The mere mention of a four-cylinder, 1000cc motorcycle can make anyone go weak in the knees. The feeling of being perched on a missile with no guidance control other than your vision and your ability to steer, stop or go is frightening… but absolute power corrupts absolutely, so when someone hands you the keys to the alien-looking Z1000, all you can do is to chant a small prayer and hop on. You only live once, after all.
To paraphrase the gentleman who got out of his car just to take a photograph of the motorcycle – it looks like no other motorcycle. As such, I’d find it hard to describe to someone who hasn’t seen it before. The Ninjas are now common, so relating one to the other is relatively easy – what the Z1000 reminded us most of was the ‘Predator’ character from the movie of the same name, starring a certain Mr. Unpronounceable-last-name. This is a result of Kawasaki’s ‘Sugomi’ design philosophy. If the internet is to be believed, it means “weirdness, ghastliness, dreadfulness and awesomeness” all at the same time. Strangely yet happily, it also sums up the styling of the Z1000.
The front grabs your attention with the headlamp - four projector lenses are shrouded in a bikini fairing that looks part Japanese comic book villain, part BMW with an anger management problem. The only other feature that grabs your attention are the mirror stalks – the combination of cast aluminium and black plastic is very fetching. You can distinguish a Z1000 from a Z800 easily from the front – the Z800 has no projector units for headlamps, and the bright green addition to the fairing above the headlamp is absent as well.
The front three-quarter is the best angle to view the Z1000 from – the visual mass of the engine and tank is balanced nicely by the exhausts. The hunchback look makes it look really mean, and yet there is elegance in the way the lines of the headlamp, tank, seat and exhaust are all parallel. From the side, it looks ever so slightly front heavy, which is something we’ve come to expect from supersport motorcycles, but the stubby exhaust ends far too quickly to offer enough visual mass to the rear of the motorcycle. The pillion seat is one of my favourite design elements – no one ever realises it is a pillion seat unless they’re told it is one, or they touch it. The rear three quarter reinforces this view, but is offset beautifully by the vertically stacked two-into-four exhaust end cans that look like they have been fused to each other. This angle also shows off the green strip running down the centre of the tank, and if you look closely, you’ll see that the seat cover has a thousand little ‘Z’s on it. The rear tyre is the normal size for the litre class, but coupled with the fat exhaust end-cans and pointed tail, looks larger than life.
The Z1000 has controls like any other motorcycle, and an instrument cluster that will be familiar to any modern Kawasaki owner, or someone who owns a Yamaha FZ16. It is all digital and displays a wealth of information in the tiny space that it occupies. Of course, the speed is the dominating component of the information, followed closely by the very interesting digital tachometer. Up to four thousand rpm, it is an LCD readout on the bottom half, which also shows the rest of the information. The top half is reserved for an LED display of the revs – from 4,000rpm right up to the redline at 11,500rpm. This makes it very easy to ride the motorcycle the way you want; for calm riding, don’t let any of the LEDs light up! There is all the information you can possibly want at the touch of the buttons on the left of the display including dual trip meters, a clock, fuel consumption – both instant and average, coolant temperature but you’ll have to cycle through the different information to get to the one thing you want to know. An interesting addition is the ‘Economical Riding’ indicator, which lights up if your riding style is fuel efficient. Kawasaki has consciously designed it such that it isn’t in the rider’s field of view most of the time, to give the feeling of an open motorcycle. The handlebar is a single rod, not clip-on, and the brake lever is adjustable. The controls are the same as any ordinary motorcycle except for the lack of a headlamp on/off switch, which contributes to the feeling of riding a familiar bike.
To paraphrase the gentleman who got out of his car just to take a photograph of the motorcycle – it looks like no other motorcycle. As such, I’d find it hard to describe to someone who hasn’t seen it before. The Ninjas are now common, so relating one to the other is relatively easy – what the Z1000 reminded us most of was the ‘Predator’ character from the movie of the same name, starring a certain Mr. Unpronounceable-last-name. This is a result of Kawasaki’s ‘Sugomi’ design philosophy. If the internet is to be believed, it means “weirdness, ghastliness, dreadfulness and awesomeness” all at the same time. Strangely yet happily, it also sums up the styling of the Z1000.
The front grabs your attention with the headlamp - four projector lenses are shrouded in a bikini fairing that looks part Japanese comic book villain, part BMW with an anger management problem. The only other feature that grabs your attention are the mirror stalks – the combination of cast aluminium and black plastic is very fetching. You can distinguish a Z1000 from a Z800 easily from the front – the Z800 has no projector units for headlamps, and the bright green addition to the fairing above the headlamp is absent as well.
The front three-quarter is the best angle to view the Z1000 from – the visual mass of the engine and tank is balanced nicely by the exhausts. The hunchback look makes it look really mean, and yet there is elegance in the way the lines of the headlamp, tank, seat and exhaust are all parallel. From the side, it looks ever so slightly front heavy, which is something we’ve come to expect from supersport motorcycles, but the stubby exhaust ends far too quickly to offer enough visual mass to the rear of the motorcycle. The pillion seat is one of my favourite design elements – no one ever realises it is a pillion seat unless they’re told it is one, or they touch it. The rear three quarter reinforces this view, but is offset beautifully by the vertically stacked two-into-four exhaust end cans that look like they have been fused to each other. This angle also shows off the green strip running down the centre of the tank, and if you look closely, you’ll see that the seat cover has a thousand little ‘Z’s on it. The rear tyre is the normal size for the litre class, but coupled with the fat exhaust end-cans and pointed tail, looks larger than life.
The Z1000 has controls like any other motorcycle, and an instrument cluster that will be familiar to any modern Kawasaki owner, or someone who owns a Yamaha FZ16. It is all digital and displays a wealth of information in the tiny space that it occupies. Of course, the speed is the dominating component of the information, followed closely by the very interesting digital tachometer. Up to four thousand rpm, it is an LCD readout on the bottom half, which also shows the rest of the information. The top half is reserved for an LED display of the revs – from 4,000rpm right up to the redline at 11,500rpm. This makes it very easy to ride the motorcycle the way you want; for calm riding, don’t let any of the LEDs light up! There is all the information you can possibly want at the touch of the buttons on the left of the display including dual trip meters, a clock, fuel consumption – both instant and average, coolant temperature but you’ll have to cycle through the different information to get to the one thing you want to know. An interesting addition is the ‘Economical Riding’ indicator, which lights up if your riding style is fuel efficient. Kawasaki has consciously designed it such that it isn’t in the rider’s field of view most of the time, to give the feeling of an open motorcycle. The handlebar is a single rod, not clip-on, and the brake lever is adjustable. The controls are the same as any ordinary motorcycle except for the lack of a headlamp on/off switch, which contributes to the feeling of riding a familiar bike.
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