the details about my new beast. After this the manager took the bike for a spin to check if everything worked properly.

All in all it was a great experience I have been to other showroom with friends for their bike deliveries and I feel my experience was one of the smoothest and fastest.
Same goes for the service the first service was fast and accurate and the svc guys were very helpful and they allowed me to be with the bike for the whole service time and even gave me tips and tricks on doing minor maintenance myself for those longer rides.

I have clocked 5k kms tonight and nearing my second service. Will surely be updating about the experience and a detailed ownership will be posted post the service