customizedcreationz
Well-Known Member
Ok well maybe not so much. But I did get the ZX14 all put together finally, and rode around the parking lot on Saturday just to make sure things were good.
So today it was nice enough, roads dry enough and sun was out and we hit 51 degrees out! Heat wave, time for bathing suits and flip flops as my wife would say.
So I brought the bike home from my shop to my house which is 7 miles. Everything felt good. It was pretty windy and I got blow around a little, but for the first time on the road with it felt good. The bike is too tall for me, I will lower it atleast one inch if I keep the Concours seat on it. Which feels pretty damn good. Honestly probably one of the best stock seats I have sat on. Its off a 2010 Concours btw. The exhaust sounds good, not terribly loud, but has a good growl to it. I would almost think its quieter than the Marks exhaust I had on the Vmax.
So here is my quick 50 mile review so far.....
1 The bike is electric smooth shifting. Incredible clutch on this. No grab, good release and pull is like butter.
2 Shifting is what I think all bikes should be like. I can't think they could make the shifting any better. The Vmax ( gen 1 ) sucks ass. We all know it, and we deal with it. I don't care if you have undercut gears, and all brand new everything. It is what it is. This bike is just so smooth shifting I couldnt believe it. Firm enough to each gear, but no arguments from the trans shifting at any gear. My turbo Busa wasn't as smooth as this and it was smooth.
3 Brakes..... grab the whoa lever and you better be ready! That sucker is stunt rider ready. It will slow you down fast, and I mean REALLY FAST. It will take some getting used to since I have stock Vmax brakes and my Turbo and stock Busa's only had one rotor in front. This thing is like throw out the anchor.
4 Vibration.... what vibration? Girls wont like this bike, you better stick with your Hardley if that is her gig. Smooth, like the mattress commercial where they jump on the bed with the glass of wine smooth. I was cruising in town in 2nd gear and other than the motor being loud this thing was just nice.
5 Shifting and speeds.... Like my Busa you can't ride in town in 6th gear. Not that if you could you should anyways, but it is capable, but just doesn't feel right. Yes the motor makes 108-110 ft lbs of torque, but the way its geared, in town is 2-3 rd gear and on the highway at 55 mph, you could just stay in 5th gear. Higher speeds you can shift into 6 th gear. But I think it actually felt better cruising in 5th gear at 50 ish mph. Again not to say you can't drop it into 6th gear, but it doesn't seem like it was setup that way.
6 Suspension, well most of the roads were straight, and filled with pot holes and those pot holes were filled with water. So I avoided as much of those as I could. But still the normal riding, it felt solid and stable. I am sure once I set the bike up more for me it will feel even better and handle better. It feels if anything a little top heavy. And it turns in faster than I am used to. My turbo busa was 12+ over and slammed to the ground. You hit a toothpick on that bike you bottomed out it seemed like. So this is opposite ends of the spectrum for me. Again I ll have to get used to it.
7 Roll on, honestly felt a little soggy to me. 6th gear at 50 mph was sluggish. But again I have to map the bike out still, so it could be in the map, but I think its in the setup of the trans and gear ratios. Roll on from 4th gear at 50 mph was much better. And I guess at this point, to say what you expect from a roll on and what I expect from a roll on, is most likely two totally different things. My turbo bike, was sluggish, but not. It would hesitate for a split second and bam , turbo spooled and away you went to 165 mph in 25 feet. So the difference between this bike and my turbo bike at that type of hit, is completely different. So maybe I am going to have to work on that.
8 Power delivery.... people say, damn the Vmax is the fastest thing, it will rip your arms off, tire smoking 4th gear burnouts etc.... you have all heard the stories. My opinion is that the Gen 1 is far from that. Its powerful don't get me wrong, but when my son first learned to ride a street bike, he learned on my Vmax. People told me I was nuts, insane. I thought its all wrist control and respect. Even if you twisted the Vmax hard it wasn't brutal. Now to the ZX14. People say the same thing, lightening fast, eats small buildings with a single swallow. Well a 9.60 1/4 mph from a stock bike, yeah thats pretty fast. But again, its smooth, electric like. I wouldn't hesitate to put my son on this bike to learn to ride either. If you are good, the bike is tame, if your bad, the bike is an animal ( I hope to find out more about that ). But the power is there, passing anything on the road is no problem, but its not Vmax feeling. The Vmax feels raw, rough and brutal. Hence the reason why the legend's have grown crazy with exaggeration over the years. On the ZX you can get in trouble fast because its so smooth, its until you look down that you realize your doing 95 in a 35 zone with a couple quick blips and it doesn't feel like it. I like the Vmax power approach, reminds me of a big block Pontiac, just torque filled.
9 Ergonomics..... with the Connie seat ( which I got more for my wife than me ) I think this could be a 1000 mile all day bike without any issues. No back pain, no knee pain, no wrist pain. I am not sure what angle I want to be at with it. I feel like I would like to lean forward a little more. I think I liked the Busa ergo's for lean and position of my feet better. But that can be altered on this and I have time to figure it out as well.
10 Power.... ok yeah one of the things us speed freaks want to read first. So I left it for last. The roads are cold, and with bikes with this much power and short of a wheel base, being careful is something I learned. The Vmax ( gen 1 ) you can hammer on a cold day like this and you might get a little wheel spin ( if you have something like a Metzler tire on it ) and have some fun. It won't kill you and you can handle pretty good if your not outrageously stupid. I just wasn't sure enough on this bike and I didn't want to dump or hurt myself 5 hours before I am leaving. So I kept myself under control. No full throttle runs in any gear. I did blip the throttle at 40 mph in second gear and the front end came up under power ( no clutch ) easily. I only let it ride up a few inches, but pulling a full 12 oclock wheelie I would guarantee would not be a problem in 2nd gear without any clutch and without any ability. So if you can't wheelie, you will flip this bike over I believe. It will wheelie if you think about it and I think that is one reason alot of people say they can beat big bikes like this and the Busa, they are just harder to control and keep the front end down. I didn't go past 6 grand on the bike, just a couple quick blips here and there to see how it felt. I did touch 120 mph with one quick blip and I was in 6th gear fast. Honestly it didn't feel crazy like the turbo bike. So that might take getting used to. The turbo bike was just filled with a bunch of screw you and then some. And without really "getting on it" so to speak, maybe this one will feel somewhat like that. But I honestly doubt that. It feels fast, yet very tame at the same time. Which might make it harder to ride because it will be faster than you think it is. The turbo bike, it was faster than any time you could think it was. That was a bike you had to be careful and make sure you were planted in the seat if you throttled it hard, or you would fly off the back of it, I almost did once rounding a corner and hitting a bump. I found myself after riding my Busa's and hopping back on the Gen 1 watching the speedo and thinking, thats it.... 5th gear and I am only at 125 mph and climbing like a minute hand on a watch? These big hyper bikes are like watching a tenth stop watch or faster. My turbo bike was as fast from 0-100 as it was 100-195. No different, it just pulled like Speedy Gonzalez on crack. So honestly I am excited and somewhat disappointed that the ZX is not raw and rough feeling, but also happy that its not raw and rough feeling.
To me this bike feels like a smooth refined machine. And honestly I am getting old and I kinda like that, but at the same time I miss that in your face your going to die feeling. So I have a sneaking suspicion that another turbo bike maybe be in the future. And I can honestly say, unless something changes my mind, I WONT turbo this bike. I ll get something else and keep this as a daily rider.
All in all I couldn't be happier to have the bike out today and play.
Oh .....
Number 11.... I almost forgot, wind protection. That is one thing you don't have on a Vmax and I don't miss that. This bike with a double bubble wind screen is awesome, I had jeans and my heavy armored leather and my armored gloves on. I was fine. When the sun went down it started to get cold, but I think I was just excited to be riding too.
So that is it for now, I ll keep you updated as I head on down to Daytona and ride the Dragon's Tail!
Todd out!!!!!
So today it was nice enough, roads dry enough and sun was out and we hit 51 degrees out! Heat wave, time for bathing suits and flip flops as my wife would say.
So I brought the bike home from my shop to my house which is 7 miles. Everything felt good. It was pretty windy and I got blow around a little, but for the first time on the road with it felt good. The bike is too tall for me, I will lower it atleast one inch if I keep the Concours seat on it. Which feels pretty damn good. Honestly probably one of the best stock seats I have sat on. Its off a 2010 Concours btw. The exhaust sounds good, not terribly loud, but has a good growl to it. I would almost think its quieter than the Marks exhaust I had on the Vmax.
So here is my quick 50 mile review so far.....
1 The bike is electric smooth shifting. Incredible clutch on this. No grab, good release and pull is like butter.
2 Shifting is what I think all bikes should be like. I can't think they could make the shifting any better. The Vmax ( gen 1 ) sucks ass. We all know it, and we deal with it. I don't care if you have undercut gears, and all brand new everything. It is what it is. This bike is just so smooth shifting I couldnt believe it. Firm enough to each gear, but no arguments from the trans shifting at any gear. My turbo Busa wasn't as smooth as this and it was smooth.
3 Brakes..... grab the whoa lever and you better be ready! That sucker is stunt rider ready. It will slow you down fast, and I mean REALLY FAST. It will take some getting used to since I have stock Vmax brakes and my Turbo and stock Busa's only had one rotor in front. This thing is like throw out the anchor.
4 Vibration.... what vibration? Girls wont like this bike, you better stick with your Hardley if that is her gig. Smooth, like the mattress commercial where they jump on the bed with the glass of wine smooth. I was cruising in town in 2nd gear and other than the motor being loud this thing was just nice.
5 Shifting and speeds.... Like my Busa you can't ride in town in 6th gear. Not that if you could you should anyways, but it is capable, but just doesn't feel right. Yes the motor makes 108-110 ft lbs of torque, but the way its geared, in town is 2-3 rd gear and on the highway at 55 mph, you could just stay in 5th gear. Higher speeds you can shift into 6 th gear. But I think it actually felt better cruising in 5th gear at 50 ish mph. Again not to say you can't drop it into 6th gear, but it doesn't seem like it was setup that way.
6 Suspension, well most of the roads were straight, and filled with pot holes and those pot holes were filled with water. So I avoided as much of those as I could. But still the normal riding, it felt solid and stable. I am sure once I set the bike up more for me it will feel even better and handle better. It feels if anything a little top heavy. And it turns in faster than I am used to. My turbo busa was 12+ over and slammed to the ground. You hit a toothpick on that bike you bottomed out it seemed like. So this is opposite ends of the spectrum for me. Again I ll have to get used to it.
7 Roll on, honestly felt a little soggy to me. 6th gear at 50 mph was sluggish. But again I have to map the bike out still, so it could be in the map, but I think its in the setup of the trans and gear ratios. Roll on from 4th gear at 50 mph was much better. And I guess at this point, to say what you expect from a roll on and what I expect from a roll on, is most likely two totally different things. My turbo bike, was sluggish, but not. It would hesitate for a split second and bam , turbo spooled and away you went to 165 mph in 25 feet. So the difference between this bike and my turbo bike at that type of hit, is completely different. So maybe I am going to have to work on that.
8 Power delivery.... people say, damn the Vmax is the fastest thing, it will rip your arms off, tire smoking 4th gear burnouts etc.... you have all heard the stories. My opinion is that the Gen 1 is far from that. Its powerful don't get me wrong, but when my son first learned to ride a street bike, he learned on my Vmax. People told me I was nuts, insane. I thought its all wrist control and respect. Even if you twisted the Vmax hard it wasn't brutal. Now to the ZX14. People say the same thing, lightening fast, eats small buildings with a single swallow. Well a 9.60 1/4 mph from a stock bike, yeah thats pretty fast. But again, its smooth, electric like. I wouldn't hesitate to put my son on this bike to learn to ride either. If you are good, the bike is tame, if your bad, the bike is an animal ( I hope to find out more about that ). But the power is there, passing anything on the road is no problem, but its not Vmax feeling. The Vmax feels raw, rough and brutal. Hence the reason why the legend's have grown crazy with exaggeration over the years. On the ZX you can get in trouble fast because its so smooth, its until you look down that you realize your doing 95 in a 35 zone with a couple quick blips and it doesn't feel like it. I like the Vmax power approach, reminds me of a big block Pontiac, just torque filled.
9 Ergonomics..... with the Connie seat ( which I got more for my wife than me ) I think this could be a 1000 mile all day bike without any issues. No back pain, no knee pain, no wrist pain. I am not sure what angle I want to be at with it. I feel like I would like to lean forward a little more. I think I liked the Busa ergo's for lean and position of my feet better. But that can be altered on this and I have time to figure it out as well.
10 Power.... ok yeah one of the things us speed freaks want to read first. So I left it for last. The roads are cold, and with bikes with this much power and short of a wheel base, being careful is something I learned. The Vmax ( gen 1 ) you can hammer on a cold day like this and you might get a little wheel spin ( if you have something like a Metzler tire on it ) and have some fun. It won't kill you and you can handle pretty good if your not outrageously stupid. I just wasn't sure enough on this bike and I didn't want to dump or hurt myself 5 hours before I am leaving. So I kept myself under control. No full throttle runs in any gear. I did blip the throttle at 40 mph in second gear and the front end came up under power ( no clutch ) easily. I only let it ride up a few inches, but pulling a full 12 oclock wheelie I would guarantee would not be a problem in 2nd gear without any clutch and without any ability. So if you can't wheelie, you will flip this bike over I believe. It will wheelie if you think about it and I think that is one reason alot of people say they can beat big bikes like this and the Busa, they are just harder to control and keep the front end down. I didn't go past 6 grand on the bike, just a couple quick blips here and there to see how it felt. I did touch 120 mph with one quick blip and I was in 6th gear fast. Honestly it didn't feel crazy like the turbo bike. So that might take getting used to. The turbo bike was just filled with a bunch of screw you and then some. And without really "getting on it" so to speak, maybe this one will feel somewhat like that. But I honestly doubt that. It feels fast, yet very tame at the same time. Which might make it harder to ride because it will be faster than you think it is. The turbo bike, it was faster than any time you could think it was. That was a bike you had to be careful and make sure you were planted in the seat if you throttled it hard, or you would fly off the back of it, I almost did once rounding a corner and hitting a bump. I found myself after riding my Busa's and hopping back on the Gen 1 watching the speedo and thinking, thats it.... 5th gear and I am only at 125 mph and climbing like a minute hand on a watch? These big hyper bikes are like watching a tenth stop watch or faster. My turbo bike was as fast from 0-100 as it was 100-195. No different, it just pulled like Speedy Gonzalez on crack. So honestly I am excited and somewhat disappointed that the ZX is not raw and rough feeling, but also happy that its not raw and rough feeling.
To me this bike feels like a smooth refined machine. And honestly I am getting old and I kinda like that, but at the same time I miss that in your face your going to die feeling. So I have a sneaking suspicion that another turbo bike maybe be in the future. And I can honestly say, unless something changes my mind, I WONT turbo this bike. I ll get something else and keep this as a daily rider.
All in all I couldn't be happier to have the bike out today and play.
Oh .....
Number 11.... I almost forgot, wind protection. That is one thing you don't have on a Vmax and I don't miss that. This bike with a double bubble wind screen is awesome, I had jeans and my heavy armored leather and my armored gloves on. I was fine. When the sun went down it started to get cold, but I think I was just excited to be riding too.
So that is it for now, I ll keep you updated as I head on down to Daytona and ride the Dragon's Tail!
Todd out!!!!!
