How Kawasaki Ninja Became the Fastest Motorcycle and Took Down Harley Davidson | Up to Speed

- Movies have an enormous cultural influence. They show us what's cool, right? And then we say, wow! And then we're going to buy those cool things. It happened with Rebel Without a Cause and Hot Rods in 1955. It happened with The Fast And The Furious and imported tuned cars in 2001. And sometimes it happens with

motorcycle

s too. (Motorcycle roars by) In the 1980s, riding a bike was for old men with faded tattoos and T-shirts that said, if you could read this, then your mom fell. - What did you say? - Until Tom Cruise raced a fighter jet on a fancy new bike, almost single-handedly making

motorcycle

s cool again.

Well, today we are going to find out how one line of motorcycles revolutionized an entire industry and, with the help of an iconic scene, gave a twist to the world of motorcycles with its fun looks. (Motorcycle roars by) This is everything you need to know to get up to

speed

on the Kawasaki. (arms whistling) Ninja! (upbeat music) Many thanks to carparts.com for sponsoring today's video. Carparts.com provides a fast and smart way to find what you need, when you need it. - Do you hear that noise cousin? - Clumsy, Carl, we talked about this, friend.

You have to be quiet when I'm filming. - I think my suspension might be broken. - Well, it's good that we use carparts.com. It is the go-to online solution for everything related to auto parts. That's why they are called carparts.com. But who said you had to sacrifice quality for reasonable prices? They provide a fast, smart way to find what you're looking for, whenever you want, no matter what you drive. - Very good, actually, this feels very good. - Okay, but don't jump too much, friend. Those springs could take you to the moon. - Okay, I hear you loud and clear, Captain Worrywart. - So whether you need something as big as a suspension or something as small as a door handle, carparts.com will make your vehicle look good and run like new without breaking the bank.

So head over to carparts.com today. (Carl screams) - Mom! - Pigs, helicopters, crotch rockets, steel horses with oil for blood and wheels for legs, whatever you want to call them. Motorcycles have been considered mechanical manifestations of rebellion since forever, also known as 1947. That year Life magazine published an article about a chaotic motorcycle demonstration in rural California that went down in history as the Hollister riot. The violent scene the magazine described was largely discredited. We did a podcast about it, but not before Hollywood cemented the image of outlaw bikers in the national imagination in film. - Marlon Brando, Lee Marvin and the wonderful Mary Murphy star in the 1953 classic, The Wild One.

A daring story of marauding bikers who terrorize a small American town. - What are they trying to prove anyway? Are you looking for someone who will push them to get angry and show them how tough they are? - Yes. - The Savage

took

the Life magazine article and pushed it even further up. If you watch it today, you will find that it is quite boring. I mean, old movies suck. (echoes laughter) They do, they all suck. But, never mind, he created a new American archetype, the outlaw biker, and made motorcycle sales go pop, pop, pop, baby.

Although outlaw bikers were largely a creation of pop culture, the popularity of the narrative made it a self-fulfilling prophecy. Bad guys and wannabes alike found their way onto two wheels en masse. And, ironically, many antisocial types found their way into illegal motorcycle clubs, like the infamous Hell's Angels. We did a podcast series about the Hells Angels that was way too long. Honestly, it's like six episodes. And we start with the invention of the bicycle. The media described these clubs as violent barbarian hordes, but were they really? Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson discovered this firsthand when he was embedded with the Hells Angels for over a year, detailing his findings in his 1967 book, Hells Angels, A Strange and Terrible Saga.

The verdict? Not everything you read in the newspapers is true, but it is based on something. The success of Hunter's book propelled the outlaw biker image into the zeitgeists of the 1960s. Inspiring indeed, arguably the most important motorcycle film of all time. - Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and the murderer Phil Spector in Easy Rider from 1969. The saga of two young people on the road with nothing but their friendship and their bicycles to move them. - Do we pay you or are you someone's dad? Like my cousin, Kyle Stash, on a cross-country road trip, Easy Rider is up his own ass, but Peter Fonda's turn as a freewheeling, helicopter-riding romantic named Captain America fired motorcycle sales for a decade to come.

The iconic Harley Davidson Hog ​​remained America's favorite motorcycle until the '80s, when the cool factor began to wane. All those carless rebels who made Harley cool had grown up and were now starting to ruin the world. His children were beginning to look for their own wheels and did not want to ride a motorcycle like their father's. Motorcycle sales were falling rapidly and the motorcycle world desperately, desperately needed a new injection of flavor. (fast rock music) - Ninja! - Honda tried it in 1969 with its objectively fantastic CB750, widely considered the world's first sports bike. But the West was not yet ready for that.

The bike was too ahead of its time. Like Nolan, I swear, in 10 years you guys will get it. But this isn't a Honda story, okay? This is a Kawasaki story. So we're going to go straight to the '80s, and by going straight to the '80s, I mean, we have to start in the '50s. - The linear narrator is very overrated. You're like the Quentin Tarantino of cars. - Yes, except that I don't like feet, I like hands. In 1955, the sickly named Kawasaki Heavy Industries built its first engine for the growing motorcycle market in Japan.

And in 1960 they manufactured their first motorcycle, the 125 ACE, which used their KB5 two-stroke engine. And guys, I wouldn't say it if I wasn't serious, this bad boy had some spark, spark coming out of his ears. From the beginning, Kawasaki had a reputation for being fast. A need for

speed

and to be up to date. Follow the money. Kawasaki's first entry into the sportbike world was the 1972 Z1, and like all Macs, it's legendary. Powered by a 900cc double overhead camshaft, the Z1 was an absolute monster, in a straight line. He set a 24-hour endurance record at Daytona, traveling 2,631 miles with an average speed of 109 miles per hour.

Can you imagine traveling 109 on a motorcycle for 24 hours? You would poop, you couldn't help it. You know that guy pooped. - Oh yeah, dude, that guy totally pooped. - I'm saying it's like you're in it. He is vibrating. - Yes, just like shaking poop to loosen it. You couldn't help but poop. -Do you think he made special pants or just

took

care of it? - Well, I have special pants for when I go horseback riding, that hold up to my poop. So I assume he had some kind of special thing, like a deposit of excrement in his pants. - Mmm, that makes sense.

Sales of the Z1 were strong internationally and Kawasaki's powerful, unrefined 3-cylinder triple road bikes were gaining cult status in America's underground cafe racer scene. But these bikes couldn't dislodge Harley-Davidson pigs from their vaunted position in the American imagination. But the timing just wasn't right. It seemed like nothing could knock King Hog off of his greasy, bacon throne. But what they didn't know was that Kawasaki had been secretly developing a pig hunter for six long years. Ninja! This creates a nasty joke about Kawasaki waiting in the shadows for the perfect moment to attack like a

ninja

. That's too easy.

And I respect myself too much to make that joke. Like most foreign manufacturers, Kawasaki noted Harley-Davidson's decline from its mythical status in the early '80s in America. They saw the opportunity to introduce a new rebel two-wheeled machine. They just needed the right message to reach our crashed brains and a machine that could deliver the goods. That machine was the 1984 GPZ900R, the first Kawasaki Ninja machine. Ninja! I know everything about motorcycles, but there is someone at Donut who knows a lot more about motorcycles than I do. So I'm going to let him explain the relevance of this incredible bike. - The GPZ900R represents a great advance in motorcycle technology, thanks to some truly groundbreaking elements in its suspension and transmission.

The GPZ was the first bicycle to exceed 150 miles per hour, thanks to its 908 cc, 16-valve, water-cooled, inline 4-cylinder engine with double overhead camshafts. That's a lot. So let's go through it piece by piece. The big 908 cubic centimeter inline 4-cylinder engine, in other words, was better balanced than a big V-twin engine. That balance combined with a high-flow dual overhead camshaft and 16-valve head meant the GPZ could rev much higher than a V-twin, which is good because that's where all the power was. So good. And there was a little more power than an average V-twin, but higher revs generate more heat.

So to combat that, Kawasaki put a radiator in the GPZ, making it the first liquid-cooled 16-valve 4-cylinder engine in a production motorcycle. As any gamer with a super demanding PC setup will tell you, there's nothing cooler than water. - You are cooler than water! - You're going to bring your freshest water, man, you're ice! - That's how it is! Ice, man. I'm dangerous. - The GPZ900R was also the first production bike to use the engine as a stressed member, meaning it was a rigid part of the actual chassis. That's huge for reducing weight. Speaking of weight, the Ninja was also the first full-scale production bike to use a crankshaft counterweight, which dramatically reduced vibration, meaning it's smooth.

Did I mention that using the engine as a structural part of the chassis lowered the bike's center of gravity? Well, I should have, because that's how it was. And that's a big problem. The GPZ was not only the

fastest

motorcycle in the world, it was also extremely agile, stable and comfortable to ride. It has front suspension and uses variable shock absorbers, which means greater comfort for the driver. And the ability to come into shift later. You know, that feeling when you buy a new phone, there are some amazing features you didn't even know existed, but now you can't live without them?

That kind of thing was all over this damn bike. Some of these are things we take for granted today, but at the time the GPZ left people speechless. Now, I know what you're saying, James, I can't keep track of all these letters and numbers. I'm a scavenger (bleep) I can't feed myself. Well, you'll be glad to know that Kawasaki's US marketing director, Mike Vaughn, felt the same way. He said, "Hey, listen guys, we're Americans. We're a bunch of dumbasses (bleep). We can't remember numbers or letters. We gotta stop. We hate alphanumeric names. How are you doing?" We're supposed to know the difference between the KH125 and the KV100B!" They needed something simpler.

They needed something catchier. Mike had a sailboat called the Ninja, which obviously played into the whole fast, Japanese thing. And the GPZ was, later everything, fast and Japanese. So why not name the motorcycle after my boat? Ironically, when Mike proposed this to the higher-ups at Kawasaki, they rejected it because in Japan,

ninja

s are considered outlaws and not. they wanted to be associated with it. Mike explained, "Look, these Americans wouldn't know anything about that, right? They're just going to think it sounds fast and cool and sleek and slick and quick." And they were like, "You know what, man?

Good point." Kawasaki launched the GPZ900R Ninja at the Monterey Jet Center, to give the impression that it could outrun an airplane. Remember that. Three months after its launch, the Ninja took first and second place at the TT the Isle of Man, the very famous and dangerous motorcycle race we talked about earlier in our Type R episode, so check it out The Ninja was also named the

fastest

production bike in the world in 1984. Now, everything. This was amazing and the bike, the bike was truly revolutionary, but were all these cold, hard, impressive facts enough to influence the collective American imagination?

No, but fortunately there is a little guy named Thomas Cruise and a little thing called fighter jets. - Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, airplanes! Val Kilmer playing volleyball, Tom Cruise playing volleyball against Val Kilmer. The sweatiest movie you've ever seen. Everyone in it is sweating all the time.Did the air conditioning on the set break? We will never know. And did I mention jets? Jets! - Why do we continue to play into his game? That's a decision you're making. 1986, Top Gun was the blockbuster the world needed to stop thinking about Chernobyl and the right movie, to turn American intention into the Kawasaki Ninja.

If you love high-flying action or dozens of grown men sweating for hours, this movie is for you. And the coolest part of the whole movie was the jets. But the second most interesting part was Maverick's motorcycle, perhaps the most iconic motorcycle scene of all time. Thomas Cruise's character, a Navy fighter pilot named Pete, but you know, with the nickname Maverick, which is cool, shows up at the base on a Kawasaki Ninja, just as an F14 fighter jet arrives at the base. clue. He hits the throttle, just as the plane hits the afterburners and it's a straight run.

You can guess who won, but gosh if that's not cool. It's great. I can visualize in my head right now. -Maverick also rides the Ninja when he shows up to drink wine with a young Kelly McGillis. - It's a big bet with a 30 million dollar plane, Lieutenant. -And those two have more chemistry than the Manhattan Project. - Who are you? How did you get into editing? Hungry for more High Low products? Well, I have a shirt for you! Yota tacos. They are the dirtiest tacos ever, get them in black, get them in white or get them both.

Because they only cost 29.99 at donutmedia.com. ♪Give them beans ♪ ♪ At Yota's Tacos! ♪ - If you still don't understand the joke, go back to school. But Toyota Tacoma, Yota Tacos. They are the trucks we drive in High Low. I really liked this design, more to come, donutmedia.com. - The economy in the 80s was going well. Thus, people could afford to buy elegant clothes, cocaine and motorcycles as toys. And they found the biggest movie of 1986. Sales went crazy and sportbikes finally captured the hearts of a new generation of riders, just as the big V twin hogs had done 30 years earlier.

Our grandparents had Marlon Brando and Peter Fonda, our parents had Thomas Cruise, we have Tyler, the creator. Hmm, of course, Harley still had a huge fan base. I mean, you have to put something on the cover of AARP magazine. He goes out every month, I guess. But the appeal of sportbikes was easy to see and undeniably youthful. They were much more focused on high performance with their light, forward driving position. They were also much easier to handle than those heavy and cumbersome cruisers. Their more streamlined look fit the aesthetic of the '80s and, like the pigs of the '50s and '60s, there was a heady element of danger to these two-wheeled machines of freedom.

And nothing is cooler than danger, and 155 miles per hour on a motorcycle is dangerous, AF. The GPZ900R was the first in a long line of legendary Kawasakis to carry the Ninja name. In fact, almost all of their sportbikes carry the Ninja badge because, let's face it, it's a sick name for a motorcycle. It's a damn cool brand. I mean, I guarantee every other motorcycle company likes it, it looks like a Ninja. Ours too, we should have called it the damn Ninja. The next fastest Kawasaki motorcycle in the world, the 1988 Ninja ZX10, topped out at 165 miles per hour, thanks to more technological improvements, such as the motorcycle's aluminum perimeter frame.

And that's pretty standard now, but it started with this bike. The ZX10 was also known as Tom Cat, which happens to be the nickname of the F14 fighter jet that Thomas Cruise flew in Top Gun. That's a great brand. Then, thanks to the Ninja, the 1990s

became

the era of sportbikes. This meant a war between the Japanese motorcycle manufacturers. And I'm going to agree with you guys, things got complicated. (Motorcyclists scream) Honda struck first with the 1992 CBR90RR, Fireblade. When the 893cc, liquid-cooled, inline-4 sportbike was designed to take the King of Speed ​​crown from Kawasaki. With a top speed of 160, I guess he didn't make it, right?

Meanwhile, Kawasaki had broken its own record with the debut of the 175 mile per hour ZX11 Ninja. This was the first motorcycle to use an air intake system, like on a damn Trans-Am. On the ZX11, a full snorkel under the fuel tank sucks in increasing amounts of air, as the bike gains speed, forcing more air into the intake, then, you know, like a motorcycle without it. The ZX11 kept Kawasaki at the top of the speed series until 1996, when Honda finally took the crown away with its CBR1100XX, aka the Super Blackbird, aka the juiced-up X-Men jet. Well, here's the thing guys, we've got this new bike, it's incredibly fast. - It is, it is.

I've ridden it, it's as fast as the fastest shit. - I was thinking that maybe we'll name it after the fastest plane in the world, the Blackbird. - Yeah, I mean, it's a very good idea. What if we went a step further and called it Super Blackbird? - Yes friend! That's why I beep at you, friend! Yeah! Faster! It had an incredibly light and powerful 1,137cc inline four-cylinder engine and a top speed of 178.5 miles per hour. The designers wanted to make something incredibly fast, but with a refined ride quality. Now where have I heard that before?

Back at Kawasaki, the Ninja line was expanding and offering Ninja-quality handling to people who weren't looking to make $50 on their way to Walgreens. The ZX6R debuted in 1995 as the Ninja entry to the 600 class bikes. Since then, Kawasaki's Ninja line has expanded further offering bikes for riders of all skill levels and desired performance. You can get everything from a flagship face melter to a Ninja 250, a bike with a normal power level for one person. Now, thanks to its handling, size and simplicity, the little Ninja has become the beginner's bike. If you know someone who rides a motorcycle, it's 50/50 that their first one was a Ninja.

But face melters are more fun to talk about. In 1999, Suzuki got in on all that world's fastest bike action with the GSX1300R, a little thing you might know by its other name, Hayabusa. This batch hyperbike (bleep) obliterated the record, reaching a terrifying top speed of 194 miles per hour. This thing essentially stole the Ninja's lunch. He turned it around, matched with his mother on Tinder, made her fall in love with him,

became

the Ninja's stepfather, and then broke his mother's heart. And the Ninja's life was ruined. Can you imagine if your stepdad had a 16-valve, liquid-cooled, 1.3-liter inline-4, double overhead cam, heart, and a sick tribal tattoo all over his beefy body?

Well, Kawasaki's Ninja stepfather, the Hayabusa, does. To be honest, there was nothing really innovative about the construction. Suzuki did it incredibly well. The Hayabusa also lost handling and comfort. It could be a touring bike, or it could basically teleport you from one place to another, like a fallen Nightcrawler, working for Uber. Since then, the fastest world title bike has oscillated between manufacturers, with Japanese companies swapping with the occasional Ducati or BMW. But today the title is back where it belongs, with the great Ninja champion, H2R, also known as the super stepfather. Kawasaki took the Ninja back to its roots of innovation.

This time, introducing a supercharger that blows 200 liters of air per second into the bike's 998cc inline 4-cylinder engine. The H2R set an unofficial speed record of 240 miles per hour. (The bike roars by) The H2R is a dedicated track bike, costing more than $50,000, but the street version, the H2, retains much of the technology from the R models, including the supercharger. And it does zero to 60 in 2.6 seconds, which is slower than the Tesla Model S Plaid, which makes me ask the question again. What's the point anymore? Now, if you have the Internet, you may have heard that a Top Gun sequel, Top Gun, Maverick, will be released in a few months.

Motorcycle Twitter went crazy a couple of years ago when production photos of Tom Cruise on an H2 leaked, ensuring that Top Gun would keep the Ninja tradition alive. And does that mean Top Gun 2 will inject pop culture with a new dose of two-wheel fever? Maybe. But if 20th century pop history is any indicator, the next motorcycle craze will begin with an undeniably bad scene on the big screen. On the move would be the Wild Ones, the Rebels and the Speed ​​Freaks to imagine themselves in the saddle. Styles change, what is young and cool becomes old and boring.

But speed, speed is forever. Thank you all so much for staying up to date and everything else on Donut. If you are not already subscribed, press the subscribe button. If you liked this video press the Like button, because it really helps us in the algorithm. We have a ton of new products on our website, donutmedia.com. I'm very excited about this. This is one of the hats. We call our garage the Inglewood Propulsion Laboratory. Is awesome. You can get this and many other products inspired by High Low. Speaking of High Low, it's streaming right now. Click this link to view it.

We had a lot of fun. Nobody almost dies again. I love you.