A Dream That Came True: Riding the Kawasaki ZX-12R Ninja

You can have it. Only, you have to want it bad enough, they say. And that, apparently, is exactly how it is

‘Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly,’ said poet Langston Hughes. And while I don’t think he had motorcycles in mind when he wrote this, it certainly does apply to bikes as well – dreams of riding insanely fast bikes that are, on the face of it, well beyond your means. Let me explain.

Ever since I was a child, what fascinated me most were fast cars and motorcycles. I grew up in Lucknow reading whatever Indian and foreign automotive magazines I could get my hands on and these fuelled my love for all things on four wheels and two. While I couldn’t care less for physics, chemistry, biology and math, I’d read – diligently, and for hours – about European cars and Japanese motorcycles, about automotive design and engineering and about motorcycle grand prix racing. I just could not get enough of reading about these, and second-hand foreign magazines were my primary source of information since the Internet had then only recently been invented and would take another 15 years to arrive in India.

Sometime in the late-1980s, I happened to pick up a copy of American magazine Cycle World, which had carried a review of the Kawasaki ZX-11 Ninja, which boasted 130-ish horsepower from its 1052cc inline-four, and had a top speed of around 280kph, which made it the world’s fastest production motorcycle of its time. The editors of Cycle World, who certainly had a most entertaining way with words, said that riding the bike was akin to ‘riding the blast wave of an endless explosion.’ Now, you have to understand what that would mean – and what these words would do – to a motorcycle-obsessed teenager who only had access to, at best, bikes like the 11-horsepower Yamaha RX100 and occasionally, a 30-horsepower Yamaha RD350. It was a bit like someone who had been living on only bread-and-butter was suddenly given high-resolution photographs of well-cooked porterhouse steak, and a juicy description of the said steak to read.

As the years went by, my obsession with fast bikes never left me. I grew up and was fortunate enough to find work in automotive journalism in Bombay. And while I got to ride a fair number of fast bikes – the deeply impressive Honda CBR1100XX Super Blackbird, a Honda CBR900RR FireBlade, the Kawasaki ZX-6R and ZX-9R Ninja to name a few – the big one still eluded me. I still wanted to ride the ZX-11, still wanted to find out what the ‘blast wave of an endless explosion’ thing was all about.

Now, while I never did get to ride the 11, something else happened that more than compensated for that. It was back in 2003, when I was worked with Business Standard Motoring. One Friday night, I was at home, flipping through channels on the telly, when Shumi (who handled motorcycle reviews at BSM at that time and who now runs MotorInc) called me up and asked if I’d like to come to Thane the next day, early in the morning, for a photo shoot. And what shoot would that be, I asked. The Kawasaki ZX-12R Ninja. Holy f*** cow! Launched in the year 2000, the 12R was Kawasaki’s answer to the mighty Suzuki Hayabusa and the Honda CBR1100XX Super Blackbird and was one of the few bikes in the world that would do 300-320kph in stock form, straight from the factory. Of course I was going to Thane for that shoot.

The next day, a loud motorcycle came hurtling down the Cadbury flyover in Thane at seven in the morning, as Shumi, BSM photographer Param and I waited next to the trusty old Maruti 800 that belonged to BSM. It seemed this motorcycle – a black-and-gold blur as it sped past – would blow by us, but the rider did come to a swift halt next to us, lifted the visor of his helmet, looked at us and revved the bike’s 1200cc inline-four. And it was as if Thor, the Norse god of thunder himself, was bellowing in anger. Standard ZX-12Rs are fairly silent but this one was fitted with a ‘Trickstar’ aftermarket exhaust, hence the magnificent sound. The bike itself looked short and stubby, certainly much more compact than it looks in pictures, and had an underlying layer of menace to it. ‘Don’t f*** with me,’ it seemed to say.

BSM editor, Bijoy also joined us soon and we proceeded to the nearby Nashik highway for the photo-session. Param and Bijoy motored off first to shoot the bike and Param worked his magic with his camera. That done with, Bijoy came tearing down the road, clothes and helmet askew, demonic grin plastered on his face, clearly very happy to be riding the big Kawasaki. He pulled up next to me and handed the keys to me. ‘Want to go for a spin?’ he asked me, with a big smile on his face. And there it was, my chance to ride a big, immensely powerful Kawasaki at last. I had been waiting for 15 years for this.

The ZX-12R was no child’s toy, of course. It weighed around 230 kilos and boasted 160-ish horsepower from its 1200cc four-cylinder engine. No anti-lock brakes, no traction control, no wheelie control or any other electronic rider aids – this was pure analogue motorcycling, the way it used to be back then. I pulled on my helmet, got on and accelerated away as hard as I dared, never forgetting this was someone else’s very expensive motorcycle. I only rode the bike for about 10km but all the anticipation, the excitement, that had built up over the years was richly rewarded. The 12R really was explosive in the way it accelerated, the front wheel raring to leave planet earth and trying to skyshot with every twist of the throttle. The immense acceleration, thunderous exhaust note, and the sheer ecstasy of riding the fastest bike on the plant – the experience remains indescribable; words are just not enough.

I only rode the ZX-12R up and down the Nashik highway a couple of times, which I suppose is barely enough to get a feel of how it must be to live with this monster every day and ride it everywhere. Commenting on its riding dynamics – grip from the tyres, the brakes’ stopping power, the handling competence of the monocoque chassis – would be pointless, because I obviously never got to push the bike to even half of its capabilities. All I can is that broad seat felt quite comfortable, the suspension felt firm and the brakes were super sharp. But for me, that howling, screaming and very potent engine was the star of the show that day.

I have, since then, ridden the Kawasaki ZX-14R, which is even faster and more powerful. But the 12R riding experience remains imprinted in my memory to this day. That was the day when the dream came true. After all those years, I finally knew what those Cycle World editors had meant when the wrote about riding ‘the blast wave of an endless explosion…’