Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128309
L-KA_W_~_S_A_K__ZX_-_RR I _ demolis h the green bikes ex iting a turn the day befo re , where he hadn't been able to pass the m down t he straight . " I could hear him starting to ope n the throttle when I knew I cou ldn't even think about it - and I was in front of him," a rueful Andrew Pitt told me. Although the ZX-RR is pretty stable aro und faster corners , and suspe nsio n com pliance from the O hlins package fe lt pretty good , its awkward architecture and perched-on riding positi on give the impressio n of a bike with a high center of gravity. This make s the Kawasaki less agile than the better-balanced Yamaha in shifting from side to side, so it's a physical bike to flick through the pair of esses at Valencia, especia lly the faster one before the tight right horseshoe be nd. The fact t hat the ZX-RR needs a consc ious effort to pull it upr ight befo re firing it out of a slower bend also may account fo r the way it'll be laid into a tu rn and then threatens to fall on its side as you let off the brakes and start to get back on the throttle, presumably because the high cee of gee makes it especially vulnerable to weight tra nsfer, which might also partly explain all tho se wheelies under hard acceleration. Though the mechanica lly operated slipper clutch seemed to wo rk just fine, with just the right amount of feel to know there's still some engine braking without chattering the back wheel, the ZX-RR's infield turns, which made me glad the pow ershifter works perfectly even from bottom gear up to second, going thro ugh neutral, which isn't the case on a lot of GP gearboxes . Because of the abrupt delivery, the Kawasaki didn't feel very controllable driving out of a turn, presumably because the fro nt end gets light if you hit the powe rband when fee ding in the pow er unde r acce leration wh ile still leaned over a little , and it starts to push the front whee l. Th ere's definite unde rsteer w hen you get back on the th rott le exiting t he turn , and while I can't say that at my speeds I fo und any pro blems with t he side grip of the Dunlops, t he sudde n blast of pow er you get when you try to drive hard out of a slow ben d from a closed t hrottle after braking deep into it is certai nly intimidating e nough for you to wait to make sure you 've pulled the ZX-RR pretty much upright before you hit the gas. Th is loses valuable time compared to a more user-friendly bike like the Honda, which gets the power down so much harder and sooner, so no matter how good the GP Gree nie 's motor is in a straight line - and it is fast - you lose out at the start of the straight simply because you have to wait until you're more o r less upright before pulling the trigger. That's wh y Hayden on the Honda co uld 30 FEBRUARY 4 , 2004 • CYCLE N performance in the tu rn on the brakes was quite disconcerting, because it wa nted to sit up and understeer if I tried to brake really hard and late leaned into a turn, pushing the front wheel in a determined effort to head for the hay bales. It reminded me of riding Frankie Chili's Suzuki GSXR7S0 Superbike a couple of seasons ago, where to counter rear wheel chatter under braking, he had the engine idle speed cranked up to 4000 rpm, with a resultant god -awful understeer in slower turns. O n the ZX-RR this means you have to muscle it back on line and also can't brake as fierce ly as on anoth er, bett er balance d bike, because it'll push the front as you trail-brake into the apex, if you do . That was my downfall, as recounted by the on-board telemetry that provided the post-morte m for my crash . After speeding up a few laps into my session as I gra dually got a handle on the bike , I came into the left-hander at the end of the short fourth gear back straight one gear higher and S mph faster than I had the lap before and on a slightly different line, wh ich took me over some bumps I hadn't encountered previously. Braking harder than befo re to slow down from going faster, my extra body we ight made the forks bottom out just as I hit the bumps while at the same time trying to turn into the be nd with a bike that wanted to head straight on . Result: I folded the front wheel and lowsided into the kitty