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ET. The home of beautiful passes.<br />
Other than that, the Africa Twin is just so much fun through<br />
the twistys and I am exceedingly grateful that I had done the<br />
cornering school on it a few weeks ago, that really enhanced<br />
my enjoyment of all the bike we rode on this trip.<br />
But that is enough of my drivel here is what Shado and Stefan<br />
had to say about the ride and the bikes.<br />
Shado says …<br />
Sean pretty much covered the logistical and environmental<br />
(mental) weather conditions for the course of the day, and I will<br />
open this muse with saying that Motorrad GMbH’s heated grips<br />
were the stars of the naked show.<br />
Ok, so onto the machine that was a noob ride for me, the<br />
Kawasaki Z900… Jumping on the machine at what would be<br />
called the tail end of sparrow’s fart, I immediately felt I was a<br />
part of a machine that was built with purpose and pleasure in<br />
mind. Kawasaki Heavy Industries seemingly took a formula<br />
for a naked bike, applied their people in white coats to polish<br />
and prepare a machine that, for want of a better cliché, ticked<br />
all the boxes for a simple, useable and rugged machine.<br />
The bike does have a few features in terms of ride modes,<br />
traction, power, and abs settings. There’s no ride-by-wire<br />
trickery or cruise control and IMU tech and such. Just a plain<br />
straightforward 900cc 16v motor that is ‘torqey’ and rev happy.<br />
The first impression of the powertrain was that the motor is as<br />
smooth as butter off of a hot knife and not intrusively difficult<br />
to manage. Even with the lack of a quick-shifter, it was a<br />
pleasure to ease through the gears and not be mean to the rev<br />
counter. It has more than enough oomph to roll on in the upper<br />
gears and find yourself in the speeds where you’d get arrested<br />
on any road. Being the petrol head I am since I pressed the<br />
starter on a diesel locomotive, this Kwak loosely embodies that<br />
experience when you touch the happy button on the right bar<br />
switchgear. Also, when the low RPM roll-on happens, the growl<br />
from the intake also reminds one that a good few Newtons<br />
on tap to tow you and your spousal unit around wherever you<br />
deem necessary with the ease of those loco’s pulling a load of<br />
freight out of Van Reenen’s.<br />
It’s there. Pitted against the S1000R, it’s obviously not an<br />
“apples with apples” comparison. Riding in close quarters with<br />
the audible exhaust notes, the ratios on the two naked bikes<br />
are near the same, but, the BMW having an extra few thousand<br />
RPM available to go a bit further in each gear. But, as we all<br />
know, straight roads don’t make fast riders, now do they…..<br />
In my humble opinion, the chassis on the Z is akin to the older<br />
incarnations of a Z; Tubular steel frame, comfy flat bars and<br />
enough credit in the ergonomics department to accommodate<br />
a short-ass such as myself and even a nephilim like Mr<br />
Hendley. The immediate feel of the Z900 is not like most of the<br />
nakeds that employ the use of a superbike-derived frame and<br />
suspension.<br />
It was awkwardly rigid, particularly when the tyres were<br />
pumped to 3.6BAR, but that was sorted out at the fuel stop<br />
close to Tonteldoos, where I discovered that if they were run<br />
on a slightly lower pressure around 2.2BAR, the tyres worked<br />
a treat and the feedback from the bumps, humps and potholes<br />
wasn’t inducing herniated C1, 2 and 3 discs. The ride was an<br />
absolute pleasure after that. Even the seat wasn’t bad for a<br />
whole day out!<br />
The brakes and suspension on the machine also go back to the<br />
era of upside down forks with laterally mounted callipers on the<br />
front. The formula works well and I’m taking for gospel that the<br />
suspension was set to factory settings, I have no confirmation<br />
of this. It was a tad on the hard side, but again, 64kg in the<br />
shade requires most suspension setups on most bikes to be<br />
dialled out a little for my weight. But, having noted that, they<br />
jobbed well and was actually surprisingly reassuring around<br />
the twisties and bumps wherever they may have crossed out<br />
paths. The standard brakes are fit for their purpose and need<br />
no special mention. It’s not a Z1000 and never will be.<br />
The Z900 is cut from a new cloth and its unique in design that<br />
some may call Spartan, but that’s not an issue. For around<br />
150k, the machine is a super all-rounder and will do what you<br />
ask of it, with the hardness and reliability of a Kawasaki that<br />
also needs no mention to those that know.
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