t-
Seeing
een
By BLAKE C ON N ER
PHOTOS By TOM RILES AND
KINNEY JONES
Even Ninjas need to reinvent themselves
from time to time
HII Over- Hgain/r----
the ZX· IOR replaces - was a great street
wenty years ago Kawasaki
bike, but it wasn't the greatest racetrack
introduced the G Pz9 00R
weapon . In turn, Kawasaki knew that it
Ninja to the motorcycle press
really needed an open-class bike for
at Laguna Seca Raceway in
Superstock and possible Superbike com peMo nt e rey, California. In the
tition in the future.
'80s, the Ninja name became synonymous
The worldwi de int ro duction of the
with sportbikes as a generic te rm - in
bike took place at
much the same way that Coke or Kleenex
Homestead
Miami
are often used instead of soda o r
Raceway, which incortissue . At the t ime,
pora tes an exce llent
the 900" Ninja was
infield road co urse
toute d as the perinside the I.S-mile
fect blend of a lightoval. The tra ck has
w e ight 7S 0 and a
an excellent combipowerful I 100 . The
nation of fast co rNinja name defined an
ners,
first -gear
entire de cade of
hairpins and hard
motorcycling bo t h in
braking zones. In
image and perfo rmance.
other
wo rds,
Fas t fo r wa rd to 20 04,
there were plenand Kawasaki is dete rty of opportunimined to claw it s way
ties to exp lore
bac k to the to p o f t he
the
ZX- IO's
sport bike he ap . And the
ca pa b il ities .
2004 Ninja ZX-I OR is the
No t to menbike that was built to speartion it's all
head that attack .
:~~:;;;;;;;;li~
within a short drive
The ZX-9R - the bike that I.
of Miami's beautiful South Beach.
\
SO JANUARY 14,2004 • CYCLE NEWS
ing or
he 138Smm
e class, with
similar to the new
RR's numbers with H
I,
