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Full throttle!
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posted February 19, 2004 02:08 PM
Edited By: swft on 19 Feb 2004 14:15
Another ZX10R review From the Telegraph (UK)
Your mates will be impressed
(Filed: 03/01/2004)
Capable of 104mph in first gear, with a top speed of 186mph, the new Kawasaki ZX-10R has the performance of a World Superbike racer. You'll never need it on the road, but image is everything, says Kevin Ash
If you've ever wondered what it is like to ride a World Superbike racer, visit a Kawasaki dealer and order a new ZX-10R Ninja. No equivocation, no writer's licence, this is near as dammit as fast as the Ducati 999 F03 which took Neil Hodgson to the 2003 WSB Championship. I know because I've ridden both (Motoring, November 15, 2003) and the Kawasaki road bike - with lights, indicators, a street-legal silencer, 4,000-mile service intervals and the ability to carry you to work in heavy traffic in winter - is every bit as fast in a straight line, and it wouldn't be left too far behind in the corners. With Neil Hodgson on board, that is...
In control: cornering or straight, the new Ninja is impressive
Specifications aren't usually riveting, but see if these hold your attention: a power output fully homologated to European Type Approval requirements of 173bhp, and that's without the boosting effect of Kawasaki's pressurised intake system, which at speed (and there's plenty of that) rams air down the voracious motor's throat (drawn from the high-pressure region at the front of the fairing), taking the output up to 182bhp, only 4bhp shy of the 999 F03's. There's no great weight difference to dilute the thrust, either: the racing 999 tips the scales at 364lb, the road-going Ninja at 375lb.
Or how about the Ninja's top speed of 104mph? Disappointing? But that's in first gear, and it has six. Second is good for 125mph, although the bike is electronically limited to 186mph in the interests of... what? Sanity?
Quite what you'd do with such a beast in our speed-obsessed regime isn't clear. Get casual with the twistgrip for a second and you can forget speeding tickets - you're risking a prison sentence. Even if you use it for track days, there are plenty of UK circuits at which you'd never use the top two or even three gears. All of which diminishes into insignificance after you've ridden the bike, which offers more raw excitement than plugging yourself in to the national grid. It's a tiny machine, too, with a slightly smaller frontal profile than Kawasaki's very compact 636cc ZX-6R. But it doesn't feel too cramped, even for a taller rider such as myself. Shorter riders will love it, although they'll find the seat quite high.
There's a lot that is typically Kawasaki about the ZX-10R, which will please loyal fans of the marque who have been desperate for a full-on supersports bike from the Akashi company for the past decade. Even the 1995 ZX-7R was sidelined by a weight disadvantage, making it more than a decade since Kawasaki was truly on the pace in a sector where it built its reputation. The new Ninja's sound, for example, is raw and evocative, a surprisingly loud and deep rasp from the exhaust, matched by a delicious harmonic of whistles and wails as it accelerates.
And boy, does it accelerate, in familiar Kawasaki fashion. From 4,000rpm the bike pulls with merely searing speed, the thrust then building in a linear fashion until 9,000rpm, when the bike explodes forward again. At these revs you can't use full throttle in the lowest two gears, and even in third at 140mph a small bump or crest is enough to nudge the front wheel off the ground. There's a rougher feel to the engine than on the standard-setting Suzuki GSX-R1000 but, incredibly, the Kawasaki feels significantly quicker at the top of its rev range.
In terms of mid-range power and in the lower reaches of the hard-to-read LCD tachometer the GSX-R is probably stronger and its response is easier to modulate, too. The Kawasaki engine is a little too sudden when you open the throttle, enough to upset the bike's line mid-corner as you re-introduce the power, which is exactly when you need finesse.
The race-bike handling exaggerates this, because the chassis is so responsive and willing to change direction that the smallest weight shift or input through the bars has an effect. Cornering smoothly therefore demands supreme concentration, but there's so much feedback from the rear end that feeding in more power (and there's always more) is rewarding: wind open the twistgrip until the rear tyre is at its limit, then pour in more as you flick the bike upright and feel it scrabbling for grip. Time after time as I followed other bikes through corners I could see them laying down trails of rubber on to the straight, yet not one hinted at losing control. The front end, meanwhile, maintains another Kawasaki tradition, steering sublimely, even when hard on the brakes and deep into a corner.
For all its agility, the Ninja is impressively stable on the track, although bumpy British back roads might prove more testing, and the radially-mounted Tokico brakes are the finest I've experienced on a production bike, with power, accurate control and no sign of fade. The wavy edge to the discs is claimed to improve heat dissipation, but the biggest cool effect is probably visual.
Annoyingly, the gearchange baulks during clutchless changes. It's better when you use the clutch, but not only does this waste fractions of a second, you're often hanging on so tight because of the acceleration that it's challenging to pull in the lever!
It's a fine, tautly aggressive machine to look at, down to the white lens LED tail light and flush front indicators, which brings us to the real appeal. It's not so much about using its performance as knowing it's there or, more to the point, letting your mates know it's there. Image is everything, and although you could use the Ninja to the full, you just don't want to right now...
Kawasaki ZX-10R
Price/availability: about £9,250 on the road. On sale Feb 2004. Contact: Kawasaki Motors UK, (01628 856600, www.kawasaki.co.uk).
Engine/transmission: 998cc, four-cylinder four-stroke with 16 valves; 182bhp at 11,700rpm, 84·9lb ft of torque at 9,500rpm. Six-speed gearbox, chain final drive. Performance: top speed 186mph, average fuel consumption N/A.
We like: Power, handling, brakes, style, exhilaration.
Needs a life
Miles to go before I sleep....
Posts: 10623
posted February 20, 2004 09:01 AM
....scary....maybe I just buy one as an art object on a dramatically lit rotating platform in my living room ...WOW!
____________ “We sleep safe in our beds because rough men
stand ready in the night to visit violence on those
who would do us harm.”
-George Orwell
Needs a life
Miles to go before I sleep....
Posts: 10623
posted February 20, 2004 09:37 AM
...that, too!...I need to win the lottery ____________ “We sleep safe in our beds because rough men
stand ready in the night to visit violence on those
who would do us harm.”
-George Orwell
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posted February 19, 2004 02:08 PM
Edited By: 
...WOW!
