Bikes Kawasaki Should Build Now.

[Pabs]

do we ever its drier than a nun's nasty down here

69 Hail Mary' for you my son

[mrmina]

5. An updated ZX12R, 5kg lighter, slightly smaller in all directions.

maybe a special one for smitty that only has 20bhp.

[z900/zx9]

Hey minna what about a z800 with a electric Rain sensing umbrella

[balanse]

Going off the Kwaka USA information, the KX450R is clearly in the mould of the latter; no indicators, no rego plate holder, no tail light; in a way, it's understandable, because making it road-registrable would mean taking a mx engine designed to breathe through an open pipe and getting it through the emissions standards. If they're not bothering to do it in a market as huge as the US, they're not going to bother to do it for the few hundred bikes they can hope to sell per year in Australia.

First off its a KLX450R .. the KX IS the pure motocross machine.

Second the issue of getting it road registerable can't be that great. For example Yamaha found itself with more stock of it's YZ125 2 stroke motocrossers still on the showroom floor in 2003 than it really wanted to have. These things just weren't moving.
Their solution ? ADR 'em and sell them off as enduro machines. (Didn't really go well either but that's by the by)
But if ADR can be done by Yamaha Australia "on the fly" to something as completely unfriendly for the road as a 2 stroke YZ 125cc motocrosser then what is Kawasaki's problem.
Reckon that they just can't be fagged doing anything more adventurous than uncrating and selling. Much as I love 'em the brand is just not well looked after here an Oz.

[QLDZX6R]

Already has ZX9R Frame & Engine..modified of course

[Neka79]

It's a Honda knock off..

You mean the twin headlights? Oh thats right.... Ducati did that first...

Honda had twin headlights on the CBX750 in 1984. That's 10 years before the 916 came out.

Oh, you must mean the under-seat exhaust..... Oh! forgot... Ducati did that first too....

Even if you discount two-strokes like the reverse-cylinder Yamaha TZR250 (1990), Yamaha RZ500, Suzuki RG500 and Honda NS400R (all 1985), the Honda NR750 had an underseat exhaust in 1991, three years before the 916.

Must mean the swingarm..... Oh darn...... ducati again.....

Honda RC30 had a single-sided swingarm in 1988, six years before the 916.

Honda does not Instigate, it emulates.....

Massimo Tamburini is on the record as having used the Honda NR750 as the starting point when designing the 916.

mwahahahahaha

i love it when ur on my side IK...

u have sum valid points..i love the idea of the z1k with the full zx10r donk and brakes...ewww im getting a woody i think...

[Neka79]

Mhm, but the endurance racer was a one-off and the Munch was a fringe model from a fringe manufacturer.

The Munch is still a motorcycle with twin headlights FFS !!! the fact that it doesn't sell 20 billion per year is TOTALLY FUCKING IRRELAVENT !!! The endurance racer spawned an aftermarket industry of full-fairings with twin-headlights that were fitted to motorcycles all over the world. La Parisienne, Rickman, Harris - they all had twin-headlight aftermarket fairings.... I guess all these twin-headlight bikes don't count either because they weren't mass-produced

It's not a sportsbike in the conventional sense because you can't race it in the plug-and-play sense of slipping raceglass onto it and taking it to a race meeting.

*the conventional sense*......*the plug'n'play sense*.....

Get a grip mate, your personal definitions of what constitutes a sports-bike are way off the mark. Are you telling all the ZX900 owners out there that they don't own a sports-bike because they can't enter it in a race meeting ?? What a load of frogshit What about the owner of an 1996 FZR1000 ??? Can't enter THAT in any race meetings, try telling the owner its a sports-tourer

Perhaps a better definition of a sports-bike is one that can lap Eastern Creek in under 1'50" ???? If so, my 26 yo Z1000 is *most definitely* a sportsbike !!! It leaves my ZX12 for dead

awww carn Gos...tone it down a smidge mate...hit a raw nerve did he??

he kinda has valid points...i guess the thing is, are we debating who made the 1st twin headlight motorcycle?? or the first MASS PRODUCED motorcycle ...

either way..stereo was wrong..and THAT is whats important (that and it WASNT ducatti)...

now as for the 12r being regarded as sportsbike.....i woulda expected better from u mate...the zx9r...the cbr929... both were called "sports/tourers"...which kinda made me feel good watching Jamie hose R1's & gixxers on the way to the GP down the GOR...especially when he was fully laden and they werent..... oh and what made it so much better was that i wasnt that far behind him.... those were the days...

lets all chill...have a beer/bourbon/smoke/cone/toss/tofu burger/valium (circle appropriate) and relax a little....

[Gosling1]

aah, that shit was last week mate, we have already moved on .....

[Nanna10r]

aah, that shit was last week mate, we have already moved on .....

C,mon gos you know Nath is late Cause poor little Chloe has to piggy back his ar$e everywhere

[Gosling1]

...C,mon gos you know Nath is late Cause poor little Chloe has to piggy back his ar$e everywhere

brrrrr, imagine the skidmarks

[I-K]

The Munch is still a motorcycle with twin headlights FFS !!! the fact that it doesn't sell 20 billion per year is TOTALLY FUCKING IRRELAVENT !!! The endurance racer spawned an aftermarket industry of full-fairings with twin-headlights that were fitted to motorcycles all over the world. La Parisienne, Rickman, Harris - they all had twin-headlight aftermarket fairings.... I guess all these twin-headlight bikes don't count either because they weren't mass-produced

Well, no, they don't, really, because they featured an idea which the manufacturers hadn't yet gotten off their arses and started incorporating into their production models.

All this started with a "which *manufacturer* was first with <insert>".

Honda didn't invent the (modern) single-sided swingarm, either. Elf did. Honda just put in on a production model.

Are you telling all the ZX900 owners out there that they don't own a sports-bike because they can't enter it in a race meeting??

Well, the ZX9 was a fairly common choice for a racebike in its day, and it acquitted itself ok...

Bottom line, it's hard to argue that the ZX10 has taken over from the ZX12 because the two have been designed with different priorities. The ZX12 is a big, comfortable bike for the street which doesn't compromise on the suspension and motor. The ZX10 was built to lap a racetrack fast.

This is why the 12 is so important, and that's why it needs to continue. The 14, with its low pegs, lack of a rear ride-height adjuster and long wheelbase goes too far in the direction of the Blackbird, while the 12 carries on in the vein of bikes like the GSX-R1100 and FZR1000, big bikes which handle.

[Gosling1]

...Bottom line, it's hard to argue that the ZX10 has taken over from the ZX12 because the two have been designed with different priorities. The ZX12 is a big, comfortable bike for the street which doesn't compromise on the suspension and motor. The ZX10 was built to lap a racetrack fast.

can't argue with that, it is a good description of both bikes.

...This is why the 12 is so important, and that's why it needs to continue. The 14, with its low pegs, lack of a rear ride-height adjuster and long wheelbase goes too far in the direction of the Blackbird, while the 12 carries on in the vein of bikes like the GSX-R1100 and FZR1000, big bikes which handle.

It is strange that the 12 will be discontinued in the US and Oz markets, but will continue to be produced for the European market ( at least according to some observers in the bike industry) - I think the 12 and the 14 could continue to be sold alongside each other, Oz is just too small a market to support both models at the same time I guess.....

So we will be left with a ultra-sports 1000, and a sports-tourer 1400, and nothing in between ...... bugger.....

[Neka79]

.....

So we will be left with a ultra-sports 1000, and a sports-tourer 1400, and nothing in between ...... bugger.....

mate...ull just have to learn how to ride a 1400 faster...or a 10 slower....

[Gosling1]

- Heh now this might sound silly, but when you get your licence back, you *really* should go and test-ride a 14 - they are really comfortable, and super-quick. Not that I want you to lose your licence again, but you should at least take one for a test-fang, just to see what all the fuss is about.

If they made a ZX14R, then I would probably get one. It would need to weigh about 20kg less than current, with higher pegs, lower bars, 4-1, and no George Foreman grill now THAT would be a sports-bike

[QLDZX6R]

Bugger it,I want to see a top end ZX10RR dripping with quality-Ohlins,Brembo,Akrapovic etc- the Italians do it-so why not the bigK-no flame stickered ZX10R SE,I wanna see the real deal $35k ZX10RR limited edition in Green only akrapovic'd Ohlins suspension brembo braked tricked engine finger up Kawasaki.There.