VOL. 50 ISSUE 43 OCTOBER 29, 2013
P65
(Above) The windscreen is
three-way adjustable.
(Left) One detail you'll notice
straight away over the previous
model is the use of the stubby
exhaust canisters. And, if equipped
with them, the clean and very useful
hard bags.
(Below left) The 1000 gets Tokico
monobloc calipers… and ABS, of
course.
it in any gear and you'll be just
fine. It's also plenty smooth until
you get it on the high end of the
tach where you do start to notice
some vibration.
The new bike gets a threemode traction control system
that provides boatloads of confidence, especially on aforementioned goat trails. I played with
the system (which is similar to
the one found on the ZX-14R)
over the course of the 500 miles
to match the terrain and pace
we were riding. The system has
three TC modes (level 1, level 2
and level 3, with 3 being the most
intrusive for wet roads, gravel,
etc.) and you can put it on level
three and hammer through gravel
without nary a worry.
And if the traction control isn't
enough, the Ninja 1000 also gets
the selectable two-mode digital
ignition, which gives the rider a
choice between full power and
roughly 70 percent power to
further aid in tricky conditions.
The system changes the timing
advance (with individual sparkplug-mounted ignition coils firing
each of the four plugs independently) to get the timing right in
each cylinder. The system also
features an idle-control system to
make starting and warm up easier. Oh... and, yes, it can be shut
off completely, though not while
moving.
The big change to the chassis revolves around the new hard
bags and the aluminum subframe
that was designed to mount
those bags. The optional bags
($1269.75) are slick, go on and
