Kawasaki is looking to build pre-release interest and anticipation around the 2011 ZX-10R, which the company is hoping will put it back on top of the literbike wars when it makes its debut later this year. A new dedicated website to “The Next Ninja” has a design sketch of the new ZX-10R along with a teaser movie that describes some aspects of Kawasaki’s all-new design. Kawasaki also has a twitter feed at @Next_Ninja to offer the latest hints about the completely redesigned sportbike.
After the company’s pull-out from its very expensive MotoGP effort at the end of the ’08 season, Kawasaki redirected much of those resources on its continuing R&D on the production side. With the struggling economy causing a major drop in sales for the overall motorcycle market, the previous hyperactive two-year development cycle of sportbike models by the majority of the Japanese OEMs had to be shelved due to the R&D costs not being subsidized sufficiently enough by then-current sales revenue. This surely helped Kawasaki put additional development time into the new ZX-10R, instead of being forced to release the bike this year to keep up with the previous two-year development cycle necessary to remain competitive in the demanding sportbike market. The new ZX-10R will also be the platform for its racing efforts in the future, so there is obviously a lot riding on the new literbike Ninja.
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