The seven days I spent with the Kawasaki ZX-14R were some of the most memorable days of my entire life. I love this bike so very, very, very much!
Back in school and college, I was obsessed with
buying and reading car and motorcycle magazines. Indian magazines that were
available in the 1980s were Car & Bike International, and the Indian
Auto Journal. These I bought and read every month, but what I really waited
for was to get my hands on hard-to-get second-hand copies of foreign motorcycle
magazines. Since there was probably not much demand for these, such magazines
were only rarely available, but when I did find copies, I would buy as many as
I could with whatever money I happened to have at that time. American magazines
like Cycle and Cycle World, British magazines like Bike, Performance
Bikes and Superbike, and the Australian magazine TwoWheels. New
copies simply weren’t available in Lucknow but I was only too happy buy old
copies, which were also reasonably cheap.
At that time, India was still stuck in the stone age of motorcycling – we mostly only had scooters, an old 350cc bike of British lineage, some 250s from Eastern Europe and a selection of 100cc Indo-Japanese bikes that were beginning to push out everybody else from the market. However, the aforementioned magazines were, for me, like a magic portal opening into an alien world. A world of 750cc and 1100cc superbikes, bikes that had 125-horsepower engines and top speeds of 250kph, beautiful, racy styling, exotic names. I read about the FZRs and the ZXRs, the GSX-Rs and the CBRs, the Italian Ducatis and Bimotas, in slack-jawed wonder. I was amazed that such machines even existed. And I simply have no words with which to tell you much I wanted to ride these superbikes, the machines that I could only see in the pages of those magazines. At that time, they were simply unattainable.
Of the dozens of fast bikes that I lusted after, if there was one that stood out, it was the Kawasaki ZX-11. The Editors of Cycle magazine were responsible for this. In the March 1990 issue, they said that the 125-horsepower ZX-11 is ‘the speed freak's midnight fantasy, a ride on the blast wave of an endless explosion.’ The bike, they said, could do the quarter-mile in less than 11 seconds and hit a top speed of 280kph. And ever since I read that article, all I ever wanted to do was ride a ZX-11. I mean, there I was – in first year of college, a motorcycle fanatic, occasionally wrangling rides on a friend’s 11-horsepower Yamaha RX100 and another friend’s 31-horsepower Yamaha RD350. And there existed on this planet something like the Kawasaki ZX-11, with 125bhp. It blew my brains.
As the years rolled by, I was fortunate enough to find work as an automotive journalist in Bombay and in Pune, and ultimately did get to ride many modern superbikes, including Kawasaki’s own ZX-12R, the successor to the ZX-11. The 170bhp ZX-12R, which I got for a short ride during my time with Business Standard Motoring, was raw and aggressive and mind-numbingly fast, and remains one of my most memorable rides to this day. But there was something faster, even more powerful in store for me. In 2013, when I was working with the Volkswagen Group, I asked my friend Murali Menon, Managing Editor of Man’s World magazine, if I could speak to Kawasaki and see if they could give me a ZX-14R for a few days; I’d love to do a story for MW on that bike, I said. He agreed, I spoke to Kawasaki and they agreed to give me the bike for one full week! The only caveat was that I had to pick up the bike from their showroom in Pune and return it there after a week. Wow! ‘Just don’t drop it. And don’t crash it, please,’ said a slightly worried Murali.
Here are some excerpts from the piece I wrote for Man’s World after riding the ZX-14R for a week.
At that time, India was still stuck in the stone age of motorcycling – we mostly only had scooters, an old 350cc bike of British lineage, some 250s from Eastern Europe and a selection of 100cc Indo-Japanese bikes that were beginning to push out everybody else from the market. However, the aforementioned magazines were, for me, like a magic portal opening into an alien world. A world of 750cc and 1100cc superbikes, bikes that had 125-horsepower engines and top speeds of 250kph, beautiful, racy styling, exotic names. I read about the FZRs and the ZXRs, the GSX-Rs and the CBRs, the Italian Ducatis and Bimotas, in slack-jawed wonder. I was amazed that such machines even existed. And I simply have no words with which to tell you much I wanted to ride these superbikes, the machines that I could only see in the pages of those magazines. At that time, they were simply unattainable.
Of the dozens of fast bikes that I lusted after, if there was one that stood out, it was the Kawasaki ZX-11. The Editors of Cycle magazine were responsible for this. In the March 1990 issue, they said that the 125-horsepower ZX-11 is ‘the speed freak's midnight fantasy, a ride on the blast wave of an endless explosion.’ The bike, they said, could do the quarter-mile in less than 11 seconds and hit a top speed of 280kph. And ever since I read that article, all I ever wanted to do was ride a ZX-11. I mean, there I was – in first year of college, a motorcycle fanatic, occasionally wrangling rides on a friend’s 11-horsepower Yamaha RX100 and another friend’s 31-horsepower Yamaha RD350. And there existed on this planet something like the Kawasaki ZX-11, with 125bhp. It blew my brains.
As the years rolled by, I was fortunate enough to find work as an automotive journalist in Bombay and in Pune, and ultimately did get to ride many modern superbikes, including Kawasaki’s own ZX-12R, the successor to the ZX-11. The 170bhp ZX-12R, which I got for a short ride during my time with Business Standard Motoring, was raw and aggressive and mind-numbingly fast, and remains one of my most memorable rides to this day. But there was something faster, even more powerful in store for me. In 2013, when I was working with the Volkswagen Group, I asked my friend Murali Menon, Managing Editor of Man’s World magazine, if I could speak to Kawasaki and see if they could give me a ZX-14R for a few days; I’d love to do a story for MW on that bike, I said. He agreed, I spoke to Kawasaki and they agreed to give me the bike for one full week! The only caveat was that I had to pick up the bike from their showroom in Pune and return it there after a week. Wow! ‘Just don’t drop it. And don’t crash it, please,’ said a slightly worried Murali.
Here are some excerpts from the piece I wrote for Man’s World after riding the ZX-14R for a week.
The ZX-14R Ninja has two power modes and three traction control settings, and I have to admit, I started with 'L' (that's low power mode, the other being 'F' which denotes full power...) and TC level 3. The most restrictive settings, but probably also the safest for those riding the 14R for the first time. On the first day, I was quite tentative with the machine – gentle with the throttle, early on the brakes, easing into and out of corners. Ridden like this, the ZX-14R is not really intimidating. It certainly isn’t happy with puttering along at 80kph, but if that's what you insist on doing, the Ninja will play along without complaining too much.
As confidence grew, I started feeling braver and upped the power setting to 'F' and also moved the traction control setting to 2. The advanced electronics hitherto restraining the Ninja had been scaled back, and with an evil grin and joyous bellow, the ZX-14R unleashed living hell. In full power mode, the 14R is a road-going incarnation of the infamous SR-71 Blackbird. ‘During reconnaissance missions, the SR-71 operated at high speeds and altitudes to allow it to outrace threats. If a surface-to-air missile launch was detected, the standard evasive action was simply to accelerate and outfly the missile,’ says Wikipedia, about that 1960s Lockheed aircraft.
Much the same is also true of the ZX-14R. The bike simply operates at a different level compared to anything else on the road. I don't know if it can out-accelerate a SAM missile, but it sure as hell feels like it ought to be able to. Yes, it really is that fast. With its gut-wrenching rate of acceleration and ability to deep-dive into triple-digit speed zone in the blink of an eye, riding the ZX-14R is a lesson in understanding the real meaning of the word ‘fear.’ Oh yes, when you’re still accelerating hard at more than 200kph, the sheer, unrelenting savagery of the Ninja scares the living daylights out of you. The bike keeps you suspended in a state of elation, mixed with healthy dollops of terror. It keeps you hyper-alert, more aware of your surroundings than ever before, and makes you feel more alive than you’ve ever been before. It’s like being transported you into an elevated state of consciousness. Within a few dozen kilometres of riding it, I was inextricably hooked. I want to do this over and over again, every day for the rest of my life. The Kawasaki ZX-14R is a drug like no other.
Riding the ZX-14R in heavy traffic can be a bit painful, so I used to go out at five in the morning. And with most of Mumbai's population still safely tucked away in bed, and with most of the city's cars, SUVs, buses and trucks snoring in their parking lots, the ZX-14R was free to unleash unbridled mayhem on the city's unsuspecting streets. And, I'm happy to report, the big Ninja took great delight in its own anarchy, repeatedly accelerating to stratospheric speeds, belligerent satisfaction emanating from the very core of its being and bellowing out from its twin exhaust pipes. F***ing brilliant!
Apart from frightening displays of sheer speed in a straight line, the ZX-14R also manages to hold its own in the corners. Sure, with its 58.3-inch wheelbase and 266-kilo kerb weight, it's never going to be as flickable as, say, a Ducati Monster 795. But if you use sufficient muscle, the bike bike changes direction quickly, never losing composure and always staying completely stable and sure-footed in the bendy stuff. Its fully adjustable suspension (43mm USD fork at the front, Uni-Track gas-charged monoshock at the back) is compliant enough for our broken, pot-holed roads, and firm enough for superbike-spec hooning, which I think is a miracle of engineering. And the brakes (twin 310mm discs at the front, with radial-mount 4-piston calipers) are up to the task of hauling the bike down from very high speeds in double-quick time, which is a blessing.
The one week that I spent riding the Kawasaki ZX-14R Ninja was probably the best seven days of my life, ever. The bike is unbelievable, impossible to describe with mere words. With 14R’s on-road price of about Rs 19.0 lakh, I really don't know how, or when, I'm going to be able to buy one. But somehow, someday, I am going to get that Ninja for keeps.
Once again, I thank Murali Menon from the depths of my heart for allowing me to get this bike from Kawasaki, letting me keep it for a week and giving me an opportunity to write about it for Man’s World. I remain eternally grateful for this favour.
Also see my riding impression of the Suzuki Hayabusa
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