Bijoy Kumar’s blog: Kawasaki Z900RS is a perfect bike for a perfect motorcycling setting
The different types of likes riders have
Alright, imagine the perfect motorcycling setting. It is dawn, it is cold enough to feel comfortable in your jacket, the winding road is perfectly paved, there are crests on it that give you a glimpse of the bay ahead, up ahead in the distance you can see the shaft of light thrown by a light house and you know that there is a shop by it that will serve you freshly brewed coffee. Perfect enough? Allow me to ask you the big question? What will you be riding? The answer may differ from the Brough Superior to Ducati Panigale, depending on whom you are asking. Some prefer speed over everything else, some would prefer an upright stance, bit of history is what gives some the kicks and for some the way the motorcycle looks.
So, can we have a motorcycle that is fast, comfortable, for all age-groups to ride, has some glorious past to refer to and is handsome enough to tug your strings. I think Kawasaki has just launched the motorcycle that meets all the above virtues. And I am all set to rob the bank. The Kawasaki Z900RS rocks my boat so violently that it hurts. Just look at it, you will be forced to love the way this machine looks even if you are a millennial who thinks ‘naked’ is too sexist to label a motorcycle. Luckily the Z900RS has gone into production without drastic changes from the concept stage and that means lines that are faithful to the original. Let us take a closer look.
“The Kawasaki Z900RS rocks my boat so violently that it hurts.”
Though it is a tribute to the Z1, but Kawasaki engineers ensured that the motorcycle is contemporary when it comes to overall performance, ride and handling. The twin shocks at the rear would have looked good, but the fully adjustable monoshock was chosen to give the Z900RS better handling. Ditto, the inverted front shocks. The Z from the seventies had a four-into-two exhaust system, which has been dumped for a neat four-into-one unit that is lighter and performance oriented. It would have been easy to plonk the proven Z900 motor for this bike but they have altered the characteristics with a re-tuned ECU and a heavier flywheel – and it is all tuned to give a torquier ride and relaxed manners.
The vibration free feel of Z900RSw
The gear box changes are meant to continue the ‘calm and vibration free’ theme with shorter first gear and leggier sixth gear. While the round headlamps feature modern day LEDs, the indicators are not in line with the retro theme – something you can address in the after-market easily. The front brake features 300mm discs with four calipers and rear unit is a 250mm rotor and Kawasaki has given ABS as standard equipment. In short what Kawasaki has done is what the car industry tried in the first two decades of this century. The Mustang, Camaro and Challenger, and to some lesser extent the Beetle and Mini were reborn with contemporary mechanicals and safety features but paid tribute to the originals from a grand old era when it came to design. And yes, there is a café racer version in case you are drawn to bikini fairings.
That brings us to the price. I did the mathematics and that means this column does not end happily. The Kawasaki Z900RS retails under Rs 10 lakh in the US and it touches a whopping Rs 17 lakh on road in India. I realise that nostalgia does not come cheap, but this is bit too much for what is essentially a very desirable but not necessarily cutting-edge motorcycle. I want one desperately in candy tone orange or brown colour scheme. After all, the perfect Motorcycling setting deserves the perfect motorcycles, don’t they?
