Branko’s been away for a couple of weeks too. He took the 42170 to the Netherlands, while visiting his family… Reasons follow!

When receiving the LEGO® 42170 Kawasaki Ninja H2R motorcycle I considered how qualified I was to review a motorcycle. While my sons, wife and me all ride (or have ridden) motorbikes, it seemed appropriate to bring this set with me when visiting my dad, who has ridden motorcycles for more than half a century and is more knowledgeable and passionate about these two wheelers than anyone I know. Apologies upfront for the quality of photos; I was not able to bring a photo setup; my dad lives on the other side of the planet.

The new 42170 Kawasaki Ninja H2R contains 643 pieces with a recommended retail price of AU$99.99/£69.99/US$84.99/€79.99. This is the spiritual successor in the mid-sized-Technic-motorcyle-class to the 42063 BMW R 1200 GS Adventure from 2017 and the 42107 Ducati Panigale V4 R from 2020. These are not to be confused with the BIG motorcycles from LEGO like the 42159: Yamaha MT-10 SP and 42130: BMW M 1000 RR that contain almost three times more pieces.

First thing my dad noted when seeing the set was “Yep, that’s Kawasaki green, strange they are usually more green, but I guess they make black ones too.” As it turns out this particular model is indeed sold as largely black with some Kawasaki green accents which are captured nicely in the LEGO model. How does the rest of the model stack up compared to the real thing? Read on to see if this set is worth adding to your collection.
This set was provided by the LEGO Group for review purposes, all opinions are our own.

Elements

As we have now come to expect, the pieces come in (four) paper bags. No real surprise with a licensed set to find a sticker sheet included, but there are not too many stickers and most are quite subtle (such as a 400kph /250mph speed indicator).

Viewing the parts for this set shows there are very few green parts included. Kawasaki bikes are historically quite explicitly green but this particular bike only has a few accents which is immediate apparent from the parts. Note that most of these bright green (yes, not regular green) pieces are unique to this set, which is quite exciting! Other standout pieces are the printed(!) fuel tank, custom wind-screen and the new ‘crank-discs’ that are all unique to this set (for now). The crank-disk and piston small are a bit controversial because they do not accurately represent the way a crankshaft works, but more on this later.

Building the Bike

As soon as the first bag is built the shape of things to come becomes clear as illustrated by my dad with the wheels.

The interior is nice a colourful with green, yellow, orange and blue being present in addition to grey and black. These gears are used to create a very nifty transmission system that allows for neutral, first and second gear. Just like with a real bike the first gear is towards the bottom, neutral just above it and higher gears (only 2nd gear in this case) above it.

The crank-disks are included in the first bag, showing their purpose in the build; they are off-center and therefore provide the ability to get 4 different positions along the ‘crank-shaft’ in a very limited space (4 beams/studs/gears thickness), similar to the Technic Cam, but this particular disc is round along the outside and has a little ridge along the edge that enables a connection to the small pistons in line with the disc. This is essential to represent an engine with 4 cylinders in line (all pistons in the same direction next to each other) in such a small space. Previous models either had a 2 cylinder boxer (horizontal pistons 42063 BMW R 1200 GS Adventure) or 4 cylinders in a V (42107 Ducati Panigale V4 R) which is possible with existing Technic parts but putting 4 cylinders in line in such a small package requires this new part. See the yellow pistons with grey tops connected to the crank discs in the photo.

Now, this part serves the purpose of moving the pistons as the wheels move, but in an actual engine it would be the other way around: the pistons would move because of the fuel combustion, and that would make the wheels move; but this would be very impractical with such a disc. That is why this part is a bit controversial, but we think it is a decent compromise to capture they key layout of this particular motorcycle in this size. (see also the video)

As the green frame is built around the engine block and the exhaust pipes are connected it is apparent that the combustion chambers are left out of the build, so that you can still see the pistons move in the finished model. This is a great thing; some of the modern Technic sets have everything (realistically) hidden, so that you do not actually see any of the details you’ve built in the engine.

By the time we’ve hit the halfway mark of the bike, half of the wheels have been mounted (that is: one) and the engine is mostly done. The rest of the build is largely focused on adding a rear wheel and several panels for a slick finish. It was noticeable that several parts of the build were only connected on one side by a single pin in order to capture the unusual angles and shapes of the bike but at no time did the build feel fragile.

The build process was fun and quite short for the amount of detail that was crammed into this model. It left us impressed with what LEGO is able to achieve nowadays.

Finished model

It’s quite amazing how this LEGO model managed to capture the shape and style of the real motorcycle in a relatively compact model. The green parts provide little accents similar to the real green frame leaving no doubt that we’re dealing with a Kawasaki, even if you manage to overlook the clear labels on the tank.

The bike has working dual fork suspension at the front and a single arm with working suspension holding the rear wheel, as is quite common nowadays, and the bike comes with a kick-stand to park where you like.

We’re pleased to see the moving pistons even in the finished model, and delighted how well the gear shifting mechanisms works. The only gripe is that the gear shifter is usually in front of the foot stand so it can be operated by the rider’s toes, but due to space considerations the shifter is backwards on this bike.

My dad pointed out that the bike has great brake discs but no calipers. We couldn’t quite figure out an elegant way they could have been added to the model. Considering brakes are used to slow things down and this bike is going at 400kph (according to the speedometer) it may not actually need working brakes. Perhaps in that context rear-view mirrors would be a bit redundant too, but they are included.

Final Thoughts

It was delightful to build this bike and review it together with my dad, where he could point out several aspects I would have overlooked if I just considered it as a pure LEGO build. For this reason I would recommend this set highly to someone who loves motorcycles, or has an interest in what makes them go vroom. As a LEGO set it was a fun build showing several interesting techniques for capturing functionality (the transmission) and shape with Technic pieces.

For this I award this set an arbitrary 4 out of 5 praise units, for a fun build and a nice display model.

This set was provided by the LEGO Group for review purposes, all opinions expressed are a mix of my dads and mine.

The LEGO Technic 42170 Kawasaki Ninja H2R Motorcycle is available now. It has 643 pieces, and is priced at AUD99.99/USD84.99/£69.99/€79.99. Please consider using these affiliate links – the ramblingbrick might receive a small commission, and it costs you nothing. Funds raised go towards continuing to cover the costs incurred in running the blog.

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Until Next Time,

Play Well!