I went to Americade last Friday with Shelley and met Scott and a couple others up there. A primary reason she wanted to go up was to get a jacket and accomplished that. I’m kinda envious. She had signed up for a demo ride, sort of talked into this particular ZZR600 by the guy at the signup table actually. The bike is very similar to Joann's but Shelley was leery of taking it out since it differs so much from hers, and I was just as glad about that since this bike was in the sportbike line-up and not the cruiser grouping, so she would have been on the ride with the people like me. She decided to head home around 13:30 and from following up, claims to have had a good time, so I'll accept that.
Me, well, I went out on the 13:30 ride on the ZX-10R, and it is without doubt, the most amazing motorcycle I've ever been on. It is far too much motorcycle for street use, but I could make due in a pinch. It is 20lbs heavier than the ZX-6R but they claim 184hp (more like 164 bhp, but who's counting) . This thing accelerates like a rocket without even getting into it's powerband, has great brakes to haul it back down and handles phenomenally. You can make the numbers on the digital speedometer spin up in a blur and it was kinda mesmerizing to watch them move. Only problem I noticed was that it's just about impossible to be smooth in 1st gear. Going in and out of Roaring Brook Ranch (where the demo rides start/finish) in first, the drive-line lash is pretty severe, so if you just think about the throttle the bike either lurches forward or falls on it's nose. I guess that's a function of so much power, so just put it in second.
I sat with Scott and Luke after my ride was over, regaling them with tales of the ZX10R, which neither had ridden all week. As we waited around for my 15:00 ride, the one in-between came back and a few seconds later we heard this woman in 1-piece leather riding suit bitching loudly to the the factory guys about some slug she got stuck behind. It's possible that she was behind him all along or maybe worst of all, he got ahead of her when they bunched up at the first stop sign. She was livid. Going on about how this guy couldn't ride in formation and couldn't corner and couldn't ride worth a damn and you aren't supposed to pass in line and why doesn't Kawasaki monitor who they put out on their bikes and on and on for I'll bet 3 solid minutes. Then about a minute later we could hear her again as she was walking away and someone made the mistake of asking how she liked the bike and she said the bike was great and then launched into her issues again. I've had that happen, so I can feel her pain....
I took the ZX-6R out at 15:00 and there was a no-show for the ZX-10R in line right in front of me and the ZX-12R in the other line, so Scott got the 12 and Luke got the ZX-10. I was the 4th bike behind the lead rider and our group split at me. The guy behind me on the ZZR1200R faded like a distant memory about half a dozen turns into the ride, and before he disappeared, I could see in my mirrors that the ZX-10R behind him was falling back... We were flying down the road to exit 20 and even with one 1/4 mile stretch couldn't see anyone behind us. We slowed down to a crawl about a mile before the exit and then finally had to pull off the road to let everyone regroup. We subsequently got split *ahem* just behind me again as we were taking the light to get on the Northway for a blitz from 20 to 22. Since there were only a handful of us through the light, and the lead rider deduced that the other 2 factory riders got stuck, back there, he opened it up to around 100mph on the Northway.
Except for the part out on the Northway, anytime we were on secondaries or even the ramps, I could easily keep up with Luke and since I often corner faster, I was constantly having to make sure I didn't run him over as we approached the turns. I could have taken him anytime with the 6. I love that bike.
From my own back to back rides, I was very careful with the ZX-10R (though the guy behind me was never on my tail....) but with the ZX-6R being tamer, I was able to ride that much more aggressively; just crank the throttle open and the power was much more manageable than on the 10. But alas, the 6-series has been supplanted after all these years by the ZX-10R. While I still had a blast on the smaller bike, the 10 is soooo nice and it just feels so much more substantial all the way around. It is The Bike. I still think a 750 would split the difference nicely though.
I didn't get any other rides as no one else had the courtesy to not show up. Oh, I could have had some 1600 Mean something or other with floorboards that went empty, but I would have just been a menace out there, wallowing through the corners, trying to figure out how to steer the thing... Homey don't do cruisers :)
After that I ate a bunch of hotdogs and worked on my sunburn and Scott and I headed back around 17:30, after they all went out on a Honda snooze-fest. While I was waiting for them to return, I sat on the CBR1000RR Honda brought along, but never lets anyone take out. It would be nice if the others brought the serious stuph to compare against the Kawi's. I'd reeeeeeally like to run the new GSXRs, but only Kawasaki brings the real bikes and lets Joe Public at 'em. Even Americade isn't perfect.
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