Kawasaki z1000 review

[Kwacky]

[Blade]

That looks very nice.

What's it like then ?

[Kwacky]

I spent my teens in the 1980s. For those of you who are too young or can't remember the 80s, it was the age of the thug. Everything was trying to kill you. The football grounds were full of hooligans, the parks had packs of rampaging Rottweilers and if you went out for a drink then you were sure to get your skull caved in by a lager lout. To suit the times the Japs brought out a few motorbikes to go with the louts - these bikes were loud, fast, uncouth and wouldn't think twice about hurting you.

Things settled down. People started to behave themselves and motorbikes because more civilized.

These days you can't buy a bike without being sold on the safety features. So when Kawasaki upgraded the z1000 you expected the usual power modes, traction control and ABS function.

That's what you would expect. But Kawasaki have remembered that they had a reputation for giving us bikes with a bit of fight. So with this bike they've got the zx10r engine, stuck it in a tiny frame and thrown away the safety stuff. You're on your own with this bike. All 140bhp of it.

It's tiny. I mean BMX small. There's bugger all bike in front of you and very little behind you. You're strapped onto an engine like Major Kong in Dr Strangelove, YeeHaaing all the way to an untimely end.

The small frame, the straight bars and the seat position make you look like a hooligan spoiling for a fight, and the bike is egging you on to glass that bloke who is looking at your bird. The engine is responsive from low revs, in any gear. The fueling is a peach. You can pootle along in traffic or spank it on the open road. As the bars are straight and not too wide and with a short wheelbase you can really flick this thing around. Changes of direction are a doddle.

The mirrors are well placed but I struggled to adjust the one on my right. You move the actual pice of mirrored glass rather than the housing and it seemed reluctant to move in the direction I wanted it.

Standard LCD display but it doesn't tell you too much, not even a gear. You can cycle through various displays but I do prefer having the time on there all the time rather than it being an option.

Build quality seems to be the usual kwak standard. This one had a couple of thousand miles on the clock and seemed to be in pretty good nick for a demo that's been through a winter.

The mix of that engine and the handling is a dangerous combination. It makes you want to ride it and ride it fast. If this bike was a girlfriend she would be question why you've not tried to kick her back doors in by the third date and on the sixth date be spitting in your face and telling you how worthless you are. It's that sort of a bike. It makes you want to do the stuff you're not supposed to, like take on an oversized 4x4 in a game of chicken (I won), hitting silly speeds on B roads and see if you can hoist the front if you crack it open whilst changing from 3rd to 4th (you can, by the way).

You know you're on a naked. There's no where to hide. As I pulled off I noticed straight away that the wind was being pushed against the engine, so it was coming between your legs and the bike. A couple of times I lost my footing when I was hitting warp speed.

The dealer warned me that the suspension was hard, but I found it spot on. The rear tyre was going off but I got loads of feedback from the front and the rear. The brakes are very strong. Even though it's a short bike it's very settled during heavy braking.

After I filled it up the range said I had 146 miles left. Crack it open and within a mile that was down to 81, so these things can drink.

Standard cans might not be to everyones liking but they sound pretty good and Kawasaki know how to tune an airbox.

Overall a cracking bike. If you want a weekend warrior then this is seriously worth it. No fancy electronics, just a fat engine, shit loads of power and throttle in your right hand.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlSQAZEp3PA[/video]

[Blade]

Never been interested in that bike before and would never dream of taking for a test ride. After reading your article, I want one and want one badly. Great review you should be running the Kawasaki marketing department, its a thug and not shy about it either which I like.

[Kwacky]

Cheers Blade, I appreciate that.

[Blade]

Kawasaki have a habit of making a complete nutters bike, spending the next few years watering it down more and more, before going fook it, let's revise it and make it mental again

[Blade]

Cheers Blade, I appreciate that.

Your welcome mate, I really enjoyed that article. Great theme and plenty of detail, best review award is yours pal. That's going to be the standard for all reviews now and very hard if not impossible to better.

[Cavetroll87]

I still really really fancy one of these, and your review has just added to the want!

[Monty]

Sod the bike, where do I find this spitting woman with the back doors?

[Blade]

Buxton train station behind the bins

[Blade]

Kwacky do you know is it the current zx10r motor they have shoe horned in there or is it the previous generation 3 ? which is what Honda normal do in fitting the outgoing sportsbike engine into their current sports naked bike.

[Kwacky]

I don't know the answer to that, sorry.

[D6Nutz]

Good review mate, I really enjoyed reading that. A mate of mine from about 10 years back had one of the first of the first of the remakes, it was an absolute animal of a machine. Glad they haven't tried to water it down.

[Cavetroll87]

I've just rang round my local Kawasaki dealers and the closest place I could try one to me is Colchester which is about an hour and a half away

[Kwacky]

Come up to Brum. We'll go on the piss afterwards

[Cavetroll87]

Not a bad idea if I can sort out a decent time one weekend

[Perkles]

Great review,it was properly spanked and tested today.We did a mixture of heavy commuting type traffic through brum and dual carriage way A and B roads with some really nice flowing twisty sections thrown in
Kwacky looked a serious thug on that bike ,number plate hanging off and tank slap hoodie flapping around at warp speed

[Frankie]

NIce write up, sounds familiar, I would say with the bell and whistles on the S1, and keeping with your analogy, its more like the Z's mate who went to private school and is very refined... but come the weekend lets her hair down and becomes a bit of the tart!!! lol

[kiwikrasher]

Top review Kwacky, you should be writing for a magazine!!

[Perkles]

Top review Kwacky, you should be writing for a magazine!!

He does it's called razzle