2018 Kawasaki H2 SX SE – on the dyno

WE'VE HAD the H2 SX SE in for a couple of weeks now, and we've really fallen for it in that time. It's got a marvellous mix of brute power and high tech, plus a range of useful, fun electronic gizmos. It's nuts, great fun and also really useful too. You properly feel like 'king of the road' when riding it, and stuff like cruise control, stock panniers, full colour dash and heated grips all make life easy. Whatever next?

A visit to Big CC for some science was what was next. We wanted to see what the numbers were behind this loonball machine, and Sean at Big CC soon tickled up a full power run for us. The graph shows a 172bhp peak, with 90 ft lb of maximum torques - and a very flat delivery indeed, with more than 75 ft lb from about 6,000rpm all the way up.

It's good stuff, and backs up the feel on the road. But it's a little down on what you might expect given the supercharger and all that stuff. On Sean's dyno, he'd expect about 193bhp from a good ZZR1400, and 173 from a Hayabusa, so the SX is a bit down on a 1400 here, and on par with the old Suzuki.

We're wondering if our SX was confused by the dyno though. On the way home we had a check engine light, and the electronic aids were all turned off, with an error code 27 (that's the front wheel sensor). Obviously the front wheel doesn't turn on the dyno, so the H2's ECU brain was fried a bit, and it had thrown a sulky strop. The power also felt down on the way back from Big CC, as if she was in a limp home mode. 

We're taking her back to Kawasaki tomorrow and will report back on what they reckon. In the meantime, here's an iPhone-enabled LIVE VISORDOWN-O-VISION film of the dyno run (available in full motion 3D action, for paid subscribers only.)