If there’s one motorcycle that really spoke to me when it first came out, it was the final iteration of the Kawasaki Z1000. Its super aggressive Sugomi styling, powerful engine, and inline-four exhaust note just gave it such a menacing aura. This was back in 2014, when bikes, particularly naked bikes, were oddly styled, and looked like they sort of didn’t know what they wanted to be.
But not the Z1000.
That thing looked confident and sure of exactly what it wanted to be—a powerful, muscular, screaming naked sportbike that turned heads no matter where it went. Unfortunately, the Z1000’s reign was cut short, as Kawasaki decided to discontinue the thing in all markets in 2023.
But now that Kawasaki’s updated the Z900 for the 2025 model year, I’d go as far as saying that the Z900 is more than a worthy replacement for the Z1000.
And that’s mainly because Kawasaki’s taken the Z900 and given it a rework—not just in terms of style, but with its inner workings, too. Kawasaki looked at the bike and thought to itself, “What would a naked bike rider really use this thing for?” And indeed, that’s a question any manufacturer of any bike should be asking itself.
