Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

mo re sensitive en vironmen tal concerns (i.e., California) won 't get the trick-looking canister, but will get the Kawasaki Low Exhaus t Emission (KLEEN) catalytic-conve rter sys tem . The converter fealures a metal honeycomb that' s coated wit h platinum a nd rho diu m . W h e n gases travel through the exhaust, carbon monoxides and hydrocarbons are oxidized and converted into carbon dioxide and water, according to Kawa saki . The use of the KLEEN sys tem means that no changes to the engine are necessary to meet the more stringent emission standards . More good news for th ose not getting the 49-state model is that the bike will only su ffer a loss of one horsepowe r, ac cording to Kaw asaki. The stainles s-steel ca nis ter does, howev er, add five pounds of weight to the ZX-9R. In downsizing the ZX-9R, Kawasaki engineers also had to focus on redoing the ZX-9's cha ssis. It had to be lighter and smaller, and the y wanted it to be mo re like a race bike than a sport tourer. Again, they ju n k-p iled wh at the y had and started over. The fir st thing you noti ce is the absence of the two downlubes of the old m od e l. Th e engin e now se r ves a s a stressed member, allowing engineers to get rid of the downtubes and the extra weight that goes with them. The engine is rigid-mounted at the rear and rubber- " . mounted at the upper crankcase mount. In addition, the rea r su b fra me is now part of the main fram e, thus eliminating more weigh t by getting rid of the excess moun ting hardware. The new frame and sw ing a r m (n ow e xtruded a lu minum) also cuts 25mm off the wh eelbase from the previous model, falli ng right in line with the engineers' plan s to give the bike a racier feel. How's this for racy: The wh eelbase is only 56.6 inches . In all, the new cha ssis is 55 pound s lighter than the old one. In redoing the ZX-9R, Kawa saki also op ted to replace the upside-down fork with a co n ve n tiona l fo r k . Si n ce an upside-down fork is stiffer than a conventional unit, th e upside-down for k requires a stiffer frame in order to balan ce the chassis, according to Kawasaki That results in a hea vier frame. To 'cu t weigh t, Kawasaki opted for the regular fork (4.4 pounds light er ), w hich they say is an ideal match for the s tiffness of the new chassis . The new 46mm fork is fully ad justable for both preload and compression/ rebo und damping. The rear suspension uses Kawasaki's Uni-Trak package with a nitrogen gascharged shock with piggy-ba ck reser voir. The shock features 20-way com pressio n and rebo und -damping adjustment. Instead of a floating pis ton, b the rear shock featu res a " ladder" that se pa ra tes th e n it ro ge n ga s fro m the hy d rau lic fluid in an effo rt to pr ev en t fad e. Stop ping power on the ZX9R co mes fr om s ix-pisto n Tokico calipers and a 296mm di sc sys te m up fron t and a sing le-p ist on ca li per w ith a 220mm disc a t the rear . Th e rea r brake caliper is of th e floating varie ty and is mou nted to th e sw inga rm, d o ing away w ith the need -fo r a n independe nt brake-torqu e tierod. . The an-new liquid-cooled 900cc in-li ne four now sits in a perimeter frame and serves as a As tested , ou r unit was fitstressed member. Gone ar e the two downtubes found on the last ZX·g and t he extra weigh t ted w ith h ard -co m p ound Brid gest on e tir es o n 17-in ch that went with them. rim s - 3.5 inches w ide a t th e fro n t and 5.5 inc hes a t th e rea r. On the race track, most op ted to h a ve supers portcompound Brid ge st ones fitted , with a marked improvemen t in on-tra ck performan ce, .For both aesthetics and aerodynamics , a new fairin g was d esig n ed to decrease the fron ta l area o f the bike whil e a lso prov iding the rid er and the twin ram-a ir ducts their need ed protection and space. Kawasaki also opted to keep the graphics on the new bike to a mini mum - "simple is best " - and it will be available in green and black. In addition to the new electronic speedometer (it us es a sensor a t th e cou n te rs ha ft sprocket for in creased a ccuracy ). an LCD -type clo ck , an odo me te r, a trip meter and a bar-grap h coolant -temperaimpressive wh en used in street-ridi ng hor sepower with the ZX-9R. And furture ga uge are featured on the face of applications on the surroundi ng mounthe r eval ua tio ns will n o d oubt prove the contro l pa nel. tain roads. It was there that the bike realth a t the Kawasaki will hold its own When you first thr ow a leg over the ly felt fast as tight com ers approached at aga in st th e su d den onrush o f largeZX-9R, you qu ickly realiz e that the engi breakneck speeds with just a simple ca p ac ity supersport mot orcycles . So neers accomplished what they set ou t to twist of the ZX-9R's throttle. w ith that mission accomplished, how produce: While it isn' t as smaIl as a 600, It wa s al so on th e s tree t th a t the d id they do on the weight issue? it's close. It definitely doesn't have the bike's comfort came into play. Kawasaki Again, the y've succeed ed . The new feel of a 900cc stree t bike - but it permade a point of giving the ZX-9R a com ZX-9R is claime d to tip the scal es at forms like one. fortable riding position and again they 402.6 pounds dry and, more importantA lighter, more compact, h igherhit th e mark. Despite the company's , ly, that's transferred di rectly to the operhorsepower 900 is supposed to produce claims that the ZX-9R is "not a sports ator, giving ba ck a feel in g of rid ing speed and the ZX-9R d idn 't disappoint, tou rer," the handlebar-footpeg-seating something that is both lightweight an d especially on Paul Ricard's long straightpos ition lend s itself nicely to this applinimb le. Tossin g the ZX-9R around Pau l awa y s . A g la nce down at th e n ew ca tio n. The bike' s handlebars are high speed om et er showed th at the ne w est Ricard wasn't a d ifficult thing to do . ." enough to allow for high-speed cruising, Ninja was reaching speeds of close to 165 ye t we ren' t discon certing a t all on the mph while ridden by the regular amo ng race track. And the bike is absol utely us; and those brave souls who were willvib ration-free. It left us looking forward ing to wait a bit longer at the end of the to getting our test unit for freewa y runs Mistral Straight before braking reported to work and weekends on the twisties. speeds of nearly 170 mph. So there' s no Kawasaki se ems to have a ccom doubti ng that the ZX-9R will hav e the plished its m issio n of producing not Specifications top end to compete. Although the ZX· only high ho rsepower, bu t also usable Eng ine Liquid-cooled DO HC 9R' s ho rsepower figure s in-line four with four valve s per cylinder weren' t officially released , it is Bore x strok e 75.0 x 50 .9mrn believed that the bike produ ces Displaceme nt ,.., 899cc in the neighborhood of 145 hp . Output .. .. . . . . . . . . .. 145 hp Compression ratio .. 11 .5 :1 It also got to those sp eed s Fuel s ystem . , 4 x 40mm Ke ihin with im pressive accelera tio n. ca rburetors Though one of ou r three test Ignition system d igital units (eac h co u n try was Transmission . . . . . . . six-s peed assigned bikes to sha re at the C lu tch wet . multiplate introduction) had a slight hesiFrame pressed-alummurn perimeter tation a t low rpm, th e ot he r Suspens ion tw o ca r bu re te d c1eanlv and Fron t 46mm cart ridge accelerated withou t a ny ~ stam fork WIth adjustable spnng preload and mer ing. The only ot her probl 2-w ay rebound and 10-way lem we di scovered was so me compression damping Rear Un i-Trak with misshifts between third a nd (Above) The ZX-9R uses 290mm disc brakes with gas-charged shoc k. adjustable fourth gear wh en hammering stopping power provided by Tok ic o six-piston calipers. spring pre load and 2O.way upsh ifts at red -li n e (11,000 (Below) New parts. new parts. Fro m the cylinder. to the rebound and 2()"way rpm ) fro m th e seco nd -gea r pistons. to the clutch and the plug-mounted stick co ils. compression damp ing final corner d own th e fro nt it's all new. Rake/tra il _ 24/93mm stra ight. Again, one of the test Wheelbase 56 .6 inche s units seemed wor se than the Dry weight .402.6 pounds other two, Fuel capacity 4 .94 gallons Opinions on th e power of Brakl!t5 Front Dual 296 mm disc an y mot orcycle can be somewith see-piston To kico calip ers what jaded when yo u ' re Rear _ Single 220mm disc whizzing around a race tra ck with smgle-plsto n caliper for hours on end. And that Wheels/tires was definitely the case for the - - 1III!!iI Front .120/7 0 ZR17 on 3.5·inch alloy rim ZX-9R. As imp res siv e as the ...... Rear . .180/55 ZR17 on 5.S-inch alloy rim pow er of the bike wa s in the Colors Lime green and black pearl wi de-open spaces of Pa ul Retail price $9999 Ricard , it was even more Kawasaki ZX·9R Ninja -.III• -, r-, 0\ 0\ ,..... ..n ... (l) ,.!:l E (l) > o z 11

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