£12,249 (£13,999 SE)
134.1bhp
235kg (234kg SE)
TBA
Technical Review: Ben Purvis – Oct 2024
Riding Impressions: Martin Fitz-Gibbons – Jun 2025
You know the score. New year, updated bikes, more capacity, more tech, more pow… er? Not in this case: yes, Kawasaki has revamped the Ninja 1000SX – upscaling its engine to 1099cc and switching the name to 1100SX as a result – but its maximum output actually drops a fraction as the company goes in search of more useable midrange punch for its affordable sports tourer.
There’s still a healthy 134bhp on tap, but the old 1043cc ‘1000’ version managed 140hp despite giving away a moped’s worth of cubic centimetres. So what does the new Ninja 1100SX bring to the party instead? Read on to find out.
Pros & Cons
New 1100SX SE model gains Öhlins shock and Brembo brakes
Extra 56cc of capacity brings more torque and it arrives at lower revs
Bigger engine offers better fuel economy for increased touring range
Less peak power than the previous model despite bigger engine
No visual changes to show you’ve bought the latest version
Honda NT1100 vs Kawasaki Ninja 1100 vs Suzuki GSX-S1000GT
Join Martin, Andy and Michael as they compare the 2025 Honda NT1100 D ES and Kawasaki Ninja 1100 SX SE against the more established Suzuki GSX-S1000GT. They dive into price, performance, engine characteristics, comfort (including pillion), economy, and much more!
Kawasaki’s Ninja 1100SX SE alongside it’s main rival from Honda, the NT1100
2025 Kawasaki Ninja 1100SX - Price & PCP Deals
Sliding into the range with an on-the-road price tag of £12,425, the new 2025 Ninja 1100SX is just £100 more expensive than the entry-level, black-and-grey version of the 2024 Ninja 1000SX. That means it’s also £100 cheaper than the more colourful variants of the bike it replaces and since there’s only one colour option for the new base version (any colour you like, provided it’s black) that’s one less choice to worry about.
If you want a splash of colour in the 2025 iteration, you need to raise your sights to the brand-new Ninja 1100SX SE version, which costs £14,175 otr and comes in either Kawasaki’s signature green/black combo or matte graphite/metallic black scheme.
Kawasaki calls its PCP finance scheme ‘K.Options’. There’s an excellent online calculator which lets you pick your exact model, colour scheme, accessories, deposit, mileage and contract length, then swiftly spits out your expected monthly payments. To generate some guideline figures we assumed a £2500 deposit, riding 4000 miles per year, and a three-year contract.
For a base Ninja 1100SX, that leaves 36 monthly payments of £132.80, followed by an optional final payment of £6605 if you want to keep the bike at the end. Over the three years that adds up to £13,895.80. For the SE version, those monthlies are raised to £160.79, with the balloon figure increasing to £7591. That’s a grand total of £15,889.44. In both cases the APR is 5.9%, and both quotes are correct as of late June 2025 – check out the calculator above to get an up-to-date personalised quote.
Both base and SE models are also available in Tourer, Performance and Performance Tourer versions (more details of these below) creating a total of eight different Ninja 1100SX variants to choose from. On-the-road RRPs for the full lineup looks like this (correct as of June 2025):
• Kawasaki Ninja 1100 SX: £12,425
• Kawasaki Ninja 1100 SX Tourer: £13,625
• Kawasaki Ninja 1100 SX Performance: £13,525
• Kawasaki Ninja 1100 SX Performance Tourer: £14,725
• Kawasaki Ninja 1100 SX SE: £14,175
• Kawasaki Ninja 1100 SX SE Tourer: £15,175
• Kawasaki Ninja 1100 SX SE Performance: £15,275
• Kawasaki Ninja 1100 SX SE Performance Tourer: £16,275
2025 Kawasaki Ninja 1100SX - Engine & Performance
The basis of the Ninja 1100SX’s engine might be the familiar Kawasaki four-cylinder that powered its predecessor as well as machines like the Z1000 and the Versys 1000, but its capacity hike to 1099cc marks a rationalisation of the range as well as bringing a new balance of torque and power.
As mentioned above, peak power drops by six horses, declining from the Ninja 1000SX’s 140hp (104.5kW) to 134hp (100kW), which might seem like a downgrade at first. But you need to dig a little deeper to discover how the change really effects the bike.
First off, torque rises a fraction, going from 82lb·ft for the old bike to 83lb·ft for the new one, but more important still is where those peaks arrive. Both max power and max torque now appear at lower rpm, with the power peaking at 9000rpm instead of the previous 10,000rpm, and torque topping out at 7600rpm instead of 8000rpm. That’s a recipe for a fatter-feeling midrange, which is bolstered further by revised gearing, with longer ratios in 5th and 6th to make the most of the torque curve and improve economy.
It's worth noting that for 2025, the engine designs of the new Ninja 1100SX and the similarly-powered and equally new Versys 1100 have converged. In their previous, 1043cc ‘1000’ guises, the Versys had a lower compression ratio and substantially less power, while for 2025 both bikes make near-identical outputs, sharing the same 11.8:1 compression ratio and torque-focused design.
The capacity increase itself comes from a new, long-stroke crankshaft that gives a 77mm x 59mm bore and stroke, up from the previous bike’s 77mm x 56mm.
As well as the revised ratios, the six-speed transmission’s standard-fit quickshifter can now operate at lower revs, allowing clutchless changes as low as 1500rpm. And of course there’s the usual array of power modes and an IMU-supported rider assist package including cornering traction control that’s been a staple feature of the model for several years.
Riding impressions
If you own a Z1000SX or Ninja 1000SX and fear the 1100 will feel like a step backwards because it’s 6bhp down, rest assured that’s absolutely not the case. From the saddle the SX feels as fit as it ever was – if anything, it seems even fruitier. Perhaps that’s down to the fatter midrange hitting harder at lower revs, or perhaps Kawasaki’s also tweaked the ride-by-wire mapping to pep up the engine’s part-throttle response.
Whatever they’ve done, the result is one of the best road-going inline four engines out there: smooth, responsive and addictively easy to get the most from. There’s bulging torque from just 3000rpm that builds gently yet purposefully through to a rich, thick, unctuous midrange. This is the engine’s happy place, packing such potency that there’s rarely much call to ever take it beyond 8000rpm. The 1100SX’s redline is 500rpm lower than the 1000 (down from 11,000rpm to 10,500rpm) but in practice the change is moot – the generous delivery means it never needs to be thrashed too hard.
The improved two-way quickshifter helps too. It snicks so swiftly through the gears, with relatively little drop in revs between the close ratios, that accelerating hard ends up feeling like riding one long, uninterrupted, turbine-like tidal wave of thrust. It’s a glorious powertrain.
But the 1100 also feels like a more refined motor, with fewer rough edges. At first I wondered whether the sense of newfound smoothness was just in my head, but it turns out Kawasaki have actually added weight both inside the handlebars as well as to the bar-end weights, helping to smother high-frequency vibes. You can tell.
The motor’s gearing has been tweaked too, with taller primary (crank-to-gearbox) and shorter secondary (gearbox-to-wheel) ratios, plus longer internal ratios for fifth and sixth. The end result of all those adjustments is that when you’re cruising along a motorway in top gear, the motor now sits at lower revs for the same speed. An indicated 80mph in top now comes at bang-on 5000rpm – roughly 400rpm lower than the 1000SX.
There are four riding modes: Sport, Road and Rain, plus a customisable Rider setting. However, as before the differences aren’t huge. Sport and Road both use the same full-power engine setting, meaning changing between these modes only tweaks the traction control slightly.
2025 Kawasaki Ninja 1100SX - Handling & Suspension (inc. Weight)
There isn’t much to report in the way of changes to the standard Ninja 1100SX’s chassis compared to its predecessor with the exception of a switch from Bridgestone Battlax S22s to the latest S23s and a larger-diameter rear brake disc. But the same can’t be said of the new addition to the range, the Ninja 1100SX SE.
Those two extra letters denote a bigger change of suspension and brake components, with the headlines including a new Öhlins S46 rear shock and Brembo M4.32 monoblock calipers.
Both versions of the bike have unchanged forks, as before; 41mm USDs with adjustable compression, rebound and preload, and the standard SX keeps its predecessor’s rear monoshock, adjustable for preload and rebound. The SE version’s Öhlins rear strut doesn’t gain any extra adjustment features but promises improved ride and damping.
On paper, both models have four-pot radial calipers on 300mm discs at the front, but the SE’s Brembos are aided by steel braided hoses and promise improved feel and performance. Brembo also supplies the discs and the master cylinder.
The changes mean that, despite its higher level of equipment, the Ninja 1100SX SE is fractionally lighter than the base model, coming in at 234kg ready to ride, while the base version is the same 235kg as its predecessor.
Riding impressions
We tested the SE version, with its updated Brembo brakes and Öhlins shock. However, there’s Öhlins and there’s Öhlins – and it’s worth noting that the S46 is a midrange shock, rather than from the highest echelons of the Swedish firm’s catalogue. It uses a straightforward single-tube design, while damping adjustment is done via a lone rebound dial with no separate compression adjustment. In the SX’s case it’s probably the right compromise, delivering a definite improvement in ride quality over relatively basic OE kit, but without straying into unwelcome stiffness nor budget-busting cost.
So don’t imagine Kawasaki have glued a supersports rear-end to their sports-tourer. It's still set up squarely for road riding, with composed and consistent damping that suits all kinds of road surfaces, from bumpy back lanes to flowing, faster A-roads. Thinking back to the fairly crude ride of the first Z1000SX, this seems like sheer luxury.
It’s a similar story with the steering. The original SX had a clumsy low-speed turn-in, especially on its standard tyres, though things improved markedly when the Z1000SX evolved into the Ninja in 2020. For 2025 the 1100 has swapped tyres again and, thankfully, there’s no toppling feel from its Bridgestone S23s. The Ninja swoops along easily and accurately, feeling agile in tight twisties and steadfast in speedier sweepers.
The SE’s new brakes are pleasing too – natural feel through the lever, and plenty of power when it’s called for. But, ridden in isolation, they don’t jump out as a night-and-day improvement over the standard SX’s setup.
2025 Kawasaki Ninja 1100SX - Comfort & Economy
The Ninja 1000SX was already a capable long-distance machine and Kawasaki hasn’t made big changes to the ergonomics for the 2025 Ninja 1100SX. Instead the comfort improvements are focused on technical changes like that torquier engine and altered gear ratios to give more relaxed cruising.
On the new SX SE, there are a couple of extra luxuries including heated grips as standard, and both models have cruise control.
The engine and transmission alterations have led to a slight improvement in economy, at least under official test conditions, resulting in a claimed 50.4mpg instead of the previous model’s 48.7mpg. With an unchanged, 19-litre tank, which means the theoretical range to empty rises from 203 miles to 211 miles.
Riding impressions
The 1100SX keeps the same well-judged sports-touring stance from the 1000. As before it sits beautifully between supersports and adventure ergonomics – more relaxed and spacious than a race-rep, but not bolt-upright and disengaged either. The bars are set lower than a regular roadster, so you feel better connected to the front tyre when you want to have fun chucking it about, but still sit clear of the top yoke to give some long-haul relief. It’s a similar story with the footpegs: lots more legroom than a ZX-10R, but not so low they touch down mid-corner. The seat stays set at 835mm, which is just right for an average-height rider.
Wind protection is unchanged too. The windscreen is still adjustable through four positions and changes need to be done at a standstill – as before you press a button beneath the dash with your right hand while push/pulling the screen with your left. And, as before, the screen sort of tilts back and forth, altering the angle it sits at, rather than sliding up or down. Our test bike was an SE Tourer, which has a taller screen than the base model, and it proved quiet and turbulence-free on motorways.
As mentioned earlier, the biggest comfort improvement over the previous 1000 is the 1100’s reduced engine vibration, which comes from a mix of heavier handlebars and taller gearing. Those lower revs, along with the motor’s lower-lift cam profiles, should also mean the motor drinks less fuel and goes fractionally further between fill-ups. In testing we managed to match Kawasaki’s 50mpg claim with steady cruising… though more enthusiastic thrashing about saw economy drop to just 38mpg.
The fuel light on the dash pings on when the 19-litre tank is down to its last 4.3 litres of unleaded. That tends to happen after roughly 160 miles of cruising, or just over 120 miles of larking about.
2025 Kawasaki Ninja 1100SX - Equipment
The Ninja 1000SX has long had a strong array of kit, and that doesn’t change with the new Ninja 1100SX.
On board there’s a colour TFT dash with IMU-supported rider assistance systems, plus a bar-mounted USB-C socket for your phone or other accessories. That phone can pair with the dash via Kawasaki’s Rideology app, which has been updated for 2025 to be ‘voice command application ready anticipating the next generation of motorcycle and rider interactivity.’
Useful kit carried over from before incudes the ‘clean mount’ pannier system that makes it easy to add or remove the optional luggage, plus a four-position adjustable screen.
Riding impressions
Let’s find a polite way to put this. Some of the 1100SX’s features and bolt-on bits appear more integrated than others. The 4.3-inch colour dash is nicely laid out and clear to read, though it’s also starting to look quite small by 2025 standards, dwarfed by displays on Suzuki’s GSX-S1000GT and Honda’s NT1100. The quickshifter is excellent, no complaints there, while the lean-sensitive traction and ABS assistance don’t interfere in normal riding. The cruise control is intuitive, proving easy to set, adjust, cancel and resume, though it also has a habit of slightly wavering around the set speed (which doesn’t seem to be displayed) rather than sticking to it precisely.
By and large though, the 1100SX’s gadgets are all pretty solid. But a few of the bolt-on extras definitely could be integrated more neatly. Most obvious is the USB-C charger, a huge bar-mounted carbuncle of a thing that looks like it’s been tacked on as a hurried afterthought. Heated grips give welcome warmth, rather than scorching palms, but the dash doesn’t show which of the three temperature levels they’re set to. Instead, you need to count flashing lights on the control button the left bar, which can be a bit distracting.
The eight various versions of Ninja 1100SX and SE come with different combinations of extras from the official accessory catalogue. Tourer variants come with a pair of colour-matched 28-litre panniers, a smoked touring screen and an SP Connect universal phone mount. Performance models instead get a road-legal Akrapovic silencer, a solo seat cowl, a standard-height smoked screen and a set of frame sliders. Lastly, Performance Tourers (rather obviously) get all of the above.
The biggest omission continues to be an official centre stand – it’s available for the Versys, but not the Ninja. Similarly, as before Kawasaki say you can fit either the panniers or a top box to the SX, but don’t approve all three being fitted at the same time. That’s a shame, especially for touring couples who’d surely appreciate having both maximum luggage space as well as something solid to support the pillion.
2025 Kawasaki Ninja 1100SX - Rivals
The traditional format of inline four-cylinder sports tourer isn’t a crowded a field as once it was – in fact only one like-for-like machine springs to mind in the form of the Suzuki GSX-S1000GT. With more power and a price tag that sits between the two Ninja 1100SX variants, it’s clearly going to be on any potential buyer’s list of possibles. However, the lines are blurring between traditional sports-tourer and the new generation of adventure-influenced tall-rounder, so nowadays you might equally be tempted by Yamaha’s updated Tracer 9, or perhaps Honda’s NT1100.
Suzuki GSX-S1000GT (2024) | Price: £12,899
150bhp / 78.2lb-ft
226kg
Yamaha Tracer 9 (2025) | Price: £11,304
117bhp / 69lb-ft
219kg
Honda NT1100 (2025) | Price: £12,679
100.6bhp / 82.6lb-ft
238kg
2025 Kawasaki Ninja 1100SX - Verdict
On first impression, you can totally understand how the new Kawasaki Ninja 1100SX might raise some quizzical eyebrows – particularly among owners of previous SXs. A bigger engine, but less power? That certainly doesn’t look like progress when we’re so accustomed to headline figures getting bigger and bigger year after year. But spend a bit of time with this latest 1100 and you quickly realise that six horsepower isn’t the real story at all.
Far from being a step backwards, the Ninja 1100SX SE is actually the most refined, classiest and sophisticated version of Kawasaki’s long-running, big-selling sports-tourer yet. It’s not revolutionary, no, but it brings together a number of welcome steps forward, which together pile on top of 14 years of iterative improvement dating back to the original Z1000SX. Less vibration through the handlebars. More midrange torque. Smoother quickshifter action. Plusher ride quality from the SE’s Öhlins shock. Lower revs when cruising. Latest-generation tyres. It all adds up.
And it adds up on top of what already was one of the best purebred sports-tourers – a timeless combination of inline four engine and aluminium twin-spar frame, with no adventure influence anywhere to be found, built to meet an everyman price tag. Equally effortless to ride for short sprints or long tours, responsive across the entire rev range, and built to balance casual comfort with committed cornering. Just the right amount of technology too, quietly helping make each rider slicker and safer, but without weighing down either bike or brain space with unwanted gimmicks.
The 1100SX takes that same great recipe and gives it all a polish. And its continued excellence was clear when BikeSocial rode the Ninja in the company of Suzuki’s GSX-S1000GT and Honda’s NT1100 DCT ES for a group test you can watch here. The verdict was unanimous: the Suzuki may have a sportier edge; the Honda may be a more mature tourer; but the Kawasaki straddles these two disparate worlds more completely and more convincingly than either. It’s one of the best sports-tourers you can buy in 2025.
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2025 Kawasaki Ninja 1100SX - Technical Specification
| New price | From £12,425, Ninja 1100SX SE: £14,175 |
| Capacity | 1099cc |
| Bore x Stroke | 77 x 59mm |
| Engine layout | Inline four |
| Engine details | Liquid-cooled, 4-stroke, 16v, DOHC |
| Power | 134bhp (100kW) @ 9000rpm |
| Torque | 83lb·ft (113Nm) @7600rpm |
| Transmission | 6 speed, chain final drive, quickshifter |
| Average fuel consumption | 50.4mpg claimed |
| Tank size | 19 litres |
| Max range to empty | 211 miles |
| Rider aids | Cornering traction control, cornering ABS, quickshifter, cruise control |
| Frame | Aluminium twin tube |
| Front suspension | 41mm inverted fork |
| Front suspension adjustment | Compression, rebound and preload |
| Rear suspension | Gas-charged monoshock (Ohlins S46 on SE) |
| Rear suspension adjustment | Rebound and preload |
| Front brake | Dual semi-floating 300 mm discs. Caliper: Dual radial-mount, monobloc, opposed 4-piston (Brembo M4.32 monobloc on SE) |
| Rear brake | 260 mm disc. Caliper: single-piston |
| Front wheel / tyre | 120/70ZR17 Bridgestone Battlax S23 |
| Rear wheel / tyre | 190/50ZR17 Bridgestone Battlax S23 |
| Dimensions (LxWxH) | 2,100 x 805 x 1,190mm |
| Wheelbase | 1440mm |
| Seat height | 835mm |
| Weight | 235kg (kerb) (234kg for SE) |
| Warranty | 4 years, unlimited miles |
| Servicing | 7500 miles/12 months |
| MCIA Secured Rating | 3/5 |
| Website | www.kawasaki.co.uk |
What is MCIA Secured?
MCIA Secured gives bike buyers the chance to see just how much work a manufacturer has put into making their new investment as resistant to theft as possible.
As we all know, the more security you use, the less chance there is of your bike being stolen. In fact, based on research by Bennetts, using a disc lock makes your machine three times less likely to be stolen, while heavy duty kit can make it less likely to be stolen than a car. For reviews of the best security products, click here.
MCIA Secured gives motorcycles a rating out of five stars (three stars for bikes of 125cc or less), based on the following being fitted to a new bike as standard:
A steering lock that meets the UNECE 62 standard
An ignition immobiliser system
A vehicle marking system
An alarm system
A vehicle tracking system with subscription
The higher the star rating, the better the security, so always ask your dealer what rating your bike has and compare it to other machines on your shortlist.
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