The most exciting moment of my life came when I was given the keys to the ZXR250R. After eighteen months on a drone (aka CG125) I was suddenly in the fast lane. Thanks to one of Bristol's grey importers, a bank loan and a heart full of lust. I'd told my parents, with whom I still lived, that it was only a 250 and thus only slightly larger and more powerful than the CG. I could just see them dropping a load when they spied the lime green monster. If you took the transfers off it could pass for a 900!
A state of the art (in 1992) 249cc watercooled DOHC four in the usual wraparound chassis, with flash plastic and sexy black air-hoses sitting up in the air. 45 horses at 16000 revs, 310lbs, six gears and triple discs. I couldn't get enough of the machine even before I turned the ignition on. The cold motor rattled away beneath the plastic but after a few minutes it quietened down as the tolerances tightened up. I merrily blipped away on the throttle, enjoying the aural assault from the fruity four into one exhaust.
My jaw dropped with disappointment after I'd clunked into first and let the clutch out. The motor whirred away but seemed to be fighting through treacle. I looked at the clock again to check that it said 12000 kilometres! Then I remembered that the power peaked at sixteen grand. Give it some stick. At revs that would've blown the CG into a million separate pieces, the power finally flowed in and the ZXR fair flew up the road as I grappled with the crunchy gearbox to keep up with the revs.
I was so far gone, so revelling in the acceleration, power and handling, that it took a little while to work out that doing 90mph along the ring road wasn't conducive to a long licence life. I backed off in fourth, causing a lot of banging in the silencer and the bars flapped from lock to lock for a couple of moments before steadying. I'd been relieved to find that the front wheel was a seventeen incher, didn't expect such twitchiness.
Arriving at my house, quite a crowd gathered to view the new machine. They were rather impressed that it'd only cost £1750. My mother had a fit of hysterics, absolutely convinced that I was going to kill myself! The old man grunted, and walked off in disgust as he was hoping I'd take over his cage. I knew they'd soon get over it, especially when I pointed out that motorcycling was better than becoming a hoodlum like the lad next door.
The next few days were incredible fun as I came to grips with the machine. The front end was a bit loose, the upside-down forks lacking in their springing even with a mere nine stone jockey abroad. The rear, conversely, appeared a bit too hard. With its lack of mass, rough country roads had the bike shuffling around under me but if you've ever spent time with a CG you're use to that kind of stuff.
It was the acceleration, between 10,000 and 17,500 revs, that got to me, though, the eerie wail out of the exhaust and fast approaching horizon getting me high every time. The bike had an indicated top end of 130mph, but the speedo was probably optimistic - 120mph in real life? Because it was so light, though, it could be chucked through the bends without too much worry.
It was just as well that the brakes were so good. Partly because there was so little mass to fight. They howled both tyres. Many times I hurtled up to bends far too fast, had to shave the speed off pronto. Going into bends with the front end resembling a pogo-stick didn't unnerve the chassis, encouraging me to leave the braking later and later. I don't know how they did it, but Kawasaki managed to instill a large amount of safety into the ZXR's chassis. I had a few big wobbles and near misses that would've blown my parents' minds but by the time I got back home I just disconcerted them with a huge grin!
I played around with the rear suspension's settings via its remote reservoir but all that seemed to do was make the shock harder and harsher. I ended up on the settings the bike came with. A little less pressure in the rear and more in the front tyres made the bike a bit more compliant - a trick I'd played on the CG125. All it costs is a bit of effort on the foot-pump.
Given its lack of capacity, I was always surprised by the way it would charge forwards from the ton up to 120mph (on the clock). It's relatively narrow, the fairing svelte and fitted with ram-air tuning which obviously gave the bike a boost at high velocities. It felt happy cruising at 110mph, or so, when the fairing shoved most of the air over my contorted body and made some sense of the riding position which could be quite uncomfortable in town and at lower speeds.
Not that the bike was an ideal tourer, the minimal pad masquerading as a seat made sure of that. Ouch! One of my fatter friends couldn't even persuade his body on to the saddle. In its favour, the 29 inch seat height and narrow tank made it easy for someone short of leg (like me!) to get his feet firmly on the ground, and deeply seated in the bike it was instinctively right to become part of the machine. I'm on the small and light side, if not quite of Jap proportions, so the bike suited me fine - larger riders won't be at all happy. I never really adapted to the minimal seat, though, 50 miles in one sitting more than enough.
I'd been spoilt by the CG's 90-110mpg, of course, but was pleasantly surprised to find the ZXR doing 70-75mpg, despite the incredible revs employed. The tyres - new Michelins - were another matter, less than 4000 miles had them out of the game and the handling all twitchy. The chain never needed any attention - those ultra smooth power pulses - and the pads still had plenty of life left after 5000 miles. I fitted some harder Taiwanese tyres, which the guy reckoned would last at least 15000 miles, and they actually made the bike more stable, though I'm not yet sure about them on wet roads!
Now that I'm an old hand on the ZXR, I still get a tremendous kick out of winding the motor up to maximum revs and flying along the back roads at highly illegal velocities. My wish-list isn't that long - a decent saddle and better suspension would sort it out completely. But? I've had a few rides on a CBR400 and that's the bike I want next - it's an incredibly exciting motorcycle to ride and makes the ZXR feel like, well, a CG125! If I'd gone for the Honda straight off, though, I would probably have killed myself. A bike like the ZXR seems an ideal next step after a learner, but, these days, you're stuck with some 33hp abortion - some of the importers are restricting the 250's but I don't think they will have the same panache as the 45hp version.
Terry Harrington