Understandably, nothing was carried over from the ZX-7R, save for the Kawasaki badge on the tank. And that they lightened until it weighed as much as a mouthful of hot air. The light chassis is made from thin-wall aluminium and the twin spars actually arc over the engine, making the Ten as thin as a 6RR. One mag superimposed the fronts of the Six and the Ten and discovered, they are actually almost identical!
At either end, top-flight suspension components were brought in. The front sports fully-adjustable upside-down forks, and Kawasaki went the Suzuki way and put DLC (Diamond Like Carbon) coatings on the sliders for the lowest stiction possible. The rear shock was the Bottom Link Uni-Trak style that is standard on all Kawasaki sportsbikes now.
The motor itself uses all the current buzzwords. It’s cast in one piece, has a triangulated configuration for minimum volume, twin valve throttle bodies, flat-top pistons, sintered-aluminium valve spring retainers, titanium valves... you get the picture. Kawasaki’s known for its brute power machines, and I think except for the Greencoats, everyone else was surprised at the 175 horses the Ten makes at the crank. Before you add the 9 more that enlist once the ram-air is brought into play at speed.
The result is a machine that is so fast around a track, that it would easily smoke Aaron Slight on a ZX-7RR at the 1993 (That’s just eight years ago, mind you) Suzuka 8-hour endurance race. With 20-odd bhp more on tap and a chassis that can handle it if you can.To combat the inherent wheel hop under braking from the seriously oversquare, high-compression 998cc DOHC 16-valve motor, Kawasaki opted to include a slipper clutch. And something tells me, it wasn’t a customer delight item. It was an absolute necessity.
Anyway, my hands have stopped shaking and I think poor Neil is already wondering if I’ve nicked the Ten and gone off horizon hunting. Heading back, I make the gentlest use of my right wrist in all of my thirty years. Suddenly, the Ten becomes a lot friendlier. It’ll pootle at part throttle forever and actually seems to run smoothly, ears folded flat, a gentle purr issuing from the pipe.
Then I get it. The Ten doesn’t demand and require respect, it gets it. As one Australian journalist wrote after his first ride on the Ten, ‘This bike suffers no fools... you’d better make sure your riding skills are really what you think they are.’ This from a chap who lays darkies as easily as I botch the transfer of my sunny-side ups from the frying pan into the plate. The Ten makes you want to write dark hued articles with sentences like, ‘If the Grim Reaper was ever part of a motorcycle club, he’d ride a ZX-10R,’ packed thickly into them.
Keys returned to Neil, I realise that I am not alone in this trial by fire sort of introduction to the Kawasaki. When Neil first took the bike out for a highway jaunt, he spent a lot of time with only one wheel on the ground, ‘the front wheel would come up in first, second and third gears even at part throttle. And it does 145 kph in first! I finally gave up on a full throttle blast after the bars went slowly from lock to lock on the throttle in fourth!’
Already British mags are buzzing that the ‘05 GSX-R1000 is even more accomplished... As I watch the bike growl away, I cannot imagine how any sportsbike could be better than this one.
Thanks to Neil Grant for a glorious morning with his Ten. For more information on the bike call Zubin at +91-98203-25593.
’05 Kawasaki ZX-10R
Engine Liquid-cooled 4-stroke
998cc inline four
Output 184 bhp@11,500 rpm/
11 kgm@9750 rpm
Weight 205 kg dry
0-102 kph 2.7 secs
Top speed 293 kph
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