ninja_geezer
Parking Attendant
Posts: 1
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posted March 29, 2006 02:24 PM
Superbike 1000cc group test
just got the may edition of superbike.they have got a full test on the top litre bikes,track road,dyno and speed shootouts. 1st Gixxer 2nd blade 3rd,R1 ----last ZX10 boo hoo again.
  
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salsa1
Needs a life
Posts: 5971
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posted March 29, 2006 07:24 PM
Track is all new ZX-10R is aimed at...
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Salsa1
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longy00000
Novice Class
Posts: 44
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posted March 30, 2006 07:31 AM
boo hoo again
Do you really care? A bunch of arse wipes looking to keep as many people as p[ossible happy (hence they tend to award 1st , 2nd etc etc ) to thos with the greatest market share in that particular bike sector. This way you can keep appeasing those that need it and hopefully continue to sell tons of mags.
I Love, i mean just LOVE my 06 ten and sod the rest of them cos they just dont get it.
She's certainly not perfect , tricky low speed handling, flighty front end, wheelies every bloody where, scares the bejeezusa out of me occasionally but so so satisfying and you just cannot get that from a bloody blade or gixer cos they make it too easy.
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TedG
Moderator
Posts: 8222
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posted March 30, 2006 08:16 AM
I hate to say this, but I think Kwak blew it again. The 04/05 only needed a new speedo and maybe a slight power bump, the damper, and decent tires to be in the top spot.
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Ted
2000 Green ZX12 sold
The fast color!!
Green 2005 ZX10R
2009 Concours Black ABS
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bovinespongiformencephalo
Pro
variant Kreutzfeldt-Jakob
Posts: 1060
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posted March 30, 2006 09:38 AM
Sorry Ted, but you could not be more wrong. The old 10R chassis was so poorly engineered that certain "questionable" modifications were overlooked by the AHJ. The new bike most likely addresses those issues. You look at the hard numbers from these mag tests and tell me you see a clear, objective victor. I still want to see a test where, given a budget of a few thou they fix all the really obvious bullshit like OE dampers, glitchy fueling and 90 lbs of underseat poser pipes. Then do the testing. Who really cares what these things do out of the box? It's not like anyone that can actually ride one is going to have the stock shock on there after an hour or two.
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TedG
Moderator
Posts: 8222
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posted March 30, 2006 10:37 AM
 Edited By: TedG on 30 Mar 2006 10:44
quote:
Sorry Ted, but you could not be more wrong. The old 10R chassis was so poorly engineered that certain "questionable" modifications were overlooked by the AHJ. The new bike most likely addresses those issues. You look at the hard numbers from these mag tests and tell me you see a clear, objective victor. I still want to see a test where, given a budget of a few thou they fix all the really obvious bullshit like OE dampers, glitchy fueling and 90 lbs of underseat poser pipes. Then do the testing. Who really cares what these things do out of the box? It's not like anyone that can actually ride one is going to have the stock shock on there after an hour or two.
I don't disagree. I should have stated from a marketing point of view, they blew it. I will take the word of the people here over what the magazines say, any day. But Kwak does need to be aware that people who read magazines buy motorcycles based on what they read. So they needed to satisfy the rag mongers.
Also remember that people don't think in terms of mods. They think base line. They see total weight and not having to spend a grand to lose 11 pounds. Any time a sport bike gains weight, no matter what the reason, it is seen as a bad thing, a very bad thing.
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Ted
2000 Green ZX12 sold
The fast color!!
Green 2005 ZX10R
2009 Concours Black ABS
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longy00000
Novice Class
Posts: 44
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posted March 31, 2006 09:20 AM
TedG i think i know where your going with this and would probably agree. The comments i made previously about appeasing people is just that. You cannot remove the commercial reality of life from a group test and most mags therefore dont . They do have to protect advertising revenue and they must "respect" the market share any particular machine has.
You can tell this from the usual "get out of jail" cards they play before starting the article. Usually along the lines of "these bikes are so close its didfficult to split them and all would be welcome in my garage" blah blah.Neither does a journo want to be too brave as his comments would then stand out too much and he would risk ridicule from his peers if he got it wrong.
Yes Kawasaki probably did miss a great opportun ity when launching the new 06 version. The looks are neither daring, radical or particularly fetching. The tyre choice could have been better, again they could have just given the journos what they wanted (loads of power that they can easily master and show off with). But they didint they gave the privateer racer what HE wanted instead. Whether this is the right decsiion or not will tell in time.
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TedG
Moderator
Posts: 8222
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posted March 31, 2006 11:16 AM
Also if the magazines shoot it down, they in turn shoot down sales. Which in the end takes away from the dollars being spent on R+D. Also their margins need to grow and we get inferior junk and the vicious circle continues to grow. Lets face it they loved the 04/05, it looked good, it handled well, it was light, it was just flat nasty, it was a true success. That is a lesson for them that they didn't heed and it is going to cost us all.
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Ted
2000 Green ZX12 sold
The fast color!!
Green 2005 ZX10R
2009 Concours Black ABS
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tmiller39
Parking Attendant
Posts: 8
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posted March 31, 2006 12:17 PM
Have any of you been on the 2006 10R? I personally have one, and have to say that Kawasaki did it right. The bike handles better and is faster than the 04/05. My 06 will also stomp any 06 GSXR1000, R1, or CBR1000RR at the dragstrip. I have made 10 passes all in the 9.8 range (dead stock-not even lowered).
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TedG
Moderator
Posts: 8222
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posted March 31, 2006 12:43 PM
No one is saying it is not a better bike. But you have to remember the rags wont pick up on the differences. All they will see it that it weighs more and isn't as pretty. They don't like to write good things about Kawasaki in the first place.
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Ted
2000 Green ZX12 sold
The fast color!!
Green 2005 ZX10R
2009 Concours Black ABS
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longy00000
Novice Class
Posts: 44
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posted April 02, 2006 03:17 AM
I dont think its fair to say they dont like to write nice things about Kwackers as in the UK the ZX636 is very highly regarded but they do make stock assumptions based on the specx sheet.
So yes they start to think like "more weight must be bad, that will probably negate the extra power it has .....its ugly so that must be bad .....the earlier models NEVER sold as well as the competition so its probably safe to assume this will go the same way and the competetion are probably still better ..." and so on
Here in Blighty the new Triumph 650 triple got MASSIVE coverage and HIGH praise before launch based on spec sheets and 1st drives around a track, plus of course its British.
Then reality arrives and the first few production bikes start to arrive and they find it gets its arse wiped by the competition on a track, its too uncomfortable off the track, the seat is too high and so on but amazingly they still manage to "explain away" all these drawbacks as they sang so highly in the previous issus that they would lose too much face by back tracking now and doing a totally fair comparison with its peers.
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lizard
Pro
Modulator
Posts: 1483
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posted April 07, 2006 06:32 AM
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