I think you're mixing up normal US emission regs with the California extra stringent ones. My comment was based on the advertisements, 190 to 200 bhp with ram air effect, this bike is making the same as last years bike. Bikes nowadays don't need much running in, and a bike that Kawasaki claim to be track-biased should need less than most. I don't think anyone can teach the Japanese about metallurgy, or quality systems come to that, so I'd be surprised at an 8% difference between bikes, production bikes that is, as opposed to factory produced bikes supplied to the magazines. The bike was advertised with the quietly forgotten pressure cast five spoke wheels, and seems to be supplied with last years six spokers, so I'm left wondering what part of the claims for the 2008 model are we to believe. Does the quoted all-up weight include the lighter wheels?
I'm happy to be given an explanation or a good argument, but all I seem to read are excuses. It's a US bike, so what, it will be raced in the US and their adverts claim the same output. The other bike got a jump start on the video, that's life, how many times does the guy on pole bog down on the start?
I was reading an article from a magazine on the launch of the gen 2, raving about the 'powerful' brakes, which just about sums up how little you should trust a magazine review.