In 5 Pics: Aprilia RS 457 And Kawasaki Ninja ZX 4R Compared

India has barely ever had sub-500cc multi-cylinder supersports. As desirable as these motorcycles are, manufacturers never really brought such motorcycles to India, especially because of how price-sensitive the Indian market is. But the past couple of weeks changed things for us. First, Kawasaki launched the ZX 4R, and then Aprilia unveiled the RS 457 in India, giving us two very important additions in this segment. 

Now that they’re both here, we thought it’d only make sense for us to put them together and see how they stack up against each other. Here’s how that went: 

Design

While both bikes look the part, they take different approaches to nail the supersport look. The Ninja ZX 4R looks a bit curvy, while the RS 457 looks super sharp, aggressive and ready to attack corners. But more importantly, both design languages are inspired from its bigger siblings. Remove the badge and you could easily mistake the ZX 4R for the Ninja 400, while the RS 457 has a lot of elements from the RS 660 on it. All in all, though, you’ll not go wrong with either, for both are genuinely good-looking bikes. 

Engines

This is the biggest difference between the two. The Ninja ZX 4R packs a screamer of a 399cc inline-four engine that makes 77PS (increased to 80PS with ram-air) at 14,500rpm. Even the 39Nm is made at an astronomical 13,000rpm. The Aprilia, meanwhile, has a more conventional ’s 457cc liquid-cooled parallel-twin, making 47.6PS. Its torque figures, though, haven't been revealed. 

Hardware 

Underpinnings on the Ninja ZX 4R include a 37mm separate function USD fork, and monoshock. There are twin 290mm discs at the front and a 220mm one at the rear. The 17-inch wheels, meanwhile, are shod with 120/70 (front) and 160/60 (rear) W-rated tyres    

On the Aprilia, you get a fatter 41mm USD fork along with a monoshock, both with preload adjustability. There’s a single 320mm front disc and a 220mm rear unit. Dual-channel ABS is standard but it can be switched off at the rear for some sideways fun. Interestingly, its 17-inch wheels have TVS Eurogrip Protorq Extreme tyres (110/70 front, 150/60 rear). 

Features

The Ninja ZX 4R gets a 4.3-inch TFT whose layout is quite similar to the one on the bigger Ninjas. It has smartphone connectivity and gets two display modes: Normal and Circuit. Aprilia has equipped the RS 457 with a bigger 5-inch TFT, that gets Bluetooth connectivity as an option.  

Prices

Kawasaki has priced the Ninja ZX 4R at Rs 8.49 lakh (ex-showroom). While the Aprilia RS 457 hasn’t been launched yet, we think it could come at an ex-showroom price tag of around Rs 4.25 lakh. 

Summing up, while both bikes might lay in the same ballpark in a lot of things, they promise to be fun in very different ways. But more importantly, they hint at a riding experience that’d feel like a scaled-down version of their larger siblings. It’d definitely be very interesting to see how these two stack up against each other in the real world.