Kawasaki Zx-10r By the Numbers

Kawasaki ZX-10R By the Numbers

So many questions, so little time

This Year of the Superbike promises to be the most scintillating ever. With brand-new liter-class sportbikes from Honda, Kawasaki and Yamaha, everyone is itching to know which, if any, will unseat the all-conquering Suzuki GSX-R1000. But it’s been a bit frustrating here at Cycle World, because the manufacturers have been trickling out testbikes at the rate of one per issue. Screw the fore-play; we want action!

This month, with the dust from issue’s Honda CBR1000RR vs. Suzuki GSX-R1000 mini-comparison barely settled, and with Yamaha debuting its new YZF-R1 in Australia, Kawasaki provided us with a ZX-10R testbike. Unfortunately, said motorcycle arrived just two days before deadline, which left precious little 'r{ time for testing. Rather than leave this space blank or fill it with another photo of the YZFR1, however, we ran the Kawi through the gauntlet of performance tests to give you a preview of next month’s all-out comparison test.

Let’s start in the garage: On the certified CW scales, the ZX-10R weighed 433 pounds with a full tank of gas, and 406 empty. That’s 2 pounds lighter than an ’04 GSX-R, and fully 25 pounds lighter than the new CBR.

Across the garage, strapped to CIV’S inhouse Dynojet dynamometer, the ZX10R churned out an astounding 155.5 rear-wheel horsepower at 9250 rpm-the highest figure we’ve yet seen from a liter-bike. In comparison, the CBR made 145 bhp and our ’04 GSX-R made 141 bhp, curiously down 6 ponies from our ’03 testbike.

We next took the Kawasaki to California Speedway, where it sprinted through the quarter-mile in 10.16 seconds at 140.41 mph. That’s a virtual tie with the 10.14/140.79 turned by the new Honda, and while it’s slower than the 10.05/142.46 posted by our ’03 Suzuki, it’s better than the 10.27/139.91 of this year’s model.

Finally, we took the ZX-10R to a deserted stretch of road and stretched its throttle cable, the radar gun showing a top speed of 181 mph in spite of detectable clutch slippage resulting from our numerous dragstrip launches. Even so, that’s 3 mph faster than the CBR and 5 mph faster than the GSX-R.

The other unanswered question concerned gearbox action, which Road Test Editor Don Canet reported was flawed on the nearly one-dozen pilot-production bikes he rode at the press introduction in Florida two months earlier. We’re happy to report, then, that the ZX-10R gave us not one problem during spirited street riding, and only popped out of gear once while dragstrip testing, likely attributable to a hurried upshift.

So, on paper and on the road, the $10,999 ZX-10R looks to have the right stuff. Tune in next month to see if it has the “Tightest” stuff.

-Brian Catterson