Chango
Expert Class
Posts: 165
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posted November 14, 2008 10:18 PM
Why Kawi?
I have had 3 bikes in my life time. 85 Honda night hawk 650, 87 GSXR 1100 and now my sweet 2000 ZX 12! The honda was super reliable and would run all winter from first start! From what I was told the Gixxer was the bike that "changed it all" when it came to street legal race bikes. The 12 seems to be reliable the best thing I've ever ridden! However this brings me to my question. I've heard from other bike people that if you want speed and power Suzuki is 1st and Kawi is a close 2nd and then Yamaha and then honda for quality. Is this true? What is the general feelling here?
  
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johnnnyboy
Expert Class
08 Concours 14
Posts: 164
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posted November 15, 2008 07:04 AM
If you want speed and power you have all you will ever need.
Hayabusa's are over rated in my opinion even the new 08.
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flite leader
Zone Head
Posts: 651
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posted November 15, 2008 07:55 AM
zooks changed road racing back in the 80's with the first gsxr
but if you go back to the orig Z' & KZs kawaski wrote the book !!!
the orig 1000 zooks little more than a copy of the KAWs
since then performance has grown exponentially
iv never owned a zook yet i have many friends that do
they dont have a model id buy & recently the only kaw ive been
interested in is the concours in that i think last year or 2 kawi has the
worst lookin sport bikes in creation
still things run thru eras & they might come out with
something soon that will boil my blood ...... hope so
ridden & maintaned the 12 is an anvil..... youll hurt yourself b4 the bike
if you have skills & guts its extremely fast
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bend your mind.....
or break your ass...!!
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lgm118icbm
Novice Class
Posts: 48
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posted November 16, 2008 07:41 AM
I LOVE my kawi's though I've never owned a Yamaha or Suzuki. You are discussing quite a range of time span (some 15 model years from your honda to your kawi) so that plays a HUGE role.
In my experiences with modern bikes, when you ride or work on a Honda, it is clear that there is much more attention to detail and quality compared to a Kawi.
Kawi's are great, just a little rough around the edges (compared to honda).
Bottom line I suppose is that people can think whatever they want. Anybody that thinks that my suzuki is fast and your kawi is slow is just ignorant. They are all fast and all modern Japanese motorcycles are excellent choices!
I personally don't care about one or two ticks in a drag race or which bike is capable of the fastest lap times in the hands of a professional. All of my bikes are mind bogglingly fast and so is any other sportbike.
Whenever people ask for my opinion on which bike is best, I tell them straight up: Any of the Japanese bikes are an excellent choice and the differences between bikes within the same class are often negligible from rider to rider. So just pick one that fits you and you like the looks of and go enjoy the damn thing! =-)
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Costa Mesa, Ca
03 ZX-12R
03 Z-1000SC
04 ZX-6R
98 Concours
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dougmeyer
Needs a job
moderated
Posts: 2713
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posted November 16, 2008 09:08 AM
It's a "personality" thing. Each brand has different personality. In a Kawasaki it's all about the engine. Hondas offen feel bland to me, kind of like appliances, which is not to say that they aren't nearly perfect, which they are. Suzuki's, to me are nearly identical to Kawasaki's in many ways, but they just don't quite push the right buttons in the styling department and the engines, although excellent, lack that last bit of engineering sophistication that I see in the Kawasaki's. I think the automotive influence shows through. The fact that KHI doesn't make cars (and they do make just about everything esle from ships to planes to robots) is a plus to the motorcycle division I think.
Honda could, if they wanted to, do anything and everything better than the others, but they always seem to "dumb down" the bikes in the end. They're never as exciting as the concept. Kawasaki doesn't do that. They always deliver.
Yamaha, is similar. They display lot's of innovative engineering, the styling usually acceptable, if not overdone, but when was there ever a Yamaha that was "The fastest...."?
I've tried, I reallly have. I've ridden, if not owned, them all and I always come back to The Green!
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It's not that I think you're dumb, it's just that so much of what you know isn't true....
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NOX
Needs a job
PMRA / TMRC Super Street 4022
Posts: 3745
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posted November 16, 2008 06:50 PM
Depends on what you are doing.............
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2000redrocket
Pro
Posts: 1662
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posted November 16, 2008 07:25 PM
what doug said i think it is for me also. a true kawasaki rider says scare the hell out of me when i get on it. at least they do not wobble like a h2 or z1 any more when scareing yourself.
i let a guy ride my old zx11 and i told him to be carefull. he said i has a gsxr1100 (87 i think). i said ok but still be carefull and he came back not believeing it was that insane. then he rode my 200012r. that put a new look on his face when he came back. now he will not ride it as it is now getting 20 ish more hp than stock pipe and such.
i love it.
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shiphteey
Needs a job
Posts: 2529
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posted November 17, 2008 06:15 AM
 Edited By: shiphteey on 17 Nov 2008 14:17
This could be an epic thread here...lol. I started riding back in 00 or 01...picked up a beat up old 89 EX250. 1st thing I noticed was that in the states there were no real entry level sportbikes available. Sorry, I don' t consider 11 second 600cc bikes built for beginners. I was hooked. Went to a street race and saw an 00 9R walk an R1 while wheelying.
For the guy with the 87 GSXR 1100....I came off of that and picked up a 12R....mine was pipe, jetted, K&N, -1 and +3 gearing in a 750 chassis...it was an animal....but it felt more powerful than it ACTUALLY WAS! Flat out I always ripped my buddy on his 02 GSXR 600....but when looked in my mirrors as the speedo would show 160 burried he was always RIGHT THERE! That bike made me feel almost invincible with its thrust....the 12 takes THAT FEELING to a NEW LEVEL....it tests your nuts because most bikes simply DO NOT make MORE power as you go FASTER! Other bikes give your mind, body, heart, balls a chance to "catch up" and handle the thrust as they taper out in power....NOT the 12!!!
From 2000+ I noticed that they were actually quite good looking bikes....especially when comparing the 12 vs Busa. Mach 3 didn't help either as repeatedly the Busa got walked up top. I realized I was more of a top end guy because I was willing to sacrifice the 1st 3 gears of pull so long as the latter 3 made up for it...and with the ram air singing away it did!
Cams: One of the best in the biz. My piped 12R pulls flat to the rev limiter with a pipe...even with the extended revs it does very well. Most others would seriously dip down and fall on their face!
more....More....MORE!!!! I am addicted to the power increase as you get going through the gears. Have a Kawi put out the same HP as any other bike, line em up for a 1 mile run and the Kawi will trap higher....often times being able to catch up and pass within that.
Recently I've been riding a 98-99 9R....not the prettiest bike ever made but its fun. Suspension was set-up for someone my weight....excellent ergos....smooth cresendo of power:
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Feck was it cold, but its good HP weather. Brought the ol 9R out of hibernation for a rematch against another FI 1000...this time a stone stock 1000RR.
1000RR: Flush mount front signals, 520 with -1 up front, Double bubble windshield
9R: Flush mount front signals, 520, piped.
9R rider was about 40-50 lbs lighter than the 1000RR rider...and it was quite evident....initial low speed and midrange runs proved close...but as the revs started piling on the 9R floated away....low speed 5th gear pulls had the 9R singing away as Ram Air induced power had it passing the 130 hp mark.
Head to head from a low speed roll I ran about 9/10ths ability on the 9R settling in and shadowing the flanks of the 1000RR....somewhere in 5th I decided that was all the thrust I was going to see from the 1000RR and rider so I stopped short shifting and layed into it and pulled away in 6th.
Hopped on the 1000RR....1st pass from 3500 rpms in 1st had it singing 174.3 mph on the rev limiter at about the 7/10 to 7.5/10ths mile mark. Went at it again deep in 1st, clicked 2nd at the start position and was on the rather soft rev limiter for a longer distance, this time pulling a hair slower of 173.6 mph. On less expensive or cheaper devices both of the speeds would have been recorded and displayed as "174"....but when measuring at the tenths you can see things a little more clearly. The slightly lower speed 2nd time around was probably more due to GPS refresh rate rather than an actual LOWER speed.
Still fun, and the 1000RR did better than I thought with the speedo pegged at 185 and -1 on the front. A little less steam down low....the build up is less dramatic, requiring more throttle for the same gusto as the ol 9R...but up top displacement, weight and HP come into play and even with the aftermarket windscreen there was significantly more turbulance on the 1000RR than the 9R.
As for the handling and braking, no question the 1000RR had it covered but the 9's heft just needed to be "directed"...much like a woman that sometimes needs to be told what to do but secretly likes it, it excelled when pushed harder and seemed cumbersome (cumbersome being a relative term in this case) at neutral throttle through the corners, whereas the 1000RR was fine with small nuances.
Everyday bike: 9R hands down. Twisties....1000RR. I didn't have time to regear the 9R to see if it could make a good showing considering it was on the rev limiter at the 5/10ths last time....next time.
A.
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Gemini Motorcycles
Topping out everything from Ninja 250s to nitrous ZX-14s.
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gsxrassassin
Expert Class
Posts: 225
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posted November 17, 2008 10:51 AM
First bike was a 2000 Hayabusa - Amazing, simply amazing for that time period. SInce then I've owned a number of GSX-R1000s and a ZX-12R briefly (also a 2000). Suzuki, while building very good bikes, is riding mainly off legend. The Hayabusa turned the "hyperbike" world on its ear in '99 and a couple years later the GSX-R1000 did the same thing in the literbike world. In 2004 everyone caught up and since then it's been so close that it really comes down to rider preference.
I know my 2000 ZX-12R had no problems with newer literbikes. Straight line or twisties it was a force to be reckoned with. In the right hands a ZX-12R will outgun just about anything on the streets above 9,000 rpm. Throw on a decent exhaust, a PC and get a good tune and it's good night.
Just my .02
GSXR
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Over the hump, back up and running again!!
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