Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

many sessions as most o ther journalists, Sebilaut was ab le to d ia l his ZX-9R to suit the c~nditions There is no d oubt he got his : bike ~orking very well, simply by doing the things the rest of us wan ted to - but couldn't. The French camp increased the rear sp rin g preload, then increased the rear rebound damp in g to suit, and ?"anked up the rear comp ression dampmg . At the front, Sebilaut bumped up the compression damping to slow down the rate of d ive, but ran out of time and test se s sions ' to experiment with increased spring preload. " If I ~adn't ~een able to change the sus pension settings back in the pits, I would. have stopped out on.the circuit and tned to use the bike's tool kit," he told me later. IT'S WORSE IF YOU'RE FAn When you take into account tha t the rapid Fre nchman weighs in at least 40 .poun ds lighter than myself, you 'll get an idea of just how soft the ZX-9R's rear suspension is for track use with its standard settings . In addition to the sus pension tweaks on the Moto ~ournal bike, Bourgeois also ~uced the ~ press ures by simply leth ng som e aIT ou t w ith his finge r - he didn't have access to a gauge. All of this w as d one, of course, witho u t th e ap~roval/know ledge of the Kaw asaki engmeers. What all of the above mean t, of co~ was that the ZX-9R was a disappomtment on the race track for those who couldn't fiddle. The imp res sive progressive po wer surge from 6000 rpm onwards, the excell~t fron.t.brakes, the rock-solid straightline stability and the pinpoint steering all paled beside the sloppy standa rd rear . suspension settings. It was later tha t evening that I realized just how sore the top of my thighs were from weighting the footpegs and gripping the tank to help control the sliding bike. By way of comparison with its brothers , the .ZX-9R has suspension travel of 110mm in the front and an extremely healthy 145mm at the rear, while the ZXR750 and ZZ-R1100 sp or t 120/ 135mm and 120(1l2mm respectively. To further gtve the new Nin ja a less than, positive introduction to the world press wa s a gearbox th at per sisted in finding false ~eutraIs on downchanges. I never missed an upshift in two days at the track, but experienced around half a ~ozen gra unching false neutrals when go mg down fro m fourth to third and third to second . The real d ifficultY was ,,:etting the gearbo x to change down once I d go~,:" the f~ neutral, with the cogs re ma m mg quite stubborn as they knashed around together - ooohh, nasty. It was a comn:on C?mp1aint from many, and Kawasaki engmeers ad mitted they weren't sure what was causing the problem and that they were going to investigate it when they got back to Japan. . Normally, a downchange is subconsoous for me - a blip on the throttle and a light tap on the gearlever. On the ZX-9Rit became more of a deliberate act with a bigger twist of the grip and a firm stomp on the lever. On the road it was a different matter with no missed shifts and positive (if not somewhat notchy) engagement. It seems ,to be just a high-rev downchange problem when the throttle isn't blipped accura tely to match engine revs to gearbox speed. The only difference between the ZXR75O. and ZX-9R boxes is the primary gear ratio. The frustra tions of the track were soon forgo tt en, though , w hen th e variable roads of the Malaysian peninsula were tac.Jcled - finally the Ninja could show its stripes. (Above) The ZX-9R Introd ucti o n Includ ed a le ngthy s treet ride. (Right) On dis play we re three generations of 900cc Kawa saki sport bikes: The 2D-yearo ld Z1, the 1D-yearold GPZ900 Ninja, and the new ZX-9R. (Be low) The new fra me is a mix of th e ZXR750 and ZX-11. 8 A SPORTY ZX1100 There's no do ubt the designers have succeeded in their objective to fill a gap in the Kawasaki line-up, as the ZX-9R can be thought of as a more sporting version of the ZX1100 rather than a direct compe titor to the CBR900RR lf they'd wanted to ~e the CBR900RR head-on in the sportsbike stakes then they could simply have shoe-homed the 899cc ZX-9R's engine into the current ZXR750 chassis. Thankfully they didn' t, becau se the Ninja's seat is the most comfortab le seen on a Ka w asa k i sp orts-tou re r for many a ye a r. Addit iona lly, th e se ating p ositio n allows p le n ty o f legroom with very little we ight on the wrists, and the fairin g offers very good upper-bod y protection. Unfortunately for in tending pa ssengers, th ou g h, there are some rather high rear pegs and only a seat strap - no grab rail is fitted. Just make sure the rider has firm love handles. At 70 mph, in a normal, upright, non-crouched sea ting position, the wind blast from the screen just caught the bottom on my helmet, with my upper body well protected and buffet-free. Good stuff. The rear suspension, which had been too soft a t the track, absorbed the Malaysian road acne with reasonable aplomb, although it was still a bit bouncy. My increas ing corpulen ce would hav e benefitted from a bit more pr eload and gr.ea ~er rebound da mpi ng - all possible WIthin the range of adjustment. No such problems with the front end, which was just as secure and rock-steady s table as big brother ZX. The rear tire which had disappointed in the heat of battle at the circuit gave no cause for concern when asked to perform within its design brief - although I'm not s u re if spilled d iesel fuel , sq u as hed sn akes and d ried goat feces are within those param eters. Still, this was Malaysia... NICE AND ~ABLE Surprisingl y, in view of the steepish 24-degree head angle, there's no steering damper fitted, but the ZX-9R remained s~perbly stable over some pretty atroaous roads. I didn't experience a single shake of the bars - and I saw an indicated 142.mph over one particularly pimpled section of baboon-infested jun gle road in my endeavors to find out. Incidentally, a couple of journalists stre tched the ZX-9R to an indicated 170 mph on the toll road back to Kuala Lampur, un derlining the top-end potential of the bike. The handling and steering was not only neutral but also decidedly confidence-inspiring, and I've already stated that the Tokico brakes favored by Kawasaki are close to the best in the business - for power and feel. Dodging the thousands of Malaysian scooters and step-thrus in the towns and villages on ou r roa d route showed the ZX-9R's en gine not particularly strong down low (around 3000-400O rpm ) relative to its mid-range and top-end surge, b~ t fro~ 600? rpm onwards it re ally picks up Its skirt. It delivers a progressive su rge all the way through to the 11,700 rpm rev-limiter. As was adequately shown 'at the track, this is a streetbike which can leave black marks like very few others. PLENTYOF POTENTIAL There are plenty of nice touches which point to the ZX9R being a success in the m arketplace. It's fas t, co mfortab le, ' agg ressively sty led and pu ts spo rtsbike handling in a package that d oesn't tax the knee joints, neck muscles and wrists. There's still a question mark over the re ar s us pens io n, b ut t ha t w ill be answered once we've received a test bike we can fiddle with. And with no gearbox problem s on th e roa d rid e, I ca n only assume that race track techniqu e is more the problem rather than any particular design deficiency. I've been testing bikes long enough to know that what works well on the rack track doesn't always work that well on public.roads, and vice versa. It's a pity that WIth the standard tire pressures and suspension settings, the ZX-9R was subjected to two very hot and demanding days at a steamy Mala ysian race track, when the real strength of the bike lies in its fast mile-crunching ability on the road. The fact that the Ninja could recover from this unfortunate first im pression spea ks even more highly of the design concept. The Kawasaki bigwigs who put a ZZRlloo and a ZXR750 in a locked bedroom and asked them to breed an offspring which combined the best of both couldn't have wished for a better outcome. The ZX-9R fits n icely between the two Kawasakis in the ZX/ZXR line-up and will give potential Yamaha FZR1000, Honda CBR900RR and Su zu ki RF900R buyers a viable option. The ZX-9R arrives in the U.S. in the New Year and w ill carry a sugges ted retail price of $9299. You don't have to live near a plantation over-run with monkeys, or d rop black marks like Scott Rus~II, ~o enjoy it, either - it's just that activities like that always make the ride a little more memorable. . When no.t monkey-ing aro.und tile Malaysian cou~ trys ide, Ken Wooten IS tile editor of Ausiralian Motorcycle News...Editor

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