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Wednesday, 30 August 2006 |
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| Screw more technical stuff - let's push the starter and see what happens... The Kawasaki media staff are a really cool bunch of cats, knowing us as they do, they concocted a little plan to go thrash the shorts off of the bike at the NASCAR home field at LVMS. I must admit, to me it seemed a recipe for disaster, the deal was five laps per session going around the speedway as fast as the ZX-14's legs could carry us, until we got tired or until one of us got into the wall. The downer (apart from the no right turns) was we weren't allowed to do it as a group. Did I mention Kawasaki knew us? Anyway, one at a time we were let out to go forth and do what we do, and boy was it spooky. The 1.5-mile oval offered no real fun at 186 electronically limited mile-an-hour, the problem was you didn't know where you were on the tire. The only real indication of lean angle was when you couldn't grab an upshift (usually 5th to 6th) because you couldn't get your foot under the gearshift - weird stuff. |
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Weird stuff aside, the fun stuff started happening as soon I was up to speed though, in an attempt to "see where I was" in relation to the asphalt, I started to hang off road race style and soon found a knee puck. Next minute I'm dragging my knee on the banking at 150mph and feeling right at home due to the familiarity of that bum-crack seating position. I not sure what they make my Shift sliders out of, but I swear I could hear and smell sizzling bacon.
As soon as I passed this nugget on, my fellow silly bug.. err' Journalists did the same. There were stories of lurid buck-fifty front end pushes starting to infiltrate my group, but we're talking about a big bike doing silly corner speeds by very silly people. The Bridgestone BT014's behaved themselves perfectly too - however you should have seen the "Chicken Strip" on the right-hand side - big enough to feed a family of four. |
It was tough accelerating from zero to banzai whilst contemplating the fuel injection and its efficiency - it all seemed to work together OK. The all new 32-bit digital fool injection offered quite decent throttle response, however, low speed acceleration (read wheelieing down the pit straight) revealed a dead spot down below 4K, probably due to Senor EPA.
Actually, power all round was a little lame till you started to charge 5,000RPM then it started to get a little lively in the pajama department. With 190 PS (185BHP) on tap, you might want to be pointed in the right direction when you open that quartet of 44mm throttle bodies, let's call that 200 PS (195BHP) with some wind blowing through the front door. |
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The suspenders on the big ZX looked to be the right stuff too. The front forks are 43mm inverted with 13-way compression, 11-way rebound and, of course, preload adjustability. The rear has a new linkage and although I have no notes on its adjustability, it kept my bum off the rear wheel admirably. By the way, coming into turn one at pretty much flat out, no brakes were needed and a gear change certainly didn't upset the chassis, nor did the consequent throttle roll-off/on. Drive snatch seemed nonexistent but let's reserve judgement until we get this bike in stop and go, around town traffic.
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| Off the bike now and looking over the ZX-14 some more, it's easy to dismiss the technology on this vehicle. Proof? How about that wiring loom... it's CAN (Controller Area Network). I'm hoping to get this right by describing it as a more efficient wiring loom (less wires) and basically split into high and low voltage wires that utilizes a multi-cast serial bus standard offering ISO standard transmissions up to 500kbs... Phew. The information passed along these wires is labeled with a unique identifier, the ECU performs an acceptance test to determined the signal's destination and sends it off on its merry way. Get this, if two signals are sent at the same time, instead of the ECU pressing Cntrl/Alt/Delete and calling it quits, it'll deliver the most important one first - it's a miracle, I tell ya'. By the way, this system takes care of the RPM, coolant temp, gear position and other "clever stuff" - This thing's sexier than a T-Mobile hotspot and a cup of hot chai in Starbucks. |
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Whilst on the subject of electronic frivolity, you have a ton of relevant information at your beck and call, via the ultra tricky LCD readout. Stepping back in time, we have a set of analog gauges for speed and RPM - sure they're archaic, but I never struggled to see where I was in the RPM range or how fast I was going to go to jail.
Nestled between these antique roadshow exhibits was a good size LCD screen showing, gas range, fuel consumption (both average and current), battery voltage and a gas gauge.
For ultimate drag racing friendliness you even have a clutch engagement sensor light set within the tachometer so you can set an indicator to your preferred drag race start RPM, oh, and there's a programable a shift light too. |
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