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Budget Blast

Posted on: Monday, 21 November 2005, 15:00 CST

By MADELIN, Jacquei

ZERO to 96.5kmh (the exact equivalent of 60mph) in 3 seconds or less. Zero to 160kmh (100mph) in 5.4s. Those are figures achieved by independent, overseas bike testers and show this machine is faster than a McLaren F1, until this year the fastest production car ever. Its acceleration is beaten only by the new Bugatti Veyron, which has dispatched the 0-96.5kmh in 2.5s. But the Veyron costs $2.4 million. The Kawasaki ZX-10R Ninja costs under 20 grand.

That's bang for your buck in any language, and what a bang. You expect focus. You expect brutal performance. Even so, this bike's a revelation. It's lighter than many 600s, and barely bigger. It's shorter in both length and wheelbase than its 636cc sibling, narrower, and weighs just 6kg more, but puts out 35kW extra and 45Nm of additional torque. It's nothing less than an assault weapon.

Consider this. The ZX-10R's tacho hits the red-line at 13,000rpm. But at 8000 in first gear, it's already doing 100kmh. At legal speeds in top, it's barely ticking over. And it's at legal speeds that it's at its most excruciating. After 10 minutes, you feel like a 21-year-old speed demon. After 20, you feel invincible. After 40, you feel past it.

And after four hours? Let me say now, intoxicating though this bike is, it was a mistake. For with your undergrunds pointing skywards the riding position's agony on the wrists at anything under 160kmh, and the tortured angle your neck assumes is agony at any speed. Only when riding at ten-tenths (and ten-tenths of my skill is light years under the bike's potential) did the pain recede. And it receded so far that instead of worrying I'd kill myself the prospect of imminent death had me laughing manically, ready to go out in a blaze of glory.

It wouldn't be glorious, of course, though the medics would wonder about the clear fluid still oozing from my grinning corpse on its discovery. They'd find it's pure adrenaline. For use this bike as it's designed--only travelling straight roads to get to the nearest bits of twisty--and you'll hit Nirvana. The class is like this, of course.

Yamaha squeezes 136kW from its 173kg, 998cc R1. Honda manages 132kW and 179kg for the 998cc Fireblade. Suzuki's giant-killing GSXR1000 offers 131kW from 999cc and 167kg. And this Ninja delivers 135kW from its 998cc and 170kg. To put that into perspective, a Mitsubishi Evo IX offers 216kW--but at eight times the heft. That makes the power-to-weight king the Ninja, at 0.794kW per kilogram. But it's by the narrowest of margins--just eight hundredths of a kilowatt per kilogram from the R1--with the Bugatti trailing in last at 0.395kW per kg.

Splitting hairs? You'd be right. But in the rarified air in which this bike sits, that is what buyers do. And despite its on-paper advantages people will not want this Ninja, because another, better bike is due out any minute. A bike this shirt-shreddingly fast is yesterday's news. But in the real world, in which I live, it's still unreal.

The engine force-fed by a Ram-Air boosted fuel injection system is an in-line, water-cooled four. That unit hangs from a lightweight frame which arches over the engine, the 17-litre fuel tank nestling in its embrace. This fuel tank features a dished upper surface designed to cup your chest as you streamline into a racing crouch, though off the track it's an equally useful surface on which to rest an elbow as you spell your aching wrists.

Then there are the fully adjustable 43mm front forks with lightweight aluminium internals, and a fully-adjustable Uni-Trak rear. But forget the details.

Point it at a suitably curvaceous stretch of tarmac punctuated by the occasional inviting straight, and let fly. Keep the revs up and the deeper hum of the engine under light loads sharpens to the cold, hard whine of an attack missile. The verges close in as your focus tightens, tightens to the tunnel vision required by insane speeds as you spear through the air, tucked into the tank, its winged edges kissing your elbows as you tip it into the next corner, carving left, then right with the consummate ease of a finely-honed sword.

A talented rider might glimpse heaven. I just caught the light at the end of the tunnel, every nerve ending alive to speed, to the machine, to the closeness of sudden, painful death.

Riding this bike hard, even at my mundane level, offers a drug that despite the wrists, despite the neck, is hard to get enough of. So what if all you can see in your mirrors is your own elbows-- unless you crook them in ungainly fashion. Nothing else is going to keep up.

But the ability to create a machine that's obscenely fast is not where Kawasaki's skill lies. It's in making this bike so surprisingly tractable in the real world. Sure, it's uncomfortable at legal speeds--it's effectively a race bike, after all.

That's why it won the 2004 and 2005 Master Bike award at which an international jury of motorcycle testers give machines the race track test.

But it will pull away easily at low revs, will idle around at town speeds if your wrists allow, and properly adjusted will absorb the lumps and bumps of New Zealand's roads. It's not compliant, but it's not bum-puckeringly twitchy either, for all its sharp handling.

Indeed my only real query, given this bike's focus, is why Kawasaki bothered to give it a pillion perch. You couldn't dignify the paper thin surface with the name of `seat' and, given how high the pegs are, you'd only invite a six-year-old yoga devotee aboard. Or someone to whom you were already drafting the Dear John letter.

Let's hope Kawasaki sees the light, and gives this bike's replacement a single seat, in keeping with its race track persona.

At a glanceHow much? $19,990.

Engine, transmission: 998cc liquid-cooled, fuel-injected in-line four with 128.4kW power(135.3kW with Ram Air) at 11700rpm and 115Nm at 9500rpm.

How big? 2045mm long, 705mm wide, 1115mm high, 1385mm wheelbase, 825mm seat height, 170kg dry weight, 17-litre fuel capacity.

Suspension, brakes: 43mm inverted cartridge fork with adjustable preload, 16-way rebound/compression damping and top-out springs front; bottom-link Uni-Trak with gas-charged shock, adjustable preload, stepless rebound/compression damping and top-out spring, rear. Brakes, front, dual semi-floating 300mm petal discs with radial-mount opposed four-piston four-pad calipers; rear, 220mm petal disc with single piston calliper Wheels: 17-inch wheels with 120/70ZR17M/C(58W) tyre front, 190/50ZR17M/C(73W) tyre rear.

For: Obscene speed allied to light weight and nimble set-up; it's on runout, so you can bargain.

Against: Crippling riding position; it's on runout, with a newer, better replacement due by January.

Source: Evening Standard; Palmerston North, New Zealand

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