There in the December issue of Dirt wheels they have a prototype of a Ninja 500 Mojave!!! I came to see what you guys thought about it. Does anyone have any info?

 

In my opinion, Kawasaki is killing its fans with all this teasing.

First the KX250. Everyone wanted one (with counter balanced engine) but nothing.

Now the 500 and still nothing.

Until Kawasaki can show me a quad, and in the same sentence tell me they are going to produce it, I really could care less. To tell you honestly, Kawasaki is no longer a disappointment. They just plan make me mad. Field a factory race team, yet no quad for the masses.

 

There have been other threads on that bike but in brief summary of my opinion: Rather than a factory commissioned exploration of the viability of the Ninja motor for use in a sport quad the bike tested by DirtWheels was requested by an exec and was a rather poorly conceived cobbled together creation. The motor was far too much both in weight and power for the poor Mojave chassis. As the magazine reported the motor combined with the Mojave's short wheelbase caused it to wheelie uncontrollably and overtaxed the suspension badly. In the proper frame it would probably rip though the weight might still be a concern. I wonder if the prairie 650 v-twin wight lend itself to tuning for a high-performance application. The 90 degree arrangement allows for a low center of gravity and it features pretty high-tech engine design. (For a quad) As far as Kawasaki's delays in releasing a production sport bike are concerned I wouldn't be surprised if the potency of the Raptor in a smaller package than the DS sent Team Green back to the drawing board rather than release something in the 400cc range. Kawasaki takes great pride in building monster motors across its product range from the KX's to the Ninja's and in our arena the late great Tecates. It simply won't do for them to be underpowered against the competition.
On a positive note our cup runneth over. The Cannondale should arrive before the snow melts for many of you while Suzuki and Kawasaki are both rumored to debut new sport machines this summer as early 2002 models. I too am taking a believe it when I see it approach but we may soon return to the days when magazine shootouts featured a machine flying the colors of every manufacturer-with more manufacturers coming to the party than in the "Good old days" to boot. I feel we're on the brink of what is truly the best of times for us high performance enthusiasts. Until these new machines hit showrooms love what you ride and think of the bright side-at least we have time to put away a few clams for when we can walk into a dealer and honestly have trouble deciding between all the hi-po offerings.