Kawasaki Z900RS | First Rides | Motorcyclenews.com 

Good for a newbie?

@@BikesVansandThings No.

Hi gm16v149 I agree with . I have had a lot of bikes and this has got all the qualities that the other haven't got. When you ride it for the first time you have the feeling to know it for a long time. You can ride slowly at low torque or faster with the same pleasure . If you have a custom or a sport bike it is impossible you have no choice. For the first one you will never ride fastly and for the sport bike if you ride slowly it is annoying. Try z900rs and you will adopt it .

I know you posted this comment a long time ago. Have you still got it and if so has she stood the test of time? I am looking at one of these beautiful machines as my next purchase. I already have my old Rocket 111, which I love and will never sell, bought that bike when it was first launched in 04'. And also my XDiavel, both of which I will keep for different reasons. What I am now looking for is a small around town every day traffic filtering bike, this is about as small as I can go being 6 foot 2 ish and 17 stone. Test rode one yesterday and first impressions were great but it would be really helpful for a long term review. Cheers mate :-)

@@rufus1346 Still got it, great bike. Done 24,000 kms. Only problem is, snatchy throttle, a Booster Plug fixed it but a ECU flash is better which I’ll be doing soon.

Kawasaki Z900RS >Triumph Street Twin > Royal Enfield Interceptor 650

@@ubayyd New W800 is out now. at 52hp half this power but looks great. Now with front and rear discs.

Interceptor 650 looks better.

Ubayd Triumph too slow....Royal poorly made. Kawasaki will be running long after those two are in the trash heap

BB gun Spo Wa. Shouldve moved on as much as brakes etc in the last 45 years

It's a good choice since the Z1000, Ninja1000, ZX-14R, Cocours14 all have GROSS exhaust designs that weigh a metric ton.

Exactly.

Modern chains require little maintenance so its not much if any of an issue nowadays, unless perhaps you want a dedicated Tourer. I still own a fully restored Yamaha Seca 750 from `82, which is a shaftie.

bolox

Kawasaki will do well from this as retro is King!

Forget Akrapovic. Where's my CORRECT Four chrome pipes?

even better, change the ECU instead of adding PC V etc. Often there are more ways of adjusting in the ECU than a powercommander can. Etc the MT09 is better tuned with the ECU than a power commander. Power commanders and alike are great, but dont add them if its possible to do better with the ECU. Ofcourse its worth it, in some cases it completly transforms the ridding experience, it has to be one of the best things you can do for many modern bikes.

You would think when your paying for a new bike the fueling throttle problems would have been resolved before releasing

There are brands that get the fueling right on all the bikes they produce ...Triumph being one.

I agree, and I plan to keep my green Kawa ZRX1200 till I croak !!! Kawas are best in green !!

Same here. And I spent a few more hours speccing up the ride and looks. Still, nice to see other bikes. Now, repeat after me "I already own my dream bike!"

Gerhard Symons Lol. You know you can never have enough bikes.

I think the triple engine has that extra spice that most i-4 engines lack, however, the styling on the ZRS is SO WELL organized and fluid, and tasteful. Yamaha's design looks like a bunch of parts that don't work well together.

I love the Yamaha triples, and plan to buy a nice used one in 2018. For retro, I own a lovely 2002 ZRX1200, all souped up of course, and a `08 R1 for when I feel the need for speed.!!!!

I hear you. I have a '04 R1 for my speed and track duties! Even though a lot of new bikes with more power and electronics have been created I still haven't found the need to replace my '04.

Simon Foster and?

You nailed it !!

In US Dealers now.

Yep. Mine does.

Time flies.

indeed we are.

We are in Nov 2019

Agree, I think the way the sound changes through the revs on a 4 cyclinder makes it more involving than most twins and singles. Maybe even more than the triumph triples, which don't quite have the top end howl of a nice 4.

One of the things I love the most about my MT07 is the engine character. For a small inline twin the character is incredible. Its like having three different bikes, the bottom end feels like an old thumpy 500cc single dirtbike, the midrange is loud, snappy and responsive with just enough vibration to feel like your at one with the engine, but then the top end takes you by surprise, the bike doesn’t “want” for high rpm and doesn’t need it to get moving quickly so you tend to assume it isn’t there, but it certainly is. On the rare occasion you need to take it to redline it’s like this nice little surprise you forgot all about. It might not have sportsbike top end power but boy does it howl up top for a little twin. The sound changes from the thumpy grumbly low and midrange to a beautiful harmonious hollow buzz. Like two small steel hammers being hit against a block of wood 9000 times per minute. It’s a lot of fun for a cheap simple machine

Whats wrong with the bike, As for a bike virgin like me its perfect. Dont hurt me.

@@vincebautista4849 Over 100 hp for a first bike? that's a lot

@@willlewis77 Tho i have a little driving experience of driving 155 cc bikes.

@@willlewis77 With Fuel injection.

@@willlewis77 Hope you can reply....

I think they are are long gone exhaust companies, and sure that would drive up the price and not meet Emission and noise regs anyways !!! The Akra is a modern and road legal set up in most places, though probably not in nutty California.

Go get it. You only live once.

@@gkbike7002 dude i just missed bagging an '80's Z1000 in bits for a grand! im going to go for something like that as theres more satisfaction bolting it all together and getting it to run right plus originality

And I have a '99 Vulcan Drifter, about as retro as you can get...

martin hodgson both great bikes, Martin. We’ve tested them many times. I was more talking about Kawasaki being the first with the Zephyr and last of the current crop of retros, now that W600/800 and ZRX have been dropped. Thanks for your comment. Neevesy MCN

neevesybikes fair point, understand what you mean now. My Kawasaki defence might have been too quick off the mark. Appreciate the videos and honest reviews. Cheers, Martin

"Retro" means more than an old looking bike. It symbolizes what Kawasaki created in the past & should be done in right way. FOUR chrome pipes & all, not ONE!

My guess would be that a `77 KZ probably has about 62-65 RWP, whereas the new bike probably has at least 105 rwp, even in its slightly reduced form. That is a huge difference, and the 15 KG you mention sounds a bit off. Are you sure there is only a 15g difference. ??? The dry weight of a KZ900 has to be about 500 lbs, or even a bit more.

It comes off as more of a factory restomod than a full retro. And of course full retro is a rather open-ended term, you could just as well be talking about a bike that is air/oil cooled with supplementary radiator, drum rear and two-piston front discs, tubed spoke wheels with 1977 rubber, and carburetors. I think they've done the right amount of retro without sacrificing the modern comforts. I'm probably in the minority but a special run of faired GPz models with the higher spec components but retaining the versatile pre-gixxer ergonomics would be right up my alley

No it is a tip of the hat with some new gear that makes it more liveable for today.

gm16v149 the question was asked to the engineer who designed the bike, he said they wanted handling, hence skipped dual shock

Properly set up, a twin shock bike can handle very well indeed. I own one !! But I agree that a Monoshock was the right way to go for this bike.

I strongly agree, twin shocks and 4 into 4s

and Indians got competition

THEY HAVE BEEN even B4 ww2!!!!!!

@@davidfalgout7304 everyone was screwed in the depression.

@@mopar21 true that

Nah, Harley basically wipe their ass with homeowner husband money and boomer bonds. They'll be fine.

The ZX14r has a great throttle feel and control. Stock it is great.

I'm only 30, and nearly all my experience is with EFI, but I agree, this snatchy throttle bullshit with EFI bikes (and more typically fly by wire bikes) is completely unacceptable. I'm interested that you had the problem with your R1200, I rented one for a vacation in AK for 2 weeks (I believe it was a 2015 or 2016) and I didn't suffer from snatchy throttle too badly. On the contrary, I just sold my Tiger 1200 Explorer and one of the major reasons was because the throttle was completely unacceptable. It just felt like an electrical switch, it felt terrible to ride and b/c of that I'd wind up with a death grip on it trying to control it so perfectly as to not get snatchy and my arm kept going numb. Very shitty. On Ducatis, I haven't ridden a lot of them, but the scrambler was HORRIFIC. The fueling was so bad down low I just wanted to stop the test ride before I even got out of the parking lot. Utterly horrific, I could never live with that. It's a real big shame that these companies can't get the EFI fueling at low load right to save their lives, and throttle by wire / fly by wire is only making this about 100 times worse because now they're just glorified rheostats and they don't put any effort in to make it feel like you're moving a throttle, my Tiger had ZERO feedback in the throttle, I hated it. I really like this bike, looks really good, but if the throttle is snatchy that's a deal breaker for me. Some bikes got really bad with the EFI, and many got 100x worse with fly by wire. Unacceptable on something I'm paying 10k for. I do agree with the bonneville, was a joy to ride. EDIT: And I feel like this only bothers me for the most part - half the journalists don't even mention this type of stuff..

The Jap sports bikes seemed to have handled this quite a bit better - at least the cable throttle ones. CBR600 and R1 both had perfectly good fueling/throttle feel. I think it's less of an issue with EFI and more of an issue with fly by wire, though some of the companies can't iron out the EFI to save their lives, either.

nicolas FILSDEJEAN The new Street Triple 765 RS has the most accurate throttle response right now in the industry. You must have a test ride to get have a feel of it. I absolutely loved the silky smooth throttle!

@sleeperfox302x I'll second that emotion. The throttle on my 2016 ZX-14R is spot on, with no nasty surprises. :)

Coupydog I realise this is an old post, but for the viewers watching this now which might be wondering the same thing, yes, it has been fixed. Longer 6th and also a longer final drive on this bike 👍🏻

Means they can feel bland to ride. Kind of a sewing machine effect. Smooth with generally a very linear power delivery. Very different to Twins and Triples.

i see, basically engine that feels rough gives out more character then. i guess it depends on the rider, each prefer different kinds of feeling.

Ride other engine types and find out. I've ridden a bunch of twin cylinder configurations, a triple a few i-4 engines. Haven't ridden a V4 yet. There are distinctly different sounds, feels, and torque curves. I do prefer a big sporty Vtwin honestly. Just wish Japan would get something along those lines again, since the TL, SV, RC51 are no more. KTM and Ducati seem to be the only ones doing this.

i had an original z900 and that had plenty of fucking character

I agree, but I think the reference is to modern high powered 4 cylinder engines that tend to run very smooth, and you barely realize how fast you are going. I had the original Z1 back in 1972 and some nice memories.. .

It was terribly dull and underpowered, that is why I suspect.