The History and Evolution of the Kawasaki Ninja 300

The Kawasaki Ninja 300 is an impressive looking motorcycle designed for sport riding that was first produced for the 2013 model year. In this article, you can learn more about the history of the bike itself from one model year to the next. This gives you the opportunity to compare and contrast features from each model year to the next in order to determine if this is the right type of motorcycle for you.

2013 Kawasaki Ninja 300

The first thing you'll notice about this bike is that it looks very much like the racing bike it's intended to be. It's based off of the much older Ninja 250 that was popular on racecourses back in the late 1980s. However, It also features a lot of improvements. For starters, it has a 296cc engine and twin turbos to provide more power. Thanks to the fuel injection and improved handling, this is a bike that's capable of going fast without losing control. Under a skilled rider, it can handle just about anything that's thrown at it. With that being said, it's also the perfect starter sportbike for someone that doesn't have all that much experience.

2014 Kawasaki Ninja 300

For the 2014 model year, the engine featured involved a dual overhead cam liquid cooled four stroke variety, the same as in the previous model year. It also produced 296 cc's of power. In fact, it features the same parallel twin engine as the 2013 version, incorporating fuel injection and results in a compression ratio of 10.6 to 1. There weren't a lot of changes to the 2014 model year. Instead, minor tweaks were made that were hardly even noticeable to the naked eye, even for someone that has a lot of experience when it comes to sport bikes.

2015 Kawasaki Ninja 300

While there were virtually no changes to the engine for the 2015 model year, the thing that really stood out in this particular version of the Ninja 300 involved the transmission. This particular model saw a 6-speed manual transmission being married to the same 296cc fuel injected engine that was incorporated into the bike since its inception. Overall, it provided a more precise ride and improved performance, although there weren't that many complaints about the performance of the previous to model years to begin with.

2016 Kawasaki Ninja 300

This was another model year that saw very few changes, if any, to the specifications on the bike. The company felt that they had fine-tuned it to the point where it could perform extremely well and incorporated the type of technology necessary to be equally effective in the hands of a relative novice or someone that had a great deal more experience. This was something that Kawasaki had pursued and successfully achieved since the first Ninja 300 was released a few years previously. They had been making slight changes all along, careful not to change any single thing too much. Therefore, the 2016 model year was practically a twin to its previous 2015 version.

2017 Kawasaki Ninja 300

The 2017 model incorporated the same 296cc engine as its predecessors. Throughout the history of the bike, the engine was capable of producing a 62 mm bore and a stroke of 49 mm. It still incorporated the same liquid cooling technology and was driven by a chain, just as the previous model years had been. With a 4.5 gallon fuel tank, the bike could go fairly long distances on a single tank of gas. In fact, there were virtually no changes between the 2017 version and the previous model year, something that the company has been known for with this particular bike.

2018 Kawasaki Ninja 300

This is the first time that Kawasaki has made any major changes to the bike. The 2018 model year is referred to as the Ninja 400, replacing its predecessor, the Ninja 300. The biggest change is in the amount of power produced by the engine, going up to 399cc from the previous 296cc. It has an 11.5 to 1 compression ratio, a bore of 70 mm and a 51.8 mm stroke. It also incorporates ABS brakes for the first time since the Ninja 300 was introduced for the 2013 model year. This addition was put in place to make the bike safer for the rider and to provide superior control, even when riding in adverse conditions. It goes back to the company's history of creating a sport bike that performs well, yet is relatively easy to ride.