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Goes Like the Wind
by PeteG
Kawasaki ZX-9R
I like a pint of beer on occasions, you
know the stuff, beer that members of the Campaign For Real Ale and trendy
drinkers call Traditional. The kind of beer that has names such as
Grimshaws Old Mindbender, or Colostomy Liver Smacker, but I am no
aficionado. In truth I can’t tell one from the other because as soon as I
have consumed it, it’s forgotten and I look gleefully towards the next. I
couldn’t tell you if Arkells 2B is malty or hoppy, I just can’t remember
and quite frankly I don’t give a damn. As long as it’s wet, not full of
gas and chemicals and tastes of beer, I like it.
I like boats too, I have been sailing
for many years but I don’t know a boom from a bicycle pump and I don’t
know how to work tide levels out on the twelve parts system. I’m like that
with most things in life, if I like something it doesn’t mean I’m going to
get married to it, I know I like doing it but if it’s a hobby or just a
pass-time I don’t get too wrapped up with the details, I just do it.
Whether it’s beer, women, boats or bikes, I know the bits I like and I
skirt around the bits I don’t like, not compulsive, not exacting.
It’s not that the finer details don’t
matter, it’s just that some people spend so much time on the individual
parts they don’t see the whole and somewhere along the way forget to enjoy
themselves.
When it come to bikes I tend to think
that I’m very easy going, I’ll ride anything as long as it’s got two
wheels and the power to pull along my large frame at a decent rate of
knots. When reading about race riders having their own seat and set up,
even down to foot pegs and switches in particular places I think "Wow,
those chaps must be so exacting to need everything in the right place." Of
course they do, they ride at extremes pushing themselves and their bikes
beyond levels us mortals can never achieve.
As long as the throttle is on the bars
and there is a brake somewhere I’m happy. I have even ridden an old
British bike where the gear lever was on the tank and I had to pump the
fuel through by hand, it didn’t matter. I coped with it because I’m not
exacting and I’m adaptable. It’s one of the reasons I could never be a
racer, the other being that I’m a crap rider.
To me a bike is a fun thing, not a
reason to get upset about if I don’t go through that particular corner
quite as fast as last time. If I get through that corner and I’m still sat
on the bike, I’m happy. I don’t try to get the knee down on every corner,
if I do, great. If I don’t , so what? Okay, when I’m doing a test I’m a
little more picky but on the whole, if it’s a bike, and I’m riding it,
I’ve probably got a big smile on my face.
So when I threw my leg over the seat of
a Kawasaki ZX 9R I was thinking it’s just another bike and any foibles it
has will soon be soaked up in my rider ambivalence. I had a good look
around it and the shape of the E1 is quite nice even if the head lights
are a little large and give it the look of a startled Cuss-Cuss. What I
was surprised to find was a choke lever. Carbs on a 2001 bike? Oh well, I
had read about the Kawasaki microprocessor system (K-TRICK) that combined
with the Ram air intake to take Normally Aspirated engines a step further.
Yeah, right. Tell that to the chap that wants to fit a Power Commander.
Okay, a bit of choke and hit the button, engine sounds well even with the
standard can. Pull the clutch in, hang on, that’s heavy. Further
examination proved that the clutch is an old cable system. Right, carbs is
one thing, now a cable clutch - what am I to find next, a magneto? Steam
activated valves? Next surprise was the fact that there was no warning
light for low fuel, all there was down by my leg in a position where an
acrobat couldn’t reach without dislocating a hip, was a reserve on the
fuel tap. Just like on a Norton Commando I had in 1978. There’s
advancement for you.
With all this arrow like styling
and the big 190 wheel on the rear you would expect everything on this bike
to ultra modern. But it’s not. Okay, you don’t expect extras on a sports
bike but the only extra it has is the one thing a sports bike rider
doesn’t need - a clock. On a bike that is so fast you can turn back time
they fit a clock. So that’s the extra, and maybe the good size seat which
is more tourer than sport. Right way up forks too, all very retro but so
is the Fireblade of this age, that iconic modern motorbike built for the
21st century.
Not put off too much, after all - if
it’s good enough for the Blade, blah blah blah. I clicked the bike into
gear and set off (remembering to close the choke). I was conscious that
when leafing through the ads on the Internet, the 9R seems to have a
record of poor gearboxes. Most ads saying things like, "Had gearbox
replaced." or "New gearbox fitted." but I consoled myself in the fact that
most were C1’s and not the E’s and this bike’s gearbox felt excellent.
After warming up the tyres and the engine I took it for a blat.
Those carbs certainly do their job and
the acceleration is ferocious, the harder you push, the more the bike
seems to like it but something was nagging at me. At first I couldn’t
quite pinpoint it, I just couldn’t get comfortable on the bike. Thinking
it may be me I decided to ride back and take it out the following day
instead. After all, it could be ‘one of those days’ where it just doesn’t
feel right.
Three days later when there was a gap
in the rain I managed to take the bike out again but that same feeling was
still there and I struggled to find a comfortable seat. I found I was
riding with my toes on the foot rests and arching my foot because for some
reason the foot rests seemed too far forward. Could this be the case? On a
9R? Surely not but armed with a tape measure I began to measure the
footrests from the bars, from the seat and anything else I could find to
sort the problem out. I compared it with several other bikes in the same
sort of category including a Ducati and the Fireblade and found that the
9R pegs are two and a half inches forward of the pegs on the nearest
comparable bike. That seems a hell of a lot and I wondered if Kawasaki had
got their sums wrong on this little point. Personally I didn’t know
whether to gulp at the fact that there was such a difference or laugh at
the fact that my riding style was more exacting than I thought.
With this information but without
nearly £300 for a pair of rear sets I continued with the test. As said the
seat has plenty of room so I spent several miles finding the best position
to give the bike a good thrashing.
I found a lovely bit of road with some
nice sweeping corners and some fast tight turns and the bike seemed very
sure footed and fairly nimble but with just a tad of hesitation through
chicanes. Counter steering was also a little heavy but once you are used
to it the bike handles really well. Knee down corners were a little
strained for me though, as the position I had taken meant as I slipped
over the seat it’s shape pushed me forward a little and caused some
discomfort in placing my foot on the side of the pegs. Yeah, yeah, I know.
"What a girl".
Forty minutes later I was getting used
to this and my cornering speed rose. I then took it for some straight line
speed runs and the bike was really in it’s element. I could now see why
some describe the bike as a sports, sports-tourer, it eats up the miles
effortlessly and in some comfort, the midrange of the engine better than
the Blade in this area. Two up the bike still handles well so I would
think luggage won’t effect the bike either. There is a good amount of
adjustment on the suspension so most riders will find a setting to their
liking.
When the rain came back I found the
bike a little skittish at the rear but no more so than many Kwaka’s that
have gone before it, particularly the old ZX10. The fairing works well to
drive through the air but also keeps most of the rain off the legs but for
me I would have to fit a double-bubble screen as the airflow from the
stock part catches the top of my helmet. That’s the top of my crash helmet
not the tip of my ... anyway, moving on.
When I got used to the bike I have to
say I began to like it, for it does the business and does it well and
there is certainly plenty of comfort for long mileage runs. That big rear
tyre may be expensive to replace but it works well and to say the bike has
right-way-up forks it handles pretty good on the front. Yes it’s a good
bike, and it may well be a great bike but with the odd placement of the
pegs I never got comfortable enough during the test to find that out.
There are just a few little things that
stop it being a real classic yet seeing it on comparison tests with the
Blade in the bike comics and being maligned makes me laugh. The Blade is
an all round more flexible bike with a better riding position but the 9R
seems faster on the straights and under the control of a good rider could
keep up with the Fireblade in many areas. Everyone is bound to make
comparisons with the Fireblade because Kawasaki have aimed it at the Blade
market and though the early bikes were no match, the E1 and E2 have
certainly caught up. But I say no more as the Blade test is yet to come.
On the other hand the 9R is nowhere
near as 'hard-core' as the 750 Gixer but it fits in a pigeonhole where no
other bikes fit. It’s a compromise between pure hooligan metal and sports
tourers, sort of a high performance sports tourer, sharper than the
Blackbird or ‘Busa, but just as comfy and equal to the task.
Honda knew what they were doing when
they called the CBR 900 RR the Fireblade, having a name makes the bike
feel loved, makes you want it. I think the mistake Kwak made was not
naming the 9R. When you say 9R, it does nothing, it doesn’t evoke any
emotion. I know being a ZX that makes it a ‘Ninja’ but it’s a shared name
with the rest of the ZX pack, whereas the ‘Blade’ even in it’s shortened
epithet sound more 'street wise', more thrilling. Kawasaki Plasma Knife
anyone?
Fortunately the 9R has it’s fans and if
you like the Fireblade you probably won’t like the ZX-9R because although
they are similar the 9R has definite Kawasaki traits. It’s a little odd,
it’s tall, it growls like a tiger, it’s slightly dangerous and it goes
like the wind. Not all these characteristics are to the taste of the Honda
devotee.
I think the main thing I took from this
bike was not so much of what it could or couldn’t do but more of what it
revealed about me as a rider. That is odd in a bike. Usually a bike is
either easy to get on with and a little boring or it has idiosyncrasies
that scares the excrement from you.
The test bike is my own, a recent
acquisition that is completely standard running on Dunlop rubber. With
Diablo Corsa III’s fitted or even Metz Sportechs it will probably be even
better but it has impressed me enough to know that I will keep it long
enough to warrant the purchase of rear sets and an after-market can and as
I get more and more used to it, the more I want to ride it.
First impressions teach you a great
deal about bikes and the first few miles set the character. The 9R did
something else, it taught me that every rider at whatever level only gets
out of a bike, what they put in. It also taught me we all have our own
foibles, even if we think we haven’t.
Text and original images copyright of the author. ©
2007 Tricky Imp Productions
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