2025 Kawasaki Ninja 1100SX SE ABS Review

Grown up with shagged sliders all your life? Still listen to the music you did when you were 20? Still love sportbikes, but your knees and wrists can’t take it anymore? Kawasaki may just have the answer.

Photography by Ryan Nitzen & Kevin Wing

Sportbikes are always a compromise. They’re brilliant on track and your favorite backroad, they look awesome, and they impart a feeling to the rider that other bikes simply can’t match. Cruiser riders would never get it.

Conversely, sportbikes don’t make good touring buddies. They’re cramped, uncomfortable, pretty rubbish at carrying luggage, and riding one at the posted speed limit feels like neutering a pitbull.

Kawasaki has known this for ages and has been pushing the Ninja 1000 as an alternative to knackered knees since 2011. Based on the Z1000 naked bike, over time the Ninja 1000 became the Ninja 1000SX, and, as the Z1000 saw a quiet demise from Kawasaki’s lineup, it gained a foothold as one of two machines to use that particular motor, the other being the Versys 1000.

For 2025, the Ninja (and the Versys for that matter) has gained capacity from 1043cc to 1099cc. This increase in displacement is achieved through a 3mm longer stroke, although a heavier flywheel, milder camshaft profiles and intake work have seen peak power reduced from 140 horsepower to 134. The good news is these changes have given the SX a stronger low- to mid-range torque curve for more sedate-speed riding. You’re not going warp speed all the time, right?

When Kawasaki put new “high lift,” not “higher lift,” cams in their ZX-6R back in 2024, the company said it was trying to make an engine that was designed to have its nuts revved off more tractable, and offer more useful performance for the street. But in reality it was also to appease the emissions gods. After all, less air and less fuel mean less power, less emissions, and less melting ice caps.

It’s the same thing again in 2025 for the SX. Emissions control the game here, and with “milder” cams, you need a larger capacity to make a similar amount of horsepower. Otherwise, your 1000 SX would be producing truly woeful numbers. This is the reason KTM can’t seem to sit still for even one year as they continually up the capacity of their street bikes.

So, welcome to your new 1100SX.

As before, you’ve got four riding modes in Rain, Street, Sport and Rider, the last being the fully programable mode that lets you fiddle around with traction control (levels 1-3 plus Off) and choose between Full or Low power modes (Low power gives you 75 percent of the available throttle with a softer response, by the way).

In practice, however, Kawasaki delivered a peach of an engine for its given performance realm. It’s supremely smooth at low rpm and punches at high rpm, which makes pulling out and passing cars on the freeway way easier than you’d believe.

Sixth gear roll-ons at 60 mph have you sitting around 4500 rpm, which is right in the sweet spot for some pretty impressive acceleration. There are oodles of mid-range torque to boot, but I’m sorry to say that the motor lacks a little character and style. It is undoubtedly a superbly engineered power unit, but the personality is a little soft for my liking. I’d have wanted a bit more excitement when opening the gas, although I will say Kawasaki’s kept the induction roar that the original 1000 was so well known for.

Part of the reason for the lack of charisma comes from just how smooth that gear shift is. Kawasaki’s refined the new quickshifter to work from 1500 rpm and up, and it’s so damn good at what it does it’s almost robotic. I had the same complaint about the motor in the Versys (it is the same thing, after all), but it doesn’t make those feelings any less prevalent. And yes, I can hear the Kawasaki execs shaking their heads and asking what they have to do to appease such a snooty writer. Is it possible to do too good of a job?

Get the motor spinning between 4000-7000 rpm, and there’s more than enough performance on hand. Torque for days, a good noise to go with it, and you can pull away from the lights in fourth gear easily. What’s not to like? A bit of anger in the personality, perhaps? I’ll leave that up to you.

Suspension is conventionally adjusted in the 41mm Showa fork, adjustable three ways like any good fork (comp, rebound and preload), and the 2025 SX gains an Öhlins S46 shock, the same one that has resided in plenty of past Kawasakis, like my favorite Z900RS SE, adjustable for rebound and preload. Kawasaki’s even given you a remote preload adjuster for those days when you’re taking the missus on the back—super handy given the suspension doesn’t come with wires and electronic switches like the Versys SE LT does.

Road holding is excellent, especially so given the Bridgestone Battlax S23 rubber that comes as standard. Given the claimed wet weight of 516 pounds, you’ve got a bit to play with and it is not as nimble as something like a Tracer 9 GT, but the Kawasaki will hustle along your favorite backroad plenty well.

A few turns of preload will do most riders the world of good to stop the chassis running wide under power on corner exits, but for the most part, I had zero complaints in the handling department. It’s a sporty prospect, but just because it has a fairing doesn’t mean it corners like a ZX-6R. Remember that and you’ll be just fine.

Given the raised handlebar position (a trademark of the 1000/1100SX), the mid-level seat height of 32.3 inches, and a reasonable bend in the knees given the footpeg position, long days are easier on this than on many other bikes on the market. Even the screen, adjustable to three positions, doesn’t buffet your head like some of the bike’s class competitors. Score four for the Kawasaki. Oh, and heated hand grips as standard. Nice.

I recently completed a 180-mile-plus round trip to meet a mate for lunch, and it struck me as odd halfway home that I couldn’t think of a bike I’d rather be on for the combined task of a few nice backroads, Los Angeles traffic, and boring and chaotic freeways. Kawasaki’s done splendidly well to craft a sport touring steed that’s happy in each of the aforementioned circumstances, and I got off at the end of the day with hardly an ache—which is saying something for my broken body.

Back to the performance.

The SE ABS gains Brembo M4.32 radially mounted four-piston front brake calipers and steel-braided brake lines, which offer plenty of good stopping power, although feel is a little diluted thanks to the master cylinder and the fact that the power needs to go through an ABS unit before it reaches the caliper. That’s the same for pretty much everyone who sells a bike in 2025, but the Kawasaki’s feel at the lever still leaves a bit to be desired.

One notable change is the increase from 250mm to 260mm for the rear brake. The 2024 rear brake disc was already bigger than most other bikes on the market, which usually stay around the 240mm mark, but Kawasaki decided to up it a little further. It works. The old one worked. I can’t tell the difference, to be totally honest with you.

Unfortunately, the 1100SX doesn’t come standard with my test bike’s 28-liter hard cases, which is a bummer considering the sticker price of the base bike. You’d be mad not to pick these up at purchase, as they hold enough for a weekend away and will fit a full-face helmet, no worries, unless you’ve got one of those helmets with a bunch of useless wings on the back.

And you’d also want to pick up the heated handgrips from the accessory catalog, which is a shame because they should come as standard fitment for, again, the price of the bike.

Kawasaki’s been pushing their Rideology The App (to give it its full and proper name) smartphone app for years and if you were to pick up a 1100, I’d suggest taking the time to learn the system. Mission control is still the 4.3-inch TFT display and allows you to use turn-by-turn navigation, calls and various ride logs like distance, fuel consumption, and plenty of other techy bits.

The Kawasaki Ninja 1100SX SE ABS may come with less horsepower than the old 1100, but don’t let that fool you. It’s a very good sport touring steed with more performance in the areas that matter, and if you option up so you’ve got some luggage, this is a bike you’ll be able to cover many, many miles on and never tire of. The longer I had it, the more I liked it, even if its personality is a little vanilla at first glance. Looks can indeed be deceiving.CN

VIDEO | 2025 Kawasaki Ninja 1100SX SE ABS First Ride

2025 Kawasaki Ninja 1100SX SE ABS Specifications

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