Hi everybody, it's Peter and this is the Kawasaki Z900SE and the SE really matters. It's also our first look at the 2023 Z900. So in this video we're gonna go through an in-depth review of this bike, and I'm gonna compare it a little bit to the bike that you may have seen on this channel before, the Zed 900 RS S se, which is a retro style bike that you can see on your screen here. But that retro style bike costs $3,000 more and you actually get less. And I say that as someone who just bought it. So this bike is screaming good value and all kinds of good things to talk about. And if you wanna know more that I don't get to in this video, make sure you subscribe to this channel because I'm filming here at  Jim Gilbert's Power Sports, and they gimme complete access to their entire vehicle line. 
And if you have questions, I can come back to it in the comments and in future videos to make sure that I give you the information that you're looking for. So let's get going with the review. So the first thing I wanna point out about this bike is the SE components. Now we'll just touch on them now, we'll go in detail in a second here. But you're gonna notice the SE by the gold fork tubes here and the Olin Shock here, which is a yellow color. That's really the difference between this and the standard Z900 and also the Brembo brakes I should point out. But we talked about the Z900, the 2022 model just recently. You can find it here in our channel. 

And like I said, the value in this bike is really, really good. So instead of like the bike that I bought, which has around 110 horsepower, this one has 125 horsepower from the same engine. They match on torque, but the torque comes in a little higher RPM on this bike as well. So this bike is both torquey and high horsepower. Actually both are high horsepower. This is quite high horsepower, which means you get a little bit more of the race bike type feel in here where you can rev it from say 3000, 4,000 rpm, but continue to make power well past 8,500 rpm, which is the difference between the RS model, which starts to tail off past about 80 509,000 rpm. This one continues to make power and that's where your extra horsepower really comes from in this model. Now obviously styling is different as well.

This one has a much more modern style, sort of an aggressive look as what they're going for. But then we're gonna talk about some of the performance upgrades. This bike is already a performance spike without the upgraded suspension, upgraded Brembo brakes. But when you add them in, you get a few extra tweaks. So let's start with the brakes, the suspension, we'll move our way through the spike and all its features. So let's start with the upgraded Brembo brakes on this SE model. So what you're gonna find, if you talk to owners and you see what they say online is most people don't have a real issue with the brakes on the regulars Z900. There are plenty strong. So what do the brembos add? Well, they do add a level of performance for sure. What you may feel though is a feel difference between the two. 

And that comes from a few things. First of all, they are brambles. They specialize in brakes. They do them better than just about anybody. You're gonna have some heat dissipation abilities here. You're gonna have strong brakes, but there's some extra things here that you've got up here. You've got the steel braided lines for the front and rear brakes here. That's part of that SA SE package where they would be rubber lines as well. All of that's gonna contribute to feel. So both the cas, the way things work and the braided lines are gonna contribute to feel. There's also a difference in the lever, which we'll show you in a second when we work our way up there. But then we should talk about the suspension here as well. A lot of people feel that these gold fork tubes, the only real difference is that they're gold.
Well, they are very similar to the regular Z 900. They're fully adjustable, but they do give you a little bit different tuning here as well. And the same thing as the uh, Z 900 RS se. So you have the same look here, probably tuned to be very similar, but again, the full adjustability is really what matters here. You can really tune this bike to do what you want. You can set up from the factory and most people find that it's perfect from the factory. But you can start to play with things to kind of set it up for your road, set it up for your weight, set it up for the type of riding and the feel that you want, which makes this bike something that can really kind of last you a long time. As your skills improve, you can start tweaking things and seeing what you like and going from there. 
So adjustability with a slightly different tune. And the bramble break, BRBO breaks of course with ABS are an upgrade here over the Z900. So I'm gonna do a little awkward view here. We're gonna look at your clutch lever over here and the Brembo brake upgrade over here. And the way it all works here, so first of all, the clutch lever pulls the cable or pulls this way, right? And the brake lever, instead of pulling out this way, it pushes in on a cylinder right here. And that also contributes to a different field. So you actually have a different style lever here than you would on the regular Zed 900. We'll talk about the adjustability we get there, but I just wanted to show you sort of the different look where it's, it would be a pullout here as opposed to a push in there.

And that's gonna give you some of that feel difference that I was talking about earlier. The other difference you're gonna find here is the Olin shock. So of course you've got that, uh, backlink rear suspensions here. So a couple things work well here. The weight is centered and uh, away from the exhaust. So both consistent performance because there's no heat involved with the exhaust as well as just having a better handling bike because of the way they do it. This backlink rear suspension here. So that is the same as the regular Zed 900, but you've got some extra adjustments in here, especially this preload adjuster here. So you can just on the fly, adjust it up by turning it, uh, whichever way you want to soften or, or tighten up the suspension and uh, give you that compensate for the weight, give you a little different feel. So having that there again allows you to really compensate. If you throw a passenger on here, you can dial it right up right away and uh, have a real fun sporty ride as well by having that right there. A lot of people have talked about this oland suspension being something that they definitely feel every, you know, every time they ride the BRBO breaks, they're not, you don't always feel 'em the same way,

Uh, because they're performance breaks. So when you're really get into heavy breaking, that'll be where the brambles have the be biggest benefit. But right here, something you're gonna feel every ride you take. Now we're gonna take a look at the dash and the reason I'm starting with it off is I've kind of created some half glare in here with the studio lights and I think that's important because a lot of people wonder if TFT displays can be seen clearly even with glare. And you can see, even though a camera compensates and tends to show a lot more glare on a screen. And if you don't believe me, you can film the screen in your car and see how hard it is to see on film, but how easy it is to see in person. Uh, but the TFT display here really gives you a clear display. 
Now remember this SE model is about $3,000 less expensive than the RS SE or the same engine bike. With the retro sport style, you already get more horsepower, you share suspension, you share some of the same uh, upgrades there, but you also get this TFT display, whereas the older one has the older style gauges. Now those gauges seem to cost a lot more because you're actually getting more here. So you have your neutral indicator right there, your gear indicator, that's all part of the um, same thing with the rs. What you don't have is these rider modes. So you can see I have it currently set to road, we're gonna go up to uh sport here in a second. If I hold it, there we go. It goes up to sport and we'll come down as well. Now the only thing I don't, I wish they would do is let it cycle through.
I'm going up and down through the handlebar controls here. You have to hold it down. You also have rain. So road sport you have rain and then you have the rider mode. And as I switch it to the rider mode, you're gonna see the power level. You also have power levels. So in addition to four rider modes, three of them are preset from the factory. The rider mode allows you to create the bike that you want to have essentially. Uh, so you could set it down if you were uh, new to this bike, you could set your power more to L, which would be low power or F for full power. Uh, traction control you can customize is off one two. So again, the retro sport bike has the traction control off one or two, but it does not have the rider modes. It does not have the uh, low power or full power mode and it doesn't have the overall screen like this, which gives you a whole bunch of functions as well, including the ability to connect to your cell phone app, the radiology app, uh, which allows you to have messages and other things come through to this screen. 

So you're getting a whole lot more in this bike and you're not just paying for that retro sports styling. And again, I bought the retro sports so I understand that uh, uh, you know what that bike is and I like it. But from a value perspective you're really getting quite a lot here. So of course this screen can be customized a little bit. You can do various things with it. When you're in the breaking period of this bike, you can set the RPM limit. So right now I think it's set to around 4,000 rpm, which is the very first break-in couple hundred kilometers or something like that. They want to try to avoid going beyond that if you can. So it'll have a sort of like a shift light. It'll start flashing your tachometer here, uh, as you're revving beyond that. So you can change that shift light um, as you break the bike in. 
But if you didn't wanna rev past 8,000 without being made aware, you can set that shift light up to basically blink your tachometer when you get up that high. So it does make it easier to read at a glance and in your peripheral vision you can see when you're revving higher than you want to or getting close to where you wanna shift. Uh, and a lot of that is customizable and that's the big thing here is you've got some controls in here. So if you get outta the rider mode for a second here, we're gonna go up and you see you've got your trip A, or sorry trip B there odometer. And then trip A, which is again in this section here, if you look at the lower section here, we've got kilometers per liter which can be set to liters per hundred kilometers. Then you've got the average of those.
So that's your instant and your average that we just showed you. Then you've got your overall range, which is distance to empty, which right now is uh, tank is quite low and haven't been driving. Average speed is listed there as well. And then total times, so you've got and the battery voltage as well. So a lot of things through there. The one thing that the uh, retro sport has that this one doesn't, I believe now I may have to ch uh, check that I don't think this has an outside temperature, um, uh, thermometer where it just has the engine temperature. Now I could be wrong about that. We'll have to look into that a little bit further. But that's one thing that I noticed right away. The retros sport is the only thing it has that this one doesn't. Everything else that that bike's got, this bike's got and more, let's show you the controls really quickly on how you work this. 
So the left side handlebar pretty simple stuff. You've got a little trigger over here which will flash your high beam, just a flash to pass type function. And then you've got your high beam and low beam right set to that signal lights horn. And you do have uh, four-way flashers, which is nice to have as well. So you uh, all those standard controls and then this is the control that essentially works that screen that we were just showing you. So very simple and easy to use. Uh, looks complicated cuz it seems like there's not enough controls here to control the screen. But once you understand sort of, uh, how to do it, you can very quickly and intuitively uh, change any one of the settings you want from rider modes to just information. All of that is done right here on your thumb. So your hands are always right where they need to be.
Gonna show you that brake lever again here because both the clutch and the brake lever have reach adjustments here. And the simplest way to adjust that is just to pull it out and set this anywhere you want. So there's six levels over here and five on the other side. So I went from level six to level three and that brings it out I believe. Let's just go to one. So there's level one, it feels to me to be a far reach. We'll come back on to level six over here and it's a much closer reach. So you can set that for anything you want. We'll leave it roughly in the middle at number three for now. Uh, but you can set that reach for anywhere you want. Six levels here, five levels on the other side. And basically whatever size your hands are, you can make sure that you have a comfortable grip exactly where you want it and the reach the distance. 
There is no problem no matter what size your hands are. Wanna point out the front lighting on this bike because it's one thing that I have a bit of an issue with. First of all, the bike's not running. So these are both l e D lights. I love that. Not only are they really bright, but that white color they will give is the same or very close to daylight color, which means your eyes don't have to think about what they see. They will right away recognize, you know, because it's the same color as or similar color to daylight your eyes pick up what they're seeing right away and you do have sort of a daytime running light look here, which is on right now with the key on even though the engine's not running. What I don't like about this bike and I don't

Understand is Canadians don't get the l e D signal lights that other world markets do. I think the Americans are the same as us here, but you have the in candescent bulbs here. I would've liked to see L E d I don't know why they didn't do that because almost every other light, well actually every other light including the license plate light on this bike are full l e d. So let's look at the rear lighting as well and uh, just to get a sense of that. But yeah, interestingly in Canada and I believe the United States, they don't have the L E D lights where other world markets do. So take a look at the rear light here. You've got that Zed style there. So you've got, uh, kind of that cool uh, style that shows out. I really quite like that. It's hard to show on camera but it really stands out in person and of course the bright l e d brake light. 
But again, uh, rear signal lights are just, uh, what they are. They're the ines balls, which again, totally fine, they work really well. But just, you know, I would've liked to see l e D down here. There's a full L e D license plate light as well, which is gonna give you your white license plate, uh, some nice light there as well. It just makes you a little bit more visible. So whole bike looks and feels really modern. Just one thing I would've liked to see as an upgrade right there. Now let's show you what it's like to sit on this bike. So the seating position of the Z 900 is one of its strong points. Now one of the things you're gonna hear in the reviews is that the Z 900 RS has a very comfortable seat. I feel like that downplays this seat a little bit.

This is also a very comfortable seat. It is a little bit of a firm seat, which is what you want on the longer ride, but the width here is just as wide probably as the Z 900 Rs. Where you do lose in comfort compared to the RS is in this rear seat. This is a much smaller rear seat for your passenger than you would have on the Z 900 Rs. So there is some styling benefits here, uh, but you also have some comfort drawbacks on the rear seat. Now don't let them tell you that this seat isn't comfortable though because like I said, although it's a fairly firm seat, uh, you have good width here and narrow in the front here to allow for a nice standover height. So I'm about six feet tall, I have to measure my in seam. I think I'm 32 inches or so easily flat footing here. 
And on a naked bike, you want a slight forward lean because you're gonna have some of that wind keeping you upright, but you don't wanna be so far over that. It's like a sport bike or a super sport bike where it's a little less comfortable for a longer ride. This is an all day comfortable ride. You're, you do have a little bit of wind protection here around the gauges, but it's basically gonna come right at you. Now I think you could probably get an aftermarket screen that raises this up a little bit in front of the gauges, but overall very comfortable seating position. And same thing with your, uh, your feet right here. If you um, see that it's a nice sort of compact riding position, your legs are a little bit more back and up compared to the Z 900 Rs, but it's in no way uncomfortable. 
So one is a little bit more casual, this is a little more sporty feeling, but both are very comfortable and both are in control. The other thing you're gonna notice compared to the Kawasaki Z 900 Rs is this modern tank is sculpted to fit your legs better. Now the other one is fine, uh, but you have that traditional look which is style over function. This probably gives you a little bit better grip on the tank for a little bit more sporty riding. And this kind of bike isn't all about track riding, but you could take it to the track, but it's more about having fun. Whole z lineup is pretty consistent in a fun lineup. Wheelies are capable on this bike. Of course you're not supposed to do those, uh, but you can, you have that sort of geometry to have full control, really feel like you're connected with the bike without and have some of a sporty riding feel without being down in that super sport riding position.
That's really more racetrack ready. Then weekend riding and just regular riding around town. So pretty comfortable position here. Again, slight forward lean but very, very comfortable. Tighter in the legs. If you really have really, really long legs that may be an issue. But for someone like me fits really nicely here, quite comfortable. So let's talk about who this bike is for. Well first of all, it's not a ninja, but that ninja lineup can really vary as well. You go from the Ninja 400 right up to the full super sports. There are comfortable ninjas like the Ninja 1000, ninja six 50 and the Ninja 400. They're kind of a similar riding position to this, but the ninja 1000 is a lot more of a touring bike and the Ninja six 50 is a two cylinder. So if you look at either side of the engine size of this, uh, you've got a real difference. 

So this kind of fills the gap without the fairing of that sort of in-betweener, almost a ninja kind of bike, but it's not a super sport type ninja. So you still have full sporting capabilities in a more upright riding position with a styling that some people are gonna love and some people aren't gonna love and they're okay with that because they've got such a wide variety of bikes. I really quite like the aggressive look to me it's the kind of bike that looks better in person and certainly looks and feels like a sport bike. Now springing for the SE model in my opinion is worthwhile. If you are a value shopper that Z900 without this se package is a great, great buy. It's really for what you get. It's fantastic. But springing for a little bit extra to get the oland shock, the brbo brakes, the little bit, uh, retune front suspension to me, I think makes a difference. 
If you can spring forward, it's worth doing. That's what I did with the retro sport version. I sprung for the SE model to get some of those upgrades. I like having those Brembo brakes. I've heard very good things with Oland suspension. I'm looking forward to trying that over, over a variety of riding trains and long-term riding. But that's a nice upgrade to give you. Really nothing at all to complain about. You've got top level components, you've got the more power you've got all the tech you need in the, uh, TFT display that's very, very clear. So it's really a bike for someone looking for a pretty good value sport bike, lots of power. And remember the entire Z line is about fun. Every one of these is a lot of fun to ride. And you have a real consistency from the Z400 right up through the Z 900 to the H two in the Z line. They have that fun to ride character that's kind of consistent unlike the ninja line where you, there's touring bikes, there's more entry level bikes, lower power bikes. This one you have a real consistent field just adding power, adding power, adding power, and adding technology in in something like this. So it's a great bike for a sport bike buyer looking for value and comfort and is it right for you? Well, here's the thing. Here at Jim Gilbert's powerSports, there's a 20,000 Thousand square foot showroom and we're filming here in February. The 2020 threes are arriving. You can compare this 2023 to a 2022. If you wanna save some money for some gear, you can pick up the 2022. The SE is no longer in stock here for 2022, but we do have it at 2023. So you can sort of compare side by side which one you think is better. These are fun bikes and spring's coming. So come on down to Jim Gilbert's PowerSports and check one out for yourself. And if you wanna know more about this bike, make sure you subscribe to the channel because I'll make sure I answer your comments and questions in the comments section and come back to this vi vehicle with more videos. Thanks everybody for watching.