From: |
Norbert Grund, ngrund@iname.com
|
Subject: |
Racer Test: 1998 Kawasaki ZX9R Ninja - A Certain Je Ne Sais Quois (lang)
|
Date: |
Fri, 17 Apr 1998 00:41:44 GMT
|
Organization: |
n/a
|
Racer Test: 1998 Kawasaki ZX9R Ninja - A Certain Je Ne Sais Quois
by Dean Adams
Articel from American Roadracing
Feb/Mar 1998 Issue
************************
Even during its off-season, the French Riviera is stunning.
Photographer Tom Riles, Sport Rider magazine's Peter "Love" Jones,
Kawasaki's Scott Buckley and I are almost enjoying a quiet lunch and
conversation at sidewalk cafe C in Nice, France, just a block from the
sandy shores of the Mediterranean. The cafe becomes a bit more crowded
as the French sit down for their midday meal. We continue to talk.
Conversation topics include the topless beach we just strolled
past, power tools, the topless beach we just strolled past, the
motorcycle industry
and the topless beach we just strolled past. Buckley is wearing a
Kawasaki ZX9R
T-shirt given to him a few days prior at the official press
introduction of the 1998
Kawasaki ZX9R at Paul Ricard, an hour north of where we now sit
eating veal and
drinking red wine. Overall, the mood is typically French: the waiter
refuses to
acknowledge us and the cuisine costs a fortune. In our T-shirts and
baseball caps,
we stick out like sore American thumbs.
Nearly the entire time we are there, the wait staff and fellow
patrons ignore us.
No one says hello or even bon jour. When he finally does stroll over
to our table,
the waiter speaks a total of six words to us during the entire
ordering process. We
catch European patrons at the other tables looking at us; staring at
us. They are not
staring at us with merriment. We are ugly Americans and we are
definitely not
welcome in France--our money is, but we are merely tolerated.
Then it happens. An Austrian man sitting at the table next to us
listens to our
conversation for some time as he carefully examines Buckley’s shirt.
After a few
minutes he asks a question and makes a statement at the same time, as
only
Europeans can do: "Excuse me, you have ridden the new Kawasaki ZX9R,
yes?"
Yes, we have, someone replies.
His eyes light up. "The one with 140 horsepower? The same one that is
very
light?"
Yes. It's a good bike, we tell him. We rode it at Paul Ricard and it
didn't
disappoint. It is expected that this will end the conversation.
Again his eyes light up, the eyes of this middle-aged, balding
Austrian on business
in Nice. "Paul Ricard? Really? Tell me, how fast did the ZX9R go down
the
Mistrial Straight?" he asks of the infamous French straight well
known for
triple-digit speeds. Two hundred-seventy kph, we reply.
"Ah, very good," he says. "I have a Honda CBR900RR now and the new
Ninja is
one of the models I'm considering for next year."
He begs more specs from us and as he talks I notice how typical he is
of
Europeans with regards to motorcycles. The guy is about ready for
retirement and
he could survive off his paunch for a month. If he rode in America,
most likely he
would be a cruiser rider. In Europe he's a speed freak. "270 (168mph)
kilometers
an hour," he repeats with a look of joy on his face, "that's really
something."
Kawasaki is King
Blind faith in a Japanese motorcycle manufacturer is rare.
Harley-Davidson guys
are known for riding bikes only from Milwaukee. Ducati enthusiasts
won't look
twice at anything not from the country shaped like a boot. On the
contrary, and
certainly with exceptions, Japanese motorcycle enthusiasts buy
whatever is fast,
good looking or in vogue, predominately without any concern for
brand.
Except Kawasaki guys.
I know men who have owned 10 to 12 bikes in their adult lives and all
of them
have been Kawasakis. Those guys say that the bikes made in Japan by
the gents
who put the mean in green are very good motorcycles. They're
well-engineered
from the ground up, well-thought out. Kawasaki is a pragmatic
motorcycle
manufacturer and they don't introduce new models every year that
wholly
supersede the ones made the season prior. They're easy to work on and
a favorite
of mechanics because you don't have to visit an orthopedic surgeon
and have your
left arm intentionally broken in seven spots and then have the bones
set in a
medieval torture-style fashion, just so that you can get your hand
inside the
chassis and make sure the number two spark plug boot is clamped down
tight.
Kawasaki sport bikes are not always on the cutting edge, not always
the lightest
and not always the fastest, but they have a core group of buyers who
will only buy
machines from Team Green.
And to those I say: do I have a bike for you. Kawasaki guys will love
the new 1998
ZX9R. Besides the green paint and fuel tank decals, it's a brand new
bike. The big
green meanie has been shaved down by about seventy pounds from the
1997
model ZX9R; the engine is much more compact and the frame is lighter.
Essentially weight was trimmed from the machine wherever and however
the boys
at Kawasaki could. This gives the 1998 Kawasaki ZX9R the feel of
either a really
big 600 or a hopped-up 750, probably more of the former in my
opinion. It's fast,
it stops well and it's a very stable motorcycle. I think it's the
best motorcycle
Kawasaki has made since the 1992 ZX7R.
Ultimate Streetbike? Mission Accomplished
There are many firsts on this bike from Kawasaki: it's the first with
an electronic
speedometer. The entire machine has undergone a typical
full-development cycle.
They whittled away weight where they could and made all the
components fit
together in a more compact fashion.
The new ZX9R engine is roughly the same size as that in the new ZX6R.
It's
fourteen millimeters shorter than the old ZX9R engine. The new engine
is
oversquare (75 x 50.9mm bore and stroke) and has larger valves and an
almost
straight intake tract. Everything inside the cases was lightened
including the
crankshaft, connecting rods, pistons and related pieces. A new
gear-driven
alternator (over the old chain-driven model) is used and the engine’s
cylinder
head is now smaller because of new direct- valve actuation. They also
added
Suzuki-style stick coils (doing away with the spark-plug wiring
harness) which
makes for a very clean engine compartment. The old back-torque
limiter clutch
was tossed in favor of a conventional unit with cable actuation.
Engine oil is
cooled by a neat, compact oil cooler mounted just inside of the
spin-on oil filter
housing. The engine is rubber mounted on top and rigidly mounted
below to the
aluminum chassis, which is all new itself. The cradle-style, frame
down-tubes of
the 1997 unit are gone. Conventional cartridge forks hold the front
wheel on.
It's a little confusing to discern what Kawasaki actually set out to
do with this
bike. All the company ink on it states the bike is a pure sports
bike--trying to bill
it as the fastest streetbike in the world. To accomplish this such a
machine would
require a high-revving engine that makes mondo horsepower on top
(such as he
CBR1100XX) to achieve the all-important drag strip and top speed
numbers. But
instead of doing this, Kawasaki built a lightweight, straight-port,
oversquare
engine and enhanced its streetbike manners through low-speed
carburetion, the
advance curve on the low side of the ignition, and near perfect
transmission ratios
for the street. In short, they set out to build a very cutting edge
high-performance,
narrow-focus streetbike and instead built an extremely competent,
stable and
well-mannered, wickedly fast streetbike. The first generation ZX9R
was billed as
a high-performance sport bike but it sucked as a production race
bike; it was too
big and heavy for Kawasaki's then in place endurance team to be
competitive.
They were soundly beaten by Honda. Again, Kawasaki set out to build a
racebike
and came up with a great sport-touring machine. They tested it at
Japanese test
tracks, but the prototype machines were tested all over Europe by
Kawasaki test
riders--on the street.
Although Kawasaki intended to build a racebike, they know that it
will be used as a
race machine by probably less than fifteen individual riders in the
world. For the
rest of the world, it's a streetbike. So, Kawasaki spent much of its
development on
this machine smoothing out the power delivery on the bottom end of
the
powerband and making sure that the close-ratio, six-speed gearbox and
the
low-end carburetion were seamlessly matched so that the street
manners of the
Big Nine were courteous. The ignition, incorporating Kawasaki's
digital ignition
controls advance throughout the rev range and for engine load. It
works in
conjunction with a throttle position sensor mounted on the right end
of the
throttle shaft. This gives the ignition CPU information on throttle
speed, rpm and
throttle angle.
A manufacturer will obviously gain some lower-end torque in just
about any
big-bore engine application, merely from the huge cubes. But in
high-performance applications, on a four-cylinder, overhead-cam
engine,
normally you can choose between having the majority of the power up
top or
down low and rarely both. Kawasaki went down low in this case and
street riders
will applaud their efforts. Which is not to say that it isn't fast on
top or is lacking
in acceleration. The 1998 ZX9R is definitely one of the fastest, if
not the
fastest street motorcycles available today, except for the Yamaha
R-1. The low
weight and high horsepower numbers (Kawasaki claims 143 ponies at the
crankshaft) mean that the bike is simply a slippery green missile.
The ZX9R is extremely easy to ride. The electronic throttle position
sensor,
finely-tuned carburetors, cable-actuated clutch and six-speed
transmission work
very well in all situations, but especially in the lower-speed street
world all of us
short of Doug Chandler co-habitate in. The low-end power and
completely
glitch-free carburetion inspire confidence that is rarely found in
big four-cylinder
street bikes. Most of the time these machines give the rider more of
a sense of
being a passenger on a really heavy and power-mad locomotive than a
sense of
being in complete control. Want control? Buy a 600. Want 170mph top
speed and
the ability to accelerate from 130mph to 150mph faster than anything
else? Buy a
liter-bike, or so was my advice prior to this machine. The Kawasaki
ZX9R
becomes the first streetbike to bridge the gap between high
horsepower and civil
manners.
And, although Kawasaki doesn't want the phrase "sport-touring" used
in reference
to the new bike (since that was never the plan), man, I have to tell
you this
motorcycle will make a killer sport touring bike. By making the bike
smaller, and
shorter and lighter, Kawasaki stumbled on near perfect ergonomics.
The footpeg
height is just a bit short of natural and most of your body weight is
propped up on
the seat and on the fuel tank--not by your wrists which is standard
for most sport
bikes. The longest period I spent in the saddle was just short of an
hour and 15
minutes but I could have done three times that without stopping;
which is really a
statement taking into consideration my creaking, pre-rheumatic bones.
Dislikes? Few is any.
I had few complaints of the new Kawasaki ZX9R. After listening to the
Team
Yoshimura boys bitch all year about the Tokico brakes on their
Superbikes, I was
skeptical of their performance on the street, mostly because Yates
and company
complained about their lack of feel. Lack of feel on the street is
not something
one wants, obviously. Thankfully these brakes worked quite well and
demonstrated superior feel. After some hard riding at the track, the
rotors did
start to warp but unless your daily commute includes two 160-170mph
straights
and slow corners, this is not a detail to sweat.
Ripping at Ricard
Kawasaki jetted us to France to ride the new machine at Paul Ricard.
Ricard is an
extremely fast circuit, even in the short-version course that we
used, which cut
the infamous Mistrial straight down by about a third. Still, the
course is
essentially two long straights connected by a series of challenging
decreasing
radius corners--it's hard on brakes and running gear as you're
slowing down from
at least 130-150mph-plus twice a lap. In this environment the ZX9R
chewed up
the stock Bridgestone rear tires in a hurry (the street compound on a
test bike
shared by racing legend Dave Aldana and myself was questionable after
ten of my
laps and just two of Dave's trips around the park). Race compound
tires were
added and this improved tire grip and life. Moreover, my personal
riding style is
fairly hard on transmissions--,I don't use the clutch on up-shifts
and I caught a few
false neutrals when up-shifting, which was a minor annoyance. These
ZX9Rs were
very early pre-production units and Kawasaki is well aware of this
minor problem;
it will no doubt be fixed before actual production bikes reach
dealers.
This type of information, gleaned from racetrack by press-types, is
sometimes
used as vital data utilized by customers when choosing whether or not
to buy a
particular bike. It shouldn't be. The ZX9R is a streetbike, wholly,
and its
performance in an extremely abusive racetrack environment should be
viewed by
a potential buyer as, at most, a stress test from hell. You could
ride this bike
every day of your life on American streets and never, ever encounter
any of the
niggling problems that we experienced in the racetrack environment.
Vertical Vestiges
The street ride portion of the press introduction for me was much
more revealing
of the true performance of the new ZX9R than were multiple laps
around Ricard.
Unquestionably Kawasaki has built a very fast sub-liter streetbike,
one that many
Kawasaki fans have been waiting years for. If that fact hadn't been
bludgeoned into
my head on the track at Ricard, it was on the twisting mountain roads
around the
circuit. A representative of Kawasaki France was nice enough to make
an
"arrangement" with the local police so that we could have one day's
vacation from
traffic laws, i.e. we could ride as fast as we wanted and, if stopped
by the local
police, all we were to say is that we were with Kawasaki and we'd be
inconvenienced no more. So it was a situation where you could ride on
the street
as fast as your personal limits allowed. With a clear road in front
of me I exited a
small side road onto the D-4 and tried to run down the chase van
which was a
half-mile or so ahead of me. I was motivated to find the van as I had
no money, no
map and speak very little French, finding my way home could have been
an ugly
adventure. I gave the bike the whip from a five mph rolling start.
Trees, mountains,
garbage and French prostitutes (no kidding) were but a blur on the
side of the road
as the linear-powerband engine, electronic throttle position sensor
and fairly
close ratio box did their stuff. Unexpectedly, at the top of second
gear, the
front-end--at perhaps 85 mph--reared like a horse and I was suddenly
staring at
the sky as we. charged through the remainder of second gear and all
of third! Fun
stuff.
Kawasaki fans: grab the checkbook and see your local dealer.
**************************
Specifications: 1998 Kawasaki ZX9R
Engine
Type: Liquid-cooled 899cc Four stroke in-line
four-cylinder, 16 valves,
DOHC.
Bore and Stroke: 55.0 x 50.9mm
Compression ratio: 11.5:1
Carburetion: Keihin CVKD40 (4)
Ignition: Digital
Valve timing: Intake: open 55 BTDC, Close 81, ABDC,
Duration 316
Exhaust: 47 BBDC, Close 65 ATDC, Duration 292
Exhaust Type: Titanium four into one
Drivetrain
Transmission: six speed
Primary drive: gear
Final Drive: 530 chain
Suspension:
Front: 46mm cartridge fork with adjustable preload
12-way rebound and
ten-way compression damping.
Rear: Bottom-link Uni-track with gas-charged shock.
Adjustable spring
preload and twenty-way rebound and compression
damping
Tires:
Bridgestone: Front, 120/70/ZR17 Rear)180/55/ZR17
Rake: 24 degrees
Trail: 93mm
Brakes: (Front) Dual semi-floating 269 mm Tokico
discs, (Rear) 184mm
single disk
Calipers: (Front) dual six-piston calipers. (Rear)
Single-piston, pin-slide
___
"More Power" - T. Taylor