Re: WELL, Well, well .....(106) What 'av we 'ere then?
Sorry man, pretty late to the Party. I was in Duisburg, Holland and Brussels in the same day LOL
Anyways, what makes your Kawa so cool for you. What exactly do you like about that bike?
Hope your travel was hastle free dude!
I spend at least 2 1/2 hours a day in the saddle Mon - Friday all year round , so you get to know a machine very well.
Having moved from the Honda 600, which I rode for 8 years, then briefly on a GSXR1000, I had thought that I could tame The ZX10 within a few months. I've had the ZX10 now for 2 years and it took at least a year to be relaxed in it's company, it really is that much of a beast!
Being of small stature, I had been waiting patiently for 1000cc machines to be made small enough for me to feel confident chucking them around.
The ZX10 looks like someone took a large machine and put it through a car compactor before spraying it black,- it looks and feels like a solid cube of metal, with every space within the frame stuffed to the max with well engineered mechanics, yet at first glance might still look like a 600 sized bike.
This machine is the Kawasaki flagship, the one they put the most development into of all their products, to compete in a very competitive market. Everything is so well engineered from the best materials, and so far shows no signs of corrosion whatsoever, even though it has been through 2 salted-road winters.
Now the best part! It's a nice feeling knowing that you are the fastest vehicle on the road. Specs suggest 0 - 60 mph in 2.4 seconds, but in the real world it's more like 2.9 or so. Top speed stops reading at 189 mph, although it does nudge past that to mid 190s in the right conditions, standard gearing, you just can't see it on the clocks. I've only had it to 170 so far.
Power delivery is totally linear, so it will potter along at slow speed safely, but the injection is so well mapped that aggressive throttle use shows warp speed acceleration without the need to wheelie - I think I keep the front down by having all of my weight over the front due to my small stature reaching for the bars.
Slipper clutch and ohlins steering damper as standard, as well as titanium downpipes. Black nitride upside forks and wave disc radial brakes - all as standard.
The race geometry is so good that it coasts tight corners still fairly upright where the Honda would have been to the tyre wall at the same speed.
This being Northern Ireland, there is no grief about using loud pipes, and I run a set of Tubetech GP pipes which love to spit flames out the back on the over-run at about 8000rpm (handy for making tail-gating cars back off a bit!)
Overall, this machine just feels substantial. It rides like it's on tram lines and has a larger fairing than the 2010 model, so gives me more protection from the elements than skinny current designs.
But most importantly, this thing makes me smile every single day :friday:
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