Suzuki had the Hayabusa, and it was absolutely tits. It had the highest top speed of any production bike and the quarter-mile times to match. It would be a tough act to follow, but Kawasaki was confident of its new machine, and the advertisements and general media hype indicated a changing of the guard. But then, much to the chagrin of the two-wheeled press (not to mention Kawasaki US), the suits in Japan started making decisions that affected things that should have been left alone.
The result? Before it even came to dealers' floors, the highly anticipated ZX-12R was - for all intents and purposes - stillborn.
The two largest print magazines ran the two heavyweight contenders through the usual gamut of tests and diagnostics. The result? The 12R fell short of expectations, and no amount of hype could overcome that disappointment. And though quite a few units were sold, there was no way to fix the damage that had been done.
It's now two years later, and Kawasaki is once again certain its ZX-12R will be an absolute smash. You see, they've changed tactics mid-stream, or so we think. Where they used to tout the bike's still-impressive horsepower and torque numbers, these figures seem to get second billing nowadays, just aft of the stuff that says something about additional user-friendliness and increased wind protection.
To show the press just what changes have been made to the flagship model, and to illustrate that these changes have, indeed, been a step in the
right direction, we were flown to beautiful Monterey, California. Yes, the same town whose boundaries include that heavenly bit of pavement known as the Pacific Coast Highway. Oh, you thought we'd say Laguna Seca? That's not what this bike's about, old chap. Speedy travel on sinewy backroads, however, is the new bike's forte', and the coastal road was just the place to prove it to a bunch of jaded journos such as ourselves.
Externally, the bike doesn't look much different than before. About the only visual clues that jump out at you are the new colors and the windscreen which is now 20 millimeters taller. But once you're on board the new bike, things have a familiar ring to them. Though the handlebars are now situated a few millimeters lower, the feeling is familiar. There's a lot of bike beneath you, and the raspy idle hints at the power lurking beneath.
Leaving the parking lot of our seaside hotel, getting the bike moving is a no-brainer. The re-worked clutch and the amount of grunt available just off idle makes short work of leaving a light. And though we haven't had our test bike on the drag strip as of yet, a few impromptu drag launches confirmed a lot of positive feel at the lever. There wasn't any sign of fade or slipping after repeated launches, either.
The 12R's boingers have a tough chore, more so than most. There is a lot of weight they have to keep in check, and Kawasaki's engineers have done a pretty good job of things, but there's still room for improvement.
One of the changes Kawasaki made to the suspension is a stiffer front end, "to combat front-end dive," they say. But we'd gladly take a bit of dive and weight-transfer to the front end in place of the somewhat choppy feel of the stock front end. To get things to settle to our liking, and to better match the comparatively soft back end, we backed out one turn on the compression adjusters.
We left the rebound damping adjustments alone up front, though we did add a touch of compression and rebound damping to the rear. The end result of these changes is a more balanced ride. The chassis now feels more planted than it did before through abrupt left-right-left changes and mid-corner ripples at high lean angles. With the suspension changes made, everything stayed planted and on-line as it should. It certainly gave us the confidence needed to keep up a seriously quick pace by using the bike's stability and huge motor to drive us into the next bend.
High-speed sweepers are this bike's reason for being, though you can have some fun in the tight stuff, too. Coming down Pacific Coast Highway, we were totally content to let the big blue bike chug along in sixth gear, even down to 45 mph. The 12R has such copious amounts of torque and, mated to the best fuel-air mixers ever fitted to a Kawasaki, you really don't
need anything but first and sixth gears to make rapid progress on this bike.
On the brakes after a long straight, you're reminded how large of a bike this Kawasaki is. Still, getting it slowed is never a concern as the revised Tokiko brakes do a wonderful job of getting things slowed down. Of course, the lever requires quite a tug to get seriously rapid deceleration, but that's to be expected. Thankfully, modulation of the binders, both front and rear, is quite easy since they provide excellent feel.
Despite the fact that we could run through miles of corners and straights in one gear, the Kawasaki's six-speed box is wonderfully precise and shouldn't be ignored.
Changing up or down was always clean, and there wasn't a missed shift to be had, with or without use of the clutch.
By the time we'd finished our photo shoot and continued our nighttime drone down the interstate, back into Los Angeles, we were going on a solid 10 hours of seat time on the new Kawasaki.
We'd seen an average fuel consumption of about 32.8 mpg over the course of the day, and in the following days spent commuting, that figure has changed little. It's a thirsty beast, but an impressive one that churns out the most power of any stock bike we've strapped to our dyno. The thing about this new ZX-12R is that, despite all its performance potential, it's a terrific all-around machine. We wouldn't hesitate to put a tank bag or some soft luggage on it and make a two-day, four-state tour, stopping at a few drag strips along the way. Kawasaki has done a wonderful job of refining its biggest bike, and at a suggested retail price of $10,999 US dollars, it's a lot of bike for the money.
Is it better than Suzuki's Hayabusa? We can only say it's going to be a very close call when we get the two bikes side-by-side.
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