Total Motorcycle

Last year Kawasaki launched their all-new 2010 Z1000 super naked and while the opinions of fans vary from “aggressive and powerful” to “it could have shown better build quality”, nobody will ever call this motorcycle dulling. Kawasaki claims this is their stripped-down Ninja ZX-10R and while that’s an ostentatious way of putting things, we’ll talk about its most important features and much more after the break.

2010 kawasaki z1000
2010 kawasaki z1000
2010 kawasaki z1000

It seems that Kawasaki designed the Z1000 as a naked superbike and we have to admit they haven’t done such a bad job, but the possibilities for a much more refined appearance were endless. To begin with, the bike’s front end shouldn’t look like it is struggling to be mean because the bike itself unveils this sort of character when the engine goes vrooom. Also, the fork would have been better off without that thick shroud. We can understand the fact that this copes with the large nose, but when, from the side, your bike looks like a cougar attacking its prey, what you crave for are two thin legs with excellent road grabbing power.

We do appreciate the fact that Kawasaki designed it with ergonomics in mind and the thing looks like offering a rather natural riding position for the category. The 4.1 gallons fuel tank follows the shape of the frame and so it is positioned quite high. The good thing is that this determined designers to bring the bars even higher and closer to the rider, which is what brings a major contribution to the Z1000 serving as anything from a commuter to a weekend adrenaline supplier.