3000 miles in a month. That probably tells you a lot about how much I like the Kawasaki ZX-9R. I was initially sold on the appearance. Yum, yum! Then there was the comfort. It'd have Gold Wing owners running a mile but after nearly breaking my back on a ZXR750 it was bliss. The mind blowing acceleration on the test ride was all that was needed to convince me I had to have the two month old, hp repossession.
The first day of ownership saw me roaring up the M1, from London to Scotland. The ZX was nicely set up, felt better the faster we went. Top speed was somewhere beyond 160mph, that kind of speed causing everything to happen in a frenzy. Cars seemed to be going backwards and I had to grab the brakes several times. Jolly powerful and sensitive they were, too. The alternative was to cut the car in two with our sheer momentum.
Fuel worked out at around 30mpg at incredible speeds, too heavy to quote here as the law would descend upon my slender shoulders. I think I might've flown right past one patrol car but he was stuck in the slow lane and by the time he got his act together I was GONE!
High speed comfort was good for about 100 miles. The saddle looks a bit minimal but it's reasonably shaped and padded. When the discomfort sets in there's not much room to move about and a little further down the road I found my legs becoming a bit cramped - I was more than happy to stagger off the bike in the nearest fuel station.
By the time I arrived in the Scottish lowlands I was cursing the ZX a bit but half an hour at my destination was sufficient for the aches to disappear. I was raring to go for the back road trip home. The ZX weighs 475lbs but feels less once a little speed is up. With a massive aluminium frame and swinging arm there's an immediate feeling of security and, I found, few nasty tricks up its sleeves.
Tyre grip, from the wide Bridgestone BT50's, was so good it seemed to me that if I ever tested them to their limits I would've ended up horizontal. Mind you, the previous owner had turned up the damping and springing to their maximum settings, both the 41mm upside-down forks and mono-shock being multi-adjustable. Large bumps hit coming out of bends tested the limits of the damping and I had the impression that if I settled for a less taut ride some wobbles might have emerged. But then any bike with 125hp is going to push things to the limits coming out of corners.
When some rain began to fall I was reassured by the way the power was put down fluidly. No wild pulses of power to knock the back tyre way out of line. On a few occasions the rear tyre did squirm a little whilst a gentle hand on the 230mm disc brakes had to be maintained. The four piston calipers would knock the speed dead so rapidly that at low speeds I was often thrown up on to the tank. In the wet I just gently caressed the lever with one finger and still felt in fear of my life until I'd had about a month's worth of practice.
Wet weather protection could've been better but that's true of all race replicas and the ZX had a bit more plastic than most, with aircraft inspired ram-air ducts to force more air into the engine at high speeds. The fairing was sometimes attacked by secondary vibes around 80mph, which seemed a valid excuse to head for much smoother ton plus speeds!
With six gears there was plenty of opportunity to ride around the vibration. Even so, with the spread and excess of power five gears would've been more than enough and even a mere four ratios might have sufficed. The change wasn't the slickest in the world, preferring acceleration and dedicated use of the clutch. There was a bit of churning of the chain at lower speeds, especially when bopping along in fifth or sixth. As the engine's developed from the hot-rod ZXR750, finicky behaviour is not completely unexpected.
Town riding could've been painful had not I developed a need for using a fistful of throttle in first through to third. This kept my mind off both the machinations of the gearbox and the annoying low speed ergonomics. All my concentration was required to deal with the rearing front end and riotous rate of acceleration. About the only thing to see me off in GP starts was another mad nutter on a fearsome Fireblade. The ZX just couldn't compete with such a light bike, although its even more minimal accommodations meant the rider was in agony much quicker and I think the ZX looked much flasher.
Continuous hard use had wasted the back tyre by the time 4000 miles were on the clock. The front tyre had about an extra millimetre of tread left. By then the handling had become a little tenuous, limiting speeding to less than 100mph as I always felt the weaves that came in thereafter were on the verge of throwing the ZX into some terminal wobbles. I didn't really push it, for all I know the massive construction of the chassis might've still inhibited any real madness.
As money was short the breaker was raided for a pair of nearly new BT50's off a mangled ZX-9. God knows what the rider had hit, the poor thing had actually broken the Y-type alloy frame. That left me with the amusing task of changing the tyres. Tubeless tyres are a real pain to remove. In the end I had to bung the local tyre shop a tenner to do the job. Even the resident expert went into a swearing fit and only just restrained himself from hurling the front wheel across the garage. He told me not to bother coming back next time.
The hefty O-ring chain was halfway along its adjusters and needed a tweak every 500 miles. After my mad month's worth of abuse the engine was running poorly below 5000 revs, the result of the four 40mm Keihin carbs needing a balance.
I don't think I can afford to do 3000 miles every month! A set of tyres, half a chain, carb balance, oil change and about 80 gallons of fuel......even the front pads were beginning to rattle. Such expense would also limit the bike as a long distance cruiser; no wonder the guy gave up on his hp payments after two months (I paid £6500 cash).
Difficult starting occurred towards the end of my month's ownership. I was frightened that it might be one of the electronic black boxes, past Kawasakis being notorious for burning them out. My friendly Kawasaki mechanic reckoned it was the spark plugs, although I wished he suggested that when he balanced the carbs. I felt competent enough to do the swap myself. What a load of junk I had to remove to get at them and it was dead easy to misthread them, which given the massive complexity of the watercooled DOHC four cylinder engine, with its excess of plumbing, would have proved an incredibly expensive mistake. Luckily, after a lot of sweating and swearing, I successfully screwed all four of them in. When I bragged about this major achievement to my more mundanely mounted mates, they all thought I was mad!
That's the price of progress and massive on the road kicks. The ZX-9R's so fast and flash that it'll meet, and exceed, the expectations of those who need their egos boosting. And, it's also one hell of a bike for anyone who's overwhelmed with enthusiasm for motorcycling. My caged friends keep telling me I could've bought a nice car for that kind of money: I tell them I could've bought two or three!
Oh yes, the ZX-9R has one of the most precarious pillion perches in the business and I actually made one cager wet himself when I took him for a mono-wheel excursion to show him what all the fuss was about. After 15 minutes he'd aged by ten years and hasn't spoken to me since. Headbangers, sign up here.
Pete Hayes