Kawasaki Ninja H2

The Ninja H2 is not a motorcycle in the ordinary sense; it is an engineering flex from Kawasaki Heavy Industries, the same company that builds gas turbines. A supercharger bolted to a 998cc inline-four produces 200 PS at the crank, and the result is the most expensive and most extreme production bike you can legally register in India.

Let's start with money, because that's what everyone asks me first. It's a sport bike, ₹30,50,000 ex-showroom, and about ₹34,50,000 (roughly ₹34.50 lakh) by the time it's on the road in a metro. That gap is road tax, insurance and dealer charges, and it moves a fair bit between states — Delhi is around 6%, Karnataka nearly 14%. I've seen two friends pay ₹9,000 apart for the same bike in different cities. Ask for the breakup in writing.

Used, a tidy 2018-2023 example usually goes for ₹18,00,000 to ₹26,00,000. What decides where you land in that band isn't the odometer as much as the service book. A single-owner bike with every stamp in place will cost you 10-15% more, and honestly, pay it. The cheap one always turns out to be the expensive one.

Every panel exists to manage airflow. The mirror-stay mounted winglets, the ram-air ducts snaking through the fairing and the single-sided swingarm are all functional, not decorative. Trellis frame welding is finished by hand, and the green-flecked paint looks different in every kind of light.

When you're standing next to it in the showroom, do the boring checks. Run a finger along the panel gaps near the tank, click the switches a few times, and sit on it with the side stand up and both feet down. The 825 mm seat sounds fine on paper and then surprises people at a signal. At 216 kg, it felt solid once moving, but I did have to think about where I parked it.

The numbers: 998cc supercharged inline-four, 200 PS @ 11,000 rpm (228 PS with ram air), 133.5 Nm @ 8,500 rpm, through a 6-speed with quickshifter, and it'll see about 300+ kmph (electronically limited) if you find the road for it. You won't. What actually matters here is what the bike does between 40 and 90 kmph, because that's where your entire riding life happens in this country.

There is no meaningful way to describe the acceleration on a public road. The H2 will sprint past 200 kmph in roughly the time a commuter reaches 60. What matters more for an owner is that it is surprisingly docile below 5,000 rpm, tractable in traffic, and the electronics package - traction control, engine brake control, launch control - is the only thing standing between you and a very short riding career.

Mileage worked out to 15-18 kmpl in mixed riding for me, with a 19 litres tank — so you can do the range maths yourself and plan fuel stops without drama. Fair warning: your right wrist decides this number far more than the brochure does. Ride it hard and 15-20% of that mileage quietly disappears.

Everything mechanical is in the table below. Short version: 43 mm kyb inverted fork, ohlins ttx36 monoshock rear holding it up, and 330 mm dual front discs, 250 mm rear, dual-channel abs (brembo) slowing it down. One opinion I won't budge on — if you ride in rain or unpredictable traffic, dual-channel ABS is worth whatever it costs. Single-channel only looks after the front wheel, and it's rarely the front that catches you out.

Almost nobody pays cash for a bike, so let's do the loan maths. Put down 20% — ₹6,90,000 — borrow ₹27,60,000 at 9.5%, and you get the EMIs in the table and calculator below for 12, 24, 36 and 48 months.

Two things I tell everyone who asks. A longer tenure makes the EMI look friendly and quietly costs you thousands more in interest, so take the shortest one you can actually live with. And don't sign the dealer's finance form just because it's on the desk — a pre-approved offer from your own bank usually comes in 1-2 percentage points cheaper, and if you're salaried, the PSU banks are normally the best of the lot.

Keep ₹1,500-3,000 aside for processing fees, plus documentation charges and the five-year third-party insurance that's baked into the on-road price. Then read the quotation properly. Accessories you never asked for and an "extended warranty" you didn't agree to are the two lines I find padded most often.

Running costs are sobering. Tyres are specialist items, insurance runs into six figures a year, and a single dropped fairing panel can cost more than a whole Splendor service. Budget for a dedicated, climate-controlled parking spot and a service centre that actually stocks H2 parts - not every Kawasaki dealer does.

Servicing is Rs 8,000-12,000 per service, every 6,000 km, comprehensive insurance Rs 1,50,000-2,00,000 a year comprehensive. On top of that, tyres every 20,000-25,000 km, a chain and sprocket set around the same time if it's chain-driven, and brake pads once or twice a year if you're in city traffic all day.

The one number I'd actually compare bikes on is cost per kilometre. Take your fuel spend at 15-18 kmpl and today's petrol price, add a year of servicing and insurance, divide by however much you really ride. Do that for two or three bikes and the decision usually makes itself — no showroom pitch required.

The Ducati Panigale V4 S is lighter and sharper on a circuit; the BMW M 1000 RR is more refined electronically. The H2 is the only one with a supercharger, and that single fact is why most owners buy it.

If you can, ride your shortlist on the same day, on the same road, wearing the same gear. Demo bikes are set up differently and your memory of yesterday's test ride is unreliable. Watch three things while you're at it: how heavy the clutch feels in traffic, whether the mirrors blur at 60 kmph, and how comfortably you can put both feet down at a signal. Those are the things that decide whether you still like the bike two years in.

A three-year-old one goes for ₹18,00,000-₹26,00,000 against ₹34,50,000 on-road new. That's a lot of money for the same riding experience. Resale here is niche but stable among collectors, so if you buy used and sell in a couple of years, you lose very little in between.

Physically: check the date codes on the tyres, chain slack, fork seals for any oil weep, how much disc is left, and get your phone torch under the engine looking for leaks. Cycle all the electricals too — the ABS light should come on with the ignition and go off once you're rolling. Then take it for at least 5 km, and brake hard once from 50 kmph so you know what you're buying.

Paperwork, briefly: ₹500-1,500 for the RC transfer, insurance moved into your name within 14 days, and never pay the full amount before the transfer forms are signed and submitted. I've seen that go wrong more than once.

Buy it because you can and because nothing else on Indian roads sounds or pulls like it. Do not buy it as your first big bike, do not buy it without confirming your insurance and parking situation first, and never ride it without full gear - the electronics save you from the bike, not from yourself.

If you're under about 5'6", go sit on it before you book anything — that 825 mm seat height is the single most common regret I hear. And if someone rides behind you every day, take them along on the test ride. Pillion comfort varies wildly between these bikes and no spec sheet will tell you that.

So why is the Kawasaki Ninja H2 on this list? Mainly supercharged, 200 ps power and hand-finished trellis frame. Its problems — rs 34 lakh on-road, six-figure annual insurance, specialist tyres and service — are real, but you can see all of them from the showroom floor. Nothing here ambushes you six months later, which is more than I can say for some of its rivals.

₹34,50,000 on-road new, ₹18,00,000-₹26,00,000 used. Right bike for the rider I described above, wrong bike for most other people, and that's fine. Before you go anywhere, put your own down payment and tenure into the calculator above and hold that EMI against what's actually left in your account at month-end — not your salary. — Sneha Kulkarni, Nashik, Maharashtra