ZX-10R ride report

Kawasaki has to be proud of the successful engineering feat the ZX-10R
represents. It's also shown a lot of nerve in selling a bike for the
street that's really closer to a race bike than the competition so far
has put out for public consumption.

Unless you've been under a rock lately, you've read the magazines both
print and online opine about this bike. Take a chassis that would do a
current technology 600 proud, add an engine which, with RAM air makes
186 crankshaft horsepower, or about 163 hp at the rear wheel and you
have a handful. This bike has more hp, but less torque than a ZX-12R or
a Hayabusa, but weighs drastically less than either. The dry weight is
375 lbs or 170 kg. The full of gas wet weight is 430 lbs or 195 kg.
These numbers are right in there with the 600 class. Add the short
chassis also in the 600 class and you see that the hype of riding a bike
with the handling characteristics of a modern 600, but with an engine
stronger than a 'Busa is a fact in this bike.

Riding is what you'd imagine. This bike is wicked fast. I had a Busa and
it's a different feeling. The Busa had a lot of power, but it was a
ponderous power marked by huge gobs of torque. The 10R has a snap to its
power that the heavier bikes like the Busa and 12R can't match. Add
razor like handling and it seems that this is the have it all sport bike.

The downside is the upside. You are riding a real race bike on the
street. That means a suspension that's incredibly stiff, mirrors which
give you a good view of little but your elbows and a throttle which can,
if mismanaged, kill you. All the current load of liter bikes can spin a
tire coming out of a turn, but this bike is the most extreme of them
due to its greater power and less weight. Since the suspension is more
track than street, bumps in the road upset your line – or at least mine.
I was going around a turn marked 25 mph at about 65 mph when I hit a
whoop-de-do in the middle. The bike came close to bucking me off. This
is a turn I'd done before on my Ohlins equipped BMW and found nothing in
particular when there on that ride.

As with most sportbikes, this is an bike for experienced only riders.
It's perfectly conceivable to low side this bike by hammering the
throttle coming out of a turn. Riders over on the 10R for a report that
it's fairly easy and common to loop them too. I guess the short
wheelbase helps there. Also if you go into a corner, you are committed
as braking would be a disaster. Even an easing of the throttle will
stand the bike up. You have a lot of lean in this bike before the
feelers touch down and you have to have the nerve to use that lean as
chickening out mid turn is a good way to bend your bike and break you.

Overall I'm thrilled that I live in a time when I can buy a bike which
handles like this one and goes faster than I ever imagined going. I
think Kaw could have done a lot more thinking about the suspension, but
to be fair to the bike, I haven't played with it any.

In sum, this bike is a dream. It's made me considerably faster and all I
had to do was sit on it.