Love at first sight. No doubt about it. The dealer grinned knowingly. Went into a litany of lies. The bike so immaculate that I believed the 9000 miles on the clock. The three grand sticker price ridiculous compared to what was on offer on the private market. No trade-in, cash-in-hand, how about two grand? Sold as seen for £2275. 45 years old, I could cope with TPF&T insurance. 125 horses and 500-odd pounds proved to be a thrilling mixture. An ageing adrenaline junkie's dream. Sure as hell got the blood flowing again.
Top speed runs gave 175mph! Bloody brilliant. Stability was good at those kind of velocities. Just a bit of snaking from the back end. Thunderous power come 120mph in top gear, whacked the speedo up to 150mph as if the rest of the world was exploding. Momentarily looked down, the tarmac speeding past. Looked back up to find the velocity had caught up with the held open throttle. Nearly rammed the back of some peasant who thought 70mph in the fast lane was okay. What a joke! Speed, speed, speed; everything happening at an incredible pace.
I put too much pressure on the front brake lever. Incredibly sensitive to input. A howling tyre at 170mph shuddered the front end. Nearly caused my heart to burst out of my chest! A little less input brought back some sanity. I'd previously ridden a GPZ600 - a moped in comparison to the ZX! More fun was added to the high speed game by the handlebars shaking from stop to stop every time I slowed down through the 110-125mph range. Strangely, the bike kept going where it was supposed to. Didn't make it any less frightening, though.
Another 3psi in the front Metz tyre damped the shakes down to a mild twitch at 115mph. At the price of some very quick reactions to slippery surfaces - it was dead easy to imagine the rubber sliding right off the road without any warning. 2psi was removed from the tyre. Brought back the shakes but kept it from skating off the tarmac. The bike came with new rubber, all this becoming much worse when the tread approached 2mm. A sane life of about 4000 miles. If you wanted to live on the wild side another 1000 miles could be extracted.
I could complain about short tyre life, but what the hell? The ZX-10 was immense fun during the summer of '97. So much so that the wife often had trouble stopping me going out for a ride. Her one interlude on the pillion resulted in a screaming fit and wet knickers. The 125 horses, in their full blown glory, almost throwing her off the back. It was the one time in our life when I experienced a really desperate hug from her! She also complained of intrusive high frequency vibration. Though she wouldn't admit that this was the cause of the weak knees and flushed appearance. Oh well, I always did prefer riding solo.
I hadn't noticed any discernible difference in performance with her out back, but then she only weighs eight stone. The springing at both ends was on the stiff side and also didn't give a damn about the extra mass. Damping was a bit on the weak side over rough going, solo or two-up. Some pattering whilst the springs tried to catch up with the road surface. Nothing to really worry about. I always felt reasonably in control of the 510lbs of metal even if I had to put in a bit of muscle to swing it through the bends.
Obviously, I had to be a bit careful on the throttle. Laying down the full power, say in third, would've had the back wheel spinning out of control. And the big bruiser bouncing off the road. Even more so in the wet, when some terrific slides were experienced in the early days - definitely a good case for chugging along in a taller gear on a modicum of throttle. Not slow, y'understand, the ZX doing 90mph just off the throttle in top! Just safe.
Carburation wasn't brilliant below 7000 revs. The odd bit of stuttering and hesitation. Also, the transmission went progressively less precise as time rolled on. By the time 12,400 miles were on the clock, the lash at low revs was rather worrying. Despite a new O-ring chain and much adjustment of the back wheel. Fine under heavy acceleration, in other circumstances the gearbox went all awkward. Missed changes, even knocking out of an engaged gear and becoming stuck in the taller ratios. Like a good little boy, I was changing the oil every 1500 miles, so it couldn't be that.
These factors meant I tended to give the bike some stick, charge everywhere at maximum revs. Incidentally, the stock exhaust made a wonderful snarl from 8000 revs onwards and on the overrun. The numberplate was probably snapped by any number of hidden cameras and roving cop cars. It didn't matter as I hadn't registered the bike in my name. I doubt if they got further than the layer of mud on the back of the machine. Never criticize a modern bike for its lack of mudguarding!
During one of these high speed manoeuvres I had the fright of my life. Some pillock changed lanes on the motorway without any warning. I howled the tyres and wrenched the bike inside him. Brakes wailing, horn blaring, self screaming and the poor old ZX-10 thrashing about beneath me like it wanted to explode into a million bits. We'd survived but I knew the bike had to go before it killed me. Just too damn crazy for UK roads. There was no point riding slowly.
I'd also slammed the gearbox down a few ratios, must've bent a selector or something as it didn't want to go into top any more. Traded the bike in for a 600 Bandit which is so slow it's laughable. Oddly, both bikes do 45mpg despite the disparity in performance. If you can ride them fast, the ZX-10's are brilliant; otherwise give 'em a miss.
W.T.
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The Z1 sat sulking in the garage. The ZX-10 was so much better that the old air cooled four didn't get much of a look in. I'd picked up the ZX-10 with 6500 miles on the clock and a year's abuse under its wheels for a bargain price. Less, in fact, than the immaculate Z1 would fetch.
The adrenaline rush, acceleration high produced by whacking the throttle open in second or third gear was the kind of heady stuff that makes you want to do it time and time again. 125hp leaving a trail of black rubber and enough smoke to cause concerned citizens to phone the local fire brigade.
When I ruined the rear tyre, an ultra expensive Metz radial, in under a thousand miles I quickly decided that a slightly less enthusiastic riding style was necessary. Even so, I considered myself extremely lucky if I got better than 3000 miles out of a set of tyres. Gulp!
After the Z1, I found the handling immaculate, but then after an old Kawasaki four most things handle extremely well. I once saw 170mph on the clock and it could comfortably cruise at 130mph, the large fairing providing adequate protection from the worst of the elements and much of the wind blast.
If the bike felt stable and secure in a straight line, it could still be flicked through bends despite weighing more than the Z1. On the ZX you could actually do things like apply brakes or shut off the throttle mid corner without fear of the bike trying to throw you off or head for a ditch.
Where the bike was a great disappointment was in the wet. All the more so as the fairing gave good protection. It felt decidedly skitterish and I was always aware that sudden application of its massive power would have the back end sliding across the tarmac. This problem was compounded by a flat spot around 4000rpm which meant the motor would sulk until you dropped a gear or two and then chime in ferociously.
The first time I went out in the wet for a 75 mile cross country run I was scared shitless. Hitting potholes in greasy roads the suspension could not cope with, the bike sliding off line, the tyres twitching over surface irregularities. One burst of acceleration to clear a pack of cars had the back wheel oscillating a foot either side. I had to ride the bike like a restricted 125 to maintain a sense of security.
Admittedly, the brakes worked as well in the wet as they did in the dry. Powerful but sensitive, the triple discs could be matched to all sorts of road conditions and hazards. They saved my bacon many a time. Until, that is, the front discs started making a horrible clanging noise with 12,750 miles on the clock. They had both developed hairline cracks. Very expensive to replace and most frightening! Pad life was around 6500 miles front and 8250 miles rear - again, very expensive.
The next problem was almost as frightening as the brake discs cracking up. Yours truly was bowling along a German autobahn at 125mph in a state of mucho happiness when the back end went all loose and the machine did a classic tank slapper. Only a Porsche driver slamming on his brakes saved me from highway carnage and the fact that the bike became stable once 60mph had been cut off the speed.
I did the next two hundred miles in the slow lane hoping that the problem would not reappear, a quick check of the rear end revealed no apparent cause. By the time I arrived back in the UK safe speed had been cut down to 60mph and the cause of the wear was shot bushes in the Unitrack rear end - just the tiniest bit of play wrecks the stability and although it isn't immediately apparent the system greatly amplifies any wear and rapidly gets worse.
There wasn't a spot of grease on any of the spindles in the rear end suspension system and after replacing several extortionally expensive bits I was almost convinced that a decent set of rear shocks was a much better way of handling suspension that all these mono-shock thingies - that is until I took the Z1 for a ride again.
Suspension compliance was a revelation after the Z1. It would eat up the worst of the bumps in the road as well as small ripples and yet held the chassis in line around the nastiest of curves. The massive weight of the beast meant it held the road securely and in the dry gave new meaning to the description sure-footed.
The motor was also less smooth than the old 900 at low revs. It really needed over 6000rpm up before it became smooth, at lower revs vibes attacked the rearset footrests to an annoying extent. Why such a modern, watercooled DOHC engine should suffer so profoundly from vibration I can not explain.
Apart from the vibes it was a very comfortable machine. Such was the riding position that even in town extended slow work did not produce tired muscles, whilst the bike was good for a 750 mile ride in a day without causing massive seizure of my aged joints. The faster you went the better it became and it was often a crying shame to have to stick to the UK's paltry speed limits, where the bike seemed to be barely ticking over.
I didn't find the six speed gearbox very easy to use. It felt very notchy and the rear chain, once worn a little, often heaped some drive lash atop gearbox infidelity. Missed changes between fourth and fifth were quite frequent until I took my time over that particular change. With so much grunt available a decent four speed box would've been acceptable.
The gearbox would also seize in position if you had to stop in a hurry in fourth or above. It was necessary to push the bike back and forth to get the box to change down. The O-ring chain lasted surprisingly well, around 15000 miles, needed a small tweak of the adjusters every 750 miles and a spray of oil every 2000 miles.
A Motad 4-1 exhaust was fitted after taking hours to remove the plastic and various bits of engine ancillaries that were in the way. This smoothed out the power delivery around 4000rpm but lost a bit of urge right at the top end. It had to be really thrashed to get past 160mph. Fuel consumption was also slightly worse - down from an average of 38mpg to 35mpg. The best I ever got out of the beast was 43mpg and the worse 20mpg, the latter a high speed, early morning thrash in the company of some mates on GSXR1100s. The Kawasaki had to be thrashed to the redline just to keep them in sight.
Servicing was a laugh. The local Kawasaki dealer had the kind of reputation that would do credit to a pimp who got 14 yearolds addicted to crack. He wouldn't give me a quote for a full service but intimated that it would be over £200. One mate who put his bike through that shop was charged 500 notes and told that various worn out bits had been replaced when they hadn't.
Luckily, the Kawasaki didn't seem to need anything more than its 3000 mile oil and filter changes in the 24500 miles I knocked up on the beast in ten months of frenetic riding. The valves made no nasty noises and the carbs stayed in tune judging by the way it unerringly burst into life at the merest caress of the starter button.
One thing it did need was speedo cables every 5000 miles at nearly a tenner a time. And I had to repair the cracked plastic front mudguard, seat surround and one mounting hole in the fairing where the vibration had done its nasty work - luckily, I'm a dab hand with the GRP repair kit. Finish was generally good although the wheels went white a week after being cleaned and the black engine paint was starting to peel off in places.
The ZX-10 is a great motorcycle with classic styling that will stand the test of time. It's wonderful as a street racer and yet more than comfortable enough to make the grade as a Grand Tourer, although my Metro is more economical and practical to take any distance. However, dodgy wet weather handling and a vast appetite for tyres, pads and fuel do not make for much of an all rounder. Buy one for the fun of the balls out riding style, for sure, but best to give it a miss if it's going to be the sole means of transport. I sold mine after a year at a price that meant I'd had 24500 miles of madness for next to nothing.
David Richards