Kings of the Hill!
KINGS OF THE HILL!
CW COMPARISON TEST
Comparing the Kawasaki Ninja and Suzuki Katana: two sport-tourers that offer practicality as well as performance
DO YOU REMEMBER PLAYING THE CHILDHOOD GAME King of the Hill? As you played, you quickly learned that becoming King was fun, but that once you made it to the top, everyone else was looking to knock you off.
Well, that’s precisely what Kawasaki has found.
Since 1987, Kawasaki has been building the King of the Hill, 750 Streetbike Division: The Ninja 750. But now, someone has finally gone head-hunting for the Ninja. That someone is Suzuki, and its weapon is the Katana 750, a bike specifically intended to bounce the Kawasaki out of its top spot. But while that might be sobering news for Kawasaki, it’s great news for you, because it means that instead of there being just one outstanding all-around motorcycle for sale in the 750 class, now there are two.
Indeed, versatility is what the Ninja 750 and the Katana 750 are all about, and what separates them from their racier brethren, the ZX-7 and GSX-R750. Those two racer-replicas are biased towards the kind of performance that makes them the canyon clippers and production-racing bikes of choice, but at the cost of everyday usability. That’s the entrance cue for the Ninja and Katana. Each is fully faired, each has sporting handlebars and premium tires (Metzelers on the Katana, Bridgestones on the Ninja), each has triple disc brakes and each possesses a double-overhead-cam, 16-valve inline-four-cylinder engine. But this pair trades away that last bit of 10/10ths performance for a bit of real-world practicality that comes via a slightly more upright seating position, suspension compliance carefully calibrated toward street suppleness, and engine tuning that emphasizes mid-range oomph over peak power output. And as a result of such compromises, these two bikes are realistic choices for sport-touring and everyday transportation.
The newer of the two is the Katana, which we tested in our March, 1989, issue. We liked it then, as much for its overall manners as for its performance, and we labeled it one of the best all-around motorcycles on the market. By comparison, the Ninja 750 has been around for a while and remains basically unchanged since it was tested in our November, 1986, issue. It has, in fact, not needed change: For the past two years, it has been named Best 750cc Streetbike in our annual Ten Best competition.
Just how different can a pair of versatile, 750cc streetbikes be? Plenty. Perhaps the biggest surface difference between the two is that the Katana is cooled by a combination of oil and air, while the Ninja is liquidcooled. Another difference is that with its lumpy fairing and bulging gas tank, the Katana appears bulkier than the Ninja. None of us much cared for the Suzuki’s cumbersome look, particularly when compared to the Ninja’s crisp, sharply drawn lines. If all you did with motorcycles was look at them, the Ninja would be our pick.
But there’s more to it than that. Motorcycles are for riding, and when the Katana and Ninja are ridden together, their styling differences become less important than the way each functions.
First of all, our testing found that the Katana, despite a dry weight of 488 pounds—23 pounds more than the tankempty Ninja—cut a 10.99-second quarter-mile at 122.43 mph, whereas the Ninja turned an 1 1.14-second/123.27mph run. The Ninja’s 150-mph measured top speed exceeded that of the Katana by 7 miles an hour, but that was probably due more to the Katana’s shorter overall gearing than to a lack of power or dirtier aerodynamics. This gearing difference helps make the Ninja a tick slower in the quarter-mile than the Katana, but allows it to be a slightly more relaxed ride at highway cruising speeds.
As the numbers indicate, both engines pull very strongly indeed; but what the numbers don’t show is that their strength comes in different areas of their respective rpm ranges. Neither engine is especially peaky; instead, each develops a broad powerband that complements the doeverything character of these bikes. The Ninja’s engine feels especially crisp right off of idle and in the lower rpm ranges, nice in traffic and around town; the Katana’s is softer off idle but very strong in its mid-range, and better in open-road passing situations.
When you compare chassis, however, the differences are more pronounced. Neither bike is equipped with the fully adjustable suspension components their racier counterparts offer, but this doesn’t have any negative impact on the way the two handle until they are cornering very quickly indeed. The Showa shock on the rear of the Katana and the KYB unit on the Ninja both offer similar adjustments for rebound damping, but changing spring preload on the Suzuki is accomplished with a threaded ring as opposed to air-pressure adjustability on the Ninja. Up front, the Katana’s 41mm Showa fork offers adjustable rebound damping while the Ninja’s 38mm KYB fork only has adjustable anti-dive.
Out on the road, the Ninja steers a little more quickly and easily than the Katana; but what it gains in response to steering input it loses through the inability of its front wheel to follow rough pavement when the brakes are firmly applied. As a result, the Katana simply slowed down during heavy braking; the Ninja skipped its front wheel over the tops of the bumps, locking up intermittently as it did so.
The Ninja also is much stiffer over bumps, mostly because of its rear suspension. If its shock adjustments are set so that the rear end rides softly, the rear squats excessively under acceleration out of corners, which increases frontwheel trail and causes the front end to push, or understeer. But if rear air pressure is increased, the shock has insufficient rebound damping to prevent the rear suspension from topping-out, resulting in a stiffened ride but no real improvement in handling. We left the air pressure at an intermediate setting and the damping high simply because that was what worked well for us; but even at its best, the Kawasaki’s suspension doesn’t work as well as the Suzuki’s.
On the Katana, we got the best combination of ride and handling by setting the rebound damping on the fork at 1, its softest setting, and the rear shock’s damping at 2, the middle position. But because the Katana’s rear spring is too soft, the shock tends to compress excessively and then unload too quickly during rapid directional transitions, adversely affecting the rear tire’s ability to maintain grip. This occurs even when the rebound damping is turned to the maximum (No. 3) setting. A stiffer spring and a bit more rebound would fix this, but at the expense of the bike’s plush ride. If you’re going to ride hard enough for this condition to be a problem, and if you care not at all about reasonable comfort during, say, a weekend of sporttouring, an aftermarket rear-suspension unit might be the answer.
Still, even with their fairly basic suspension systems, both the Ninja and Katana are quite smooth and competent, even at very high cruising speeds. Because fewer vibrations seep through its tank, bars and footpegs, and because it turns at lower rpm at any given speed than the Katana, the Ninja is the smoother of the two. But while the Katana is the more cramped of the pair because its footpegs are higher and farther back than the Ninja’s, the Katana’s seat is more comfortable.
If there’s an anomaly with these bikes, it concerns their fairings. Each has a sporty, aerodynamic look, but neither protects the rider particularly well. That’s too bad, because shielding the rider from the elements seems a more desirable trait for machines aimed at the sport-touring crowd than it does for bikes intended for the hard-core canyon racers. Besides, slightly taller fairings and slightly higher bars on both the Ninja and the Katana would sharpen the delineation between these bikes and their racier counterparts. Such refinements would not degrade their performance at all and would boost their sport-touring quotient considerably.
But even as these two bikes sit, that quotient is a high one, thanks in part to details like the comprehensive dashboards found on both. The Suzuki's is the more readable of the two; the Kawasaki’s numbers are more-closely spaced and the rider’s view of its fuel gauge is partially obstructed by the clutch master cylinder. Two additional details we particularly liked about the Suzuki concerned its levers and its shifter: The clutch and brake lever shapes on the Katana fit our hands and were comfortable; those on the Kawasaki didn’t and were less so, though we admit this is something we might not have noticed if we hadn’t been switching back-and-forth between bikes during the course of a long, two-day ride. And the Katana’s shift lever is better located than the Ninja’s and is much more light and positive in feel.
So, between these two bikes, we prefer the Kawasaki’s looks, its lightning-fast steering and its low-end throttle response. Introduced three model years ago, it was one of the finest all-around bikes on the market. And it still is.
Which brings us to the Katana. While some of us feel the new Suzuki’s smooth competence has come at the expense of character and personality, it’s that unflappable competence, along with its plush ride and wonderful engine, that makes the Katana the new King of the 750 Sport-touring Hill. And one of the best motorcycles in any category. ®
EDITORS' CHOICE
COMPARING THE KATANA NINJA 750s seems an obvious thing to do, but it has generated more heat around CW's offices than talk of politics or religion. Most everyone agrees the Ninja is a desirable piece, but contention surrounds the Katana. On one side are those who admire its cool competence. On the other are those who find its flat torque curve and slowish steering about as exciting as a ride in an economy car and who consider the bike’s, er, unique styling as attractive as a stay in a Mexican jail. Me? I don’t like the styling. But when I ride the Katana, I forget about its looks and think only what a well-rounded player it is. Sure, the Ninja’s a nice bike. But for my money, you’d have to go a long way to find a better all-around motorcycle than the Katana 750. Having said that, I believe I’ll just duck out of here and find something safe to talk about—like what those rascally Republicans are up to now.
—Jon F. Thompson, Feature Editor
I HAVE TO ADMIT THAT I’M TIRED OF DEfending the Katana’s styling. Okay, so the bike wasn’t carved by Michelangelo out of a solid block of marble, and its lines weren’t penned by a famous Italian designer. Fine. That’s okay with me; I can live the Katana’s lumpy styling because it's the best all-around motorcycle you can buy today. Heck, it might even be the best performance-per-dollar value you will find in the world.
You want comfort? The Katana has it with a great seat and nicely positioned handlebars. The fairing keeps the windblast off, but is small enough not to intrude. The suspension has simple, easy adjustments and offers the plush ride of a Gold Wing with the precise control of an FZR1000. For power it’s every bit as strong as a GSXR750 and more controllable.
I guess I can understand why someone would harp on the looks of the bike—you know, all that stuff about beauty being in the eye of the beholder. But to me, that’s sour-grapes criticism of an exceptional machine.
—Camron E. Bussard, Executive Editor
HERE’S WHAT I WANT: A NINJA 750 with the Katana’s suspension and a slightly softer seat. See, when I’m looking for a motorcycle to buy, I look past the quarter-mile and topspeed numbers, past the specifications and the warranties. Other things come into play: How a bike looks, for instance. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, yes, but to this beholder, the Katana looks as if it was styled by someone wielding a blunt Crayola, while the Ninja looks like it was drawn with a freshly sharpened pencil. The Ninja is crisp and taut where the Katana is loose and billowy.
Either of these bikes would be among my top choices for world’s best all-around streetbike. But if I were buying one, I’d go no farther than the local Kawasaki dealership. I could always put better suspension and a plusher seat on the Ninja, but short of hiring a designer to re-do its styling, the Katana would never get any better-looking. —David Edwards, Editor
KAWASAKI
NINJA 750
$5249
SUZUKI
KATANA 750
$5299
