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that by midcorner, the bike's weight and engine inertia would catch up to it and cause the bike to understeer; this forced me to give it a fairly aggressive amount of countersteering to finish the corner. This is to be excused, though, as the bike is fairly big, but it actually handles remarkably well. I'll play with the bike in the near future and see if I can make some suspension adjustments that cure the understeer, but it's not really that bad. The lack of a steering damper doesn't bother me at all, and to be honest, I prefer it for 90 percent of the riding that is done on a bike like this. But remember that any bike with this much power is going to get the front wheel floating under aggressive acceleration, and this sometimes causes the front wheel to just barely skim the ground and cause headshake. Know that going in, and it won't be a problem; the geometry is mellow enough to not get it shaking too fast. One area that I felt could use some improvement is the front brakes. On multiple occasions, I had to resort to using the rear brake in addition to the front to get the bike hauled down as quickly as I would have liked - something 1 normally only do on a motocross bike. I think that the brakes have the power necessary to slow the bike down, but the feel at the lever is vague, and the lever travel is excessive for the amount of braking that is actually occurring. It may be that the master cylinder just has the wrong ratio, because as the pressure builds, it's fine - the binders just don't have any initial bite to speak of. From a styling perspective, I think the new mirrors are about a thousand times more attractive than the old bike's; they no longer look like they were pirated from a Japanese sports car. The new front fairing is also much more attractive, with the redesigned ram-air intake no longer looking like the bike is sticking its tongue out at you. The bike is available in three color combos: Pearl Mystic Black/Metallic Crescent Gold, Passion Red/Pearl Cosmic Gray, and Candy Thunder Blue/Pearl Cosmic Gray. Keep your eyes peeled because famed Kawasaki tuner Rob Muzzy will be campaigning a couple of ZX-12R bikes in the AMA/Prostar drag-racing series for Ricky Gadson in the Streetbike Shootout class, and for Ryan Schnitz in the Superbike class, as well as selected events in the NHRA Pro Stock class. Don't let anyone tell you anything different; the 2002 Kawasaki ZX-12R is a really nice bike. It packs a knockout punch, yet is well-mannered enough to spend some serious seat time on. As I said, our 500-mile ride at the introduction was an all-day affair, but the very next morning I was excited to yank open the garage door and jump right back on the thing to commute to work. By the time you read this, the bike should be in dealers' showrooms. The MSRP is $10,999. CN 21 7 -623-4429 www.countrymotorsinc.com WHY WAIT? CALL! DON PEDEN & DONNIE LITTLE eye I D n D _ so • MARCH 13,2002 23