Living with the 2023 Kawasaki Ninja H2 SX SE | Long-term test
welcome to MCN and the 2023 Fleet of MCN test bikes these are long-term test bikes and uh they're bikes that we run during the course of the Year away from kind of a launch scenario or an MCN 250 scenario and members of MCN staff live with these bikes for extended periods so we can kind of ride them and use them in more real world conditions and get to the nitty-gritty of actually living with the bikes so um this is my bike uh that I've been running all the way through 2023 it's kawazaki H2 SX SE touring Edition with paniers and what I would normally do is interview the MCN staff and ask them to come up with a list of things they like and don't like about the bike and then we can discuss those points but um seeing as I'm the interviewer uh I'm not the interviewer I'm going to do it all all myself so I've got my list here and I'm going to go through all the good bits and all the bad bits it's one by one it's worth mentioning that I've done 12,000 M on this bike in three or four months but I did have another one of these at the beginning of the year which was stolen in Naples uh and on that one I've done almost 3,000 Mi so I've done about 15,000 mi on on the h2sx but just not the same ones um let's start with the good points um and the good points are most importantly when you spend this kind of money on a bike this is 26 and a bit Grand it's knocking on the door of 27,000 which is a lot of money for a motorcycle and like most bikes I test I couldn't afford one myself but for your £ 227,000 you'll getting a bike that's got fantastic build quality the paint finishes are great and above all the reliability so you know when when you live with a bike like this away from when you're Road testing I spent a lot of time cleaning it and just generally poking around it uh and the build quality is superb as most kazakis are the the paint finishes you know even after all this time are really really good and just just the way it's screwed together and the attention to detail is fantastic and you I've done quite a few trips on my sxs so I kind of did did half a trip to Italy and back um I've ridden this one that was on the old one I've ridden this one to to the Alps with some friends um and also did a a two week long 4 and a half th000 mile trip around uh Spain through France and Portugal which is which is a big old trip but the best thing is and exactly what you want to do when you walk out to your bike in the morning you want it to start on the button and it and it always does so it's it's completely reliable which is what you would expect um but it's not always the case nowadays so you know that is the the main big tick you've got a really nice quality bike that's very very reliable as well number two I've written the Kudos of this supercharger logo here which is a real conversation starter I mean this this bike's supercharged um it's kind of a a mild version of the original H2 which was kind of a fiery Super Sport supercharged bike this is more of a Tura so supercharger is makes the engine really really smooth it's got really fat mid-range and um and it sounds great as well but but best of all is is just a talking point you know people come and look at this bike and as soon as they see the supercharger logo then it opens up a whole conversation about superchargers which is really really cool and then moving on from that is the the smoothness of this engine which is probably one of its its biggest points um it's when you're cruising and not thrashing it it just just purs along four 4,000 revs uh 5,000 RPM along the motorway it's just just creamy smooth no vibration from the engine at all um it does an average of 47 MPG on me own 44 MPG two up um and it's not hasn't got that great a tank range you could squeeze if you're lucky 190 200 Mi out the fuel tank but really you don't to be riding past a petrol station when you're on a Motorway with any more than 160 Mi really just in case there's not another petrol station in sight so for a Touring bike the range isn't that great um moving on from the supercharged engine again you know it's all about performance with a supercharged engine isn't it and you know the the top end Rush of this bike once it once it gets going is incredible I mean given that this bike is is is very very heavy it's over 260 kilos when you know when you ask for the power up in the high RS it really really gives it to you and it's it's a it's a fast fast bike um and of course it chirps on the overrun so if you got high engine revs and you breake hard and you're going through the gears you got that lovely kind of chirpy whistle on the overall which is fantastic um and the other big thing I love about this bike is is the plushness of the suspension so this has got a semi-active shower suspension um which is uh it changes the damping as you ride along you can fine-tune the damping and whether you just want to be cruising along two up whether you're just normal Road riding on your own or if you're sporty riding the suspension's Got A really lovely sense of control all the time but most importantly Comfort this bikee you know it's it's at home on Fast Corners fast motorways just because the ride quality is so great it helps that it's a heavy bike heavy bikes normally got good ride quality they just Stamp Out the the bumps they don't shake and and and wobble they just they just plow on the fact it's got lovely suspension it's got quite relaxed steering architecture it's just Arrow straight and completely smooth so the suspension is a really big T can also been able to adjust it on the dash really really easily you know just just to get it absolutely right especially two up where you want more Comfort than control in a straight line it's fantastic it's also got uh electronically adjustable rear preload as well so you can keep the bike level depending on whether you got a load of a ailon or luggage handling for its size it does handle really well it's not the the fastest steering bike as I said it's quite low and quite long and but in fast Corners it's really really stable and you know even up and down the Alps when I was riding with my friends on on Multi sters and s000 XRS it can you know it can hold its own with bikes like that so yes it's good in the corners the dash I really really like on this bike full color Dash um but the thing I like best about it is it's connectivity with your phone and you can use a a saav with it which is one of the the best saavs of I've ever used on any bike um the only disadvantage of that when you got the satinav app open the um your phone stays on so you can run your phone down and this you're plugged in but the satin laab is is very very good and that's that's and it's a free app as well it's taking me around the sigic app that's what it's called it's taking me all around Europe um and it's I just use the basic version which is free and it it does a fantastic job the other thing about this bike is it gets a lot of admiring glances not so much um from other Riders when I was on my riding trip with my friends most of my friends thought it was hideous but to people who aren't that into bikes and they just see this amazing green thing floating along the road it's a really really impressive thing but probably to its detriment because when I was riding this through Naples it probably stuck out like a sore thumb and probably one of the reasons we were probably followed to where it was parked outside of B&B and unfortunately stolen um and then the Comfort this is It's a sports tourer so it's got to be comfortable it is relatively comfortable um if you're the right size I'm a little bit tall for this bike but if you're a little bit smaller than me I think you'd find the the bar position good you'd find the relatively low pegs comfortable the seat is nice and plush for a couple of hours um and because it's so smooth and so stable sort of overall it's a really nice place to be when you're grinding out the miles so let's move on to the things that I'm not so keen on so talking about this riding position again I think for a a Touring bike it's a little bit too sporty it is sportier than uh Ninja thousand SX which has got slightly higher bars so this this is actually quite risty for me um lot of pressure on my wrist the fact he's got cruise control is good because you don't always have to be hanging on you can shake your right wrist down which is really good um the pegs tiny bit cramp for me um but yeah after a couple of hours on this bike it's not that comfortable for me uh like a tall rounder or an adventure bike would be much better for doing long distance and that's why they're so popular nowadays isn't it and then moving on from my comfort the plian Comfort isn't great so the pegs are quite tall for a plion so they're really cramped up on the back of the bike and after a couple of hours that can be sore for them as well they've got to stretch their legs and the other thing is cuz this has got um rear radar detector which works the blind spot indicators this has kind of been added on since the SX came out in 2018 so it means that the number plate and mug guard is moved down to where it used to be but now there's a big gap here where if you're going along in the wet all the spray from the tire goes straight up into the Pan's back and down their trousers which makes them uh not very comfortable um again Comfort the screen is way too low for me you know I think this is a kind of a throwback to this style of bike in the 80s and 90s from the Japanese all sporty bikes have low screens and you know in reality most people need a a bigger screen so I'm W in a fire in line of the wind all the time and you can get aftermarket screens for the older SX but once again because of the new technology on this bike this has got a little camera in the bottom of the screen which is for the automatic high beam uh and nobody makes a screen with this cutout so I'm kind of stuck stuck with that screen unfortunately the paniers really useful these are kind of panes which you'll also find on the versus th000 and the Ninja th000 an SX they're really useful they're really easy to get on and off I've got the inner bags that go in with them I actually um lost one just pulling away from my house one day where I didn't have it on properly and it followed me down the road like a football um so the panes are really useful but the other thing you can't get for this bike is a top box so kazaki don't do an aftermarket official top box um you can get aftermarket ones uh givey do one jivy G um for the old SX but they don't do one for this one because because of this radar system they don't do a fitting kit that that fits so the two things I really wanted from this bike to do two in two up which I do a lot of was a top box and a taller screen and I couldn't have either of them unfortunately and but I'm sure that Aftermarket accessories will come out for this model in due course um also been using some a couple of really nice tank bags I'm currently using an SW motch um clippin tank bag which is really really nice quality and then before that I used an Oxford um magnetic tank bag Oxford make great tank tank bags I've been making them forever they've all got lifetime guarantees um and I think a tank bag there when you can't have a top box is useful and also with low bars gives you something to lean against as well when you're doing tour it so I love I love a tank bag right it's got radar activated cruise control so adaptive cruise control where the bike will keep its distance from a vehicle in front of it along the road which works well and I do actually use it a lot um there's also a function on it where you can choose how far you are away from the vehicle in front you can't change that on the move so you've got to decide if you want that big gap or a medium gap or a short Gap before you before you go off which is fair enough but sometimes if um when I've been riding in a group and I want to have a close distance to the people in front and I've forgotten to do it at the last petrol station then I'm kind of stuck with that far distance for the rest of my for the next hour and a half or whatever which is only a minor point but it can get a little bit niggly um but generally it works where it's good when you're to up it makes it actually makes the riding a bit smoother so when you you come up against a slower vehicle on the motorway it will gradually slow down sort of imperceptibly really to the Pion and then when the cars moved out the way or the Lor's moved out the way the only problem is it accelerates back up to speed like ha Martin off the line of the motor GP and that can be really disconcerting if you got a plion so you've kind of got to override the radar control just to bring yourself back up to speed smooth smoothly um and and even a couple of times it accelerates so hard I haven't been hanging on and when the bike wants to accelerate back up to speed again I've kind of almost been left not hanging on to the bars and thinking I me um but yeah but overall it's a it's a pretty good system and I wasn't sold with radar cruise at the beginning but now I've used one properly for a year and I go back to a normal cruise control bike when I'm Road testing the standard cruise control feels a little bit clunky and a little bit over involving um this B's got a lot of electronics on it every electronic Aid you can think of really from um anti- wheelie to trash control to abs and everything in between it's also got a quick shifter but the quick shifter like a lot of the electronics on this bike is a bit glitchy I would say the quick shifter Works 30% of the time if that U which is a bit disappointing and I've tried all different settings with it turned it on turned it off and yeah quick shifter doesn't work so well it's also got this Auto high beam which again doesn't work as as fluidly as you would operate a high and low beam you know it's not really a big deal to put your high beam switch on when you're going down a country road so one of the little problems with it is it doesn't dip as soon as you want it to dip so if you're going along a road and a car's coming around a Ben from the other way it doesn't it doesn't dip its headlights as fast as you would it only dips them when the the headlights coming towards you are really sort of obvious so you kind of have to override that anyway but the lights in general are really really good the headlights great the cornering lights are fantastic it's just you don't really need the auto function um the brakes it's got fancy brakes on it it's got a Brembo stylum a calipers it's got 320 mm discs everything it really needs to to stop such a big bikee smartly but the ABS system robs the braking of any real feel or power which is a real shame really and and also the Lal will come back to the bar if you're using it hard again when I was riding with my friends at a spirited Pace in the Alps my front lever brake lever was coming back to the bar um I've tried different pads in it umbs cented pads which are fantastic but really no matter how good the pad is everything is masked by the the ABS system which yeah there's so much you know travel between when you're pulling the lever you know where the brake fluid is pushing it all the way through these hoses it goes through the seat then it goes back to the calipers it's such a long journey that there's kind of no wonder there's there's such little feel which is a a you know just a real shame because the braking is represents a big part of your riding and if that nice TX whole braking feel isn't there kind of detracts from from the riding experience a little bit so the brakes could be um a lot better um going back to the engine there is one thing I'm not keen on on the engine is um surprisingly it hasn't got a lot of bottom end grunt so something like a zzr400 which is packed with sort of real creamy low-end power this hasn't got it you know riding at normal speeds it's fine and two up you don't really want a lot of bottom end grunt it's actually nice for it to be quite relatively weak at the bottom because it makes everything nice and smooth but if you're trying to keep up with your friends you end up riding this like a 600 surprisingly you know keeping it up in the revs and you know for a supercharg engine and it's not supposed to have any lag compared to a turbo you'd expect there to be more at the bottom and unfortunately there isn't um the final thing is uh just a real minor thing with the electronic suspension so with a lot of electronic suspension bikes when you turn the ignition off the damping winds completely off and on a bike with the self-leveling rear the rear preload levels off as well which kind of lowers the bike which is fine but when you want to get the side Stand Down especially if you're two up basically makes it impossible to get the side stand down without leaning over the wrong way and and having to do it that way um and also when you little thing on the on the the channel tunnel train when it's kind of sitting there cuz there's no damping in the suspension it rocks alarmingly from side to side so you've either got to strap it down to one of the handrails on the channel tunnel train or actually stand with it to to stop it falling over um but you know overall it's it's a beautiful bike I'm a little bit too big for it it's not the most comfortable as I was expecting but it is an impressive thing one thing I'd also want to mention is tires cuz I've done so many miles I've rattled through quite a few sets of tires so in standard trim it's got Bridgestone s22 Sports tires which are OE versions of The Replacements which are fine I I ran them for about 1,800 miles on my well on this one actually not on my first SX they wear out pretty quick after about 1,800 miles the rear was pretty squared off and they don't really give the the best in terms of feel and confidence or wet grip so they're kind of sports tires but I've also tried three types of sports touring Tire which suits this bike much better I've had uh melim uh Pilot Road six or melin Road six as they called now which um are just much much better than the the standard bridgeston they're a lot plusher they give a lot more feel they work instantly um you'd have to wait for them to warm up fantastic in the wet they actually scored really highly on a uh Sports touring uh comparison test that we did earlier in the year with Ride magazine they're right up there so they were great but they were stolen with my first bike and then the other two sets of sports T and tires I've had on this bike is Dunlop Road smart fours which again they like the melins they're they warm up fast they're great in the wet but they're kind of quite sporty which is a good thing they're on the sporty side of plush they're they're nice and light steering so I'd really recommend those and then finally the B the tires are got on the bike at the moment a metsa Road te1 SE which were the sports touring Tire of the year which are fantastic tires and they really give you your your cake and eat it really you've got nice steering you got fantastic grip instant warm up great in the wet and last really well as well I mean this on these tires they've done a good 6,000 Mi now they still look like knew they're really really impressive so that's my time with the kazaki the question I'd ask everyone at the end of their little interview would be would they buy one so if I was to ask myself that I probably wouldn't but it's given me a lot of pleasure this year you know it's taken me on holiday with my partner which has just been amazing it's been reliable it's quite characterful the fact it's got supercharge engine everyone seems to love it who isn't a biker um and it's just so smooth and easy to ride lots of nice technology some of it doesn't work so well some of it's brilliant like the dash um but overall it is an impressive kit piece of Kit not really for me but um I've really enjoyed my time with it but thanks for watching this video um stay tuned for more long-term test videos coming up like this soon
2023-12-08 06:52
