ZX10R Review

[Blade]

Had a few prompts to write a review on my thoughts on the ten so thought better later than never.

In brief there's no surprises its exactly what I was expecting.

The traction control is very very good and super smooth. The only way you know its been activated is by a flashing light on the dash. There is no abrupt cut or loss of power its very smooth and user friendly, in fact its almost invisible which is perfect IMO. Its not intrusive when your riding but more like a guardian angel is riding with you who mops up your clumsy throttle control inputs with out you even noticing she is there, leaving you feeling confident and in control. Staying with electronics there are 3 power modes and the bike is pretty dam quicker in lower power mode which is 60% so circa 120 ish so god knows what it will be like wide open in full power mode, I've only ridden 100 miles in non ideal conditions so the full hit is yet to come.

Brakes were better than I expected and very strong. I would say they were better than the upgraded system of Brembo radial master cylinder, braided lines and race pads which I had on the Blade. Loads of stopping power on tap and plenty of feel to inspire confidence and although they are abs I was braking pretty deep in damp conditions with no intervention so the cut in threshold must be set quite high which is exactly what you want on a sports bike IMO.

The bike seemed a little slower to turn than my Blade but that's no surprise as I had played with the geometry and suspension on the Blade plus it was wearing more sporty tyres so I'm confident with some tinkering the ten will be scapel sharp like my old Blade.

One thing that did impress was the fuelling on the big kawasaki which is the best I have used bar none and that includes bikes with power commanders and custom maps. Very smooth and progressive power delivery and not a whiff of snatchiness even when coming off a closed throttle.

One area well documented on the big ten is it lacks mid range and whilst this may seem true it actually isn't. It isn't as looking at a dyno graph the bike is similar to the competition however on the road it is lacking in instant drive which the Blade had in any gear at any engine speed. The reason for this is first gear is very tall with the next five ratios being very closely stacked together to make it great on the track for superstock racers. To allow for this gearing Kawasaki have decided to fit very high final drive ratios using the sprockets to give an impressive top speed in the sale blurb. The easy fix is a quick change of sprockets and -1 on the front +1 on the rear is what's recommended. I m undecided whether to go for this mod as not spent enough time in the saddle becoming familiar and confident with the bike yet to make a judgement on whether I want or even need this.

Overall I have just scratched the surface of the bike but can see already there is a great bike waiting in the ten and with a bit more saddle time and a few choice mods its going to be a weapon.

[Kwacky]

Nice write up.

Some people have said the 10r is more like a big 600 in terms of the way you ride it, holding it higher in the revs than you normally would do on a litre bike.

[Blade]

Yes that's definitely true. But the way the bike is set up it feels natural to ride it that way.

[rocket]

Very nice I'm sure the bike is going to surprise you more and more with what it can do.

[Perkles]

sounds great especially the traction control,I would love a blast on track with a zx10r.They win everything in bsb ,wsb and superstocks that shows how good they are out of the box

[Blade]

I'll write a new post after the modifications to see what improvements have been made.

[duke63]

Have you fitted the shock yet, Blade?

I love tinkering with my bikes to make them better and easier to ride.

I appreciate we are all very different but I don't understand why some change their bikes on a very frequent basis. You would never even scratch the surface of what any bike is capable of. I doubt you would ever find a bike that was perfect for you straight from the off.

[DaytonAndy]

Making me jealous here Blade lol. Have you managed much saddle time yet? Have you seen the traction control light flickering away?

[kiwikrasher]

Have you fitted the shock yet, Blade?

I love tinkering with my bikes to make them better and easier to ride.

I appreciate we are all very different but I don't understand why some change their bikes on a very frequent basis. You would never even scratch the surface of what any bike is capable of. I doubt you would ever find a bike that was perfect for you straight from the off.

I dunno Duke, that Pikes Peak was pretty perfect!!

[duke63]

It's when you live with them a while that you learn what can be improved. My only issue with my Multi is the suspension when braking hard for a corner. There isn't a lot of movement on the forks when braking gently but yank the brakes on hard and the last bit of suspension travel is very sudden and the bike feels a little out of control.
Mine doesn't have the semi active suspension though and my understanding is that this is where semi active works very well.

[Blade]

Making me jealous here Blade lol. Have you managed much saddle time yet? Have you seen the traction control light flickering away?

Only been out for two short runs. one 20 mile the other about 90 mile in damp cold conditions so not a lot of time for a true appraisal.

I did see the TC light flinker when purposely trying to engage it coming off cold damp round abouts yes

[Rossgo]

Nice write up mate. Looking forward for this to be an on goin g thread. And be good for the meet up in July to see it

[Blade]

Have you fitted the shock yet, Blade?

I love tinkering with my bikes to make them better and easier to ride.

I appreciate we are all very different but I don't understand why some change their bikes on a very frequent basis. You would never even scratch the surface of what any bike is capable of. I doubt you would ever find a bike that was perfect for you straight from the off.

No not fitted the shock yet. I know buying a shock before I have ridden it and found a weakness may seem silly to some, but I had always planned to fit the semi active suspension and it was one of the things that steered me towards the ZX10R TBH. As far as I m aware the stuff I have is the same tech that's on the new Yamaha R1M so pretty cutting edge stuff.

I will get a few rides in over the next couple of weeks using the OEM shock and then change to the Mechatronic's one for a good comparison.

[duke63]

Makes sense to try it first with the OEM shock already fitted so you can feel how much of an improvement the Ohlins makes.

Its always going to be a vast improvement though. £ for £ suspension and tyres are the best improvements you can make from my experience.

[kiwikrasher]

It's when you live with them a while that you learn what can be improved. My only issue with my Multi is the suspension when braking hard for a corner. There isn't a lot of movement on the forks when braking gently but yank the brakes on hard and the last bit of suspension travel is very sudden and the bike feels a little out of control.
Mine doesn't have the semi active suspension though and my understanding is that this is where semi active works very well.

When I returned the bike Duke I had a chat about the suspension. Because the bike I had was 2012 model it didn't actually have active suspension. It was Ohlins with electronic adjustment but wasn't active as I thought. He is planning on fitting the module that will give it that though. He said he'd spent a fair bit of time fine tuning it. In comparison he had a later model standard Multi with Skyhook Suspension (so active) and he reckons the Ohlins out performs it. I did experience that dive you mentioned a couple of times on really heavy braking when loaded, it was quite an unusual feeling. I didn't experience it when I rode the bike unloaded in Sports mode so I figured I'd just pushed the Touring mode setup a bit hard. Other than that it was extremely sure footed and I never had a reason to lose confidence in it

Sorry for the hi-jack Blade.....

[Blade]

Went for another blast today and got asked to update the thread with regards to the full power mode.

At the end of the day a 180 bhp litre sportsbike is never going to be slow but I reckon for instant drive the Blade has it beaten in standard trim.

Most probably down to the fact that it is massively over geared as a road bike. I knew it was but didn't really realise how badly until today. Its hard to get it out of second gear tbh which sounds silly but when you realise 2nd gear is good for 126 mph you get the picture.

The ten becks you to rev it and I'm having to adapt my riding tbh as the Blade just had instant shove at any speed in any gear and was just pure violence if held wide open in 3 rd gear. I have some sprockets to swap and feel confident these will address the gearing issue and make it the rip snorting monster I know is in there.

The induction roar is very addictive and begs you to rev it harder so with the new sprockets on I m sure its going to be an animal.

Best way to describe it is most definitely a 600 on steriods as it begs you to rev it and chase the redline. The chassis is not 600 sharp but hopefully in the next installment I will have made some changes to address this.

[Kwacky]

That sounds consistent with what I've read about the way you have to ride it higher in the revs.

Fun though

[Blade]

It feels natural to rev it out tbh. The blade felt natural short shifting and riding the torque but the ten genuinely does enjoy the revs and it doesn't feel a chore chasing the redline which is not normally my styleit encourages you to reb of harder some how

[Kwacky]

Apparently Kawasaki tune their airboxes so they sound better at higher revs, encouraging you to spank it.

[Blade]

Well it works and there airbox engineers are probably the best in the business IMO.