The 2006 Kawasaki ZX-10R

Kawasaki built the first 1000cc sports motorcycle of the modern era and it has a proud heritage of building great road bikes. But along the way, Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki got very good at building them too, and nowadays with the World Superbike and European SuperStock Championships becoming so important, the competition between the manufacturers in the 1000cc supersport category has never been this strong – indeed, it’s downright carnivorous.

Last year all the manufacturers completely redesigned their machines, and this year, all but one will be doing the same again. This is an insight into the Kawasaki ZX1000D6F- next year’s Kawasaki 1000. The Yamaha and Honda machines have been covered here, and Suzuki has elected to continue with the same machine which will win the 2006 world and US superbike championship, albeit with a new coat of paint. The Kawasaki will be a completely new machine, with a brand new engine, chassis and aerodynamic makeover, a repositioned CG, revised stiffness, balance, new motor mounts, more centralised mass, and relocated swingarm pivot. Read on for the full story

When it comes to the Ninjas, Kawasaki has a simple goal: to ensure that every bike bearing the Ninja name is the number one racetrack performer in its category. As they do for all the Ninjas, Kawasaki engineers drew heavily from the latest technology, know-how from many years of developing supersport machines and there’s even a few hints from the factory’s MotoGP effort, though you wouldn’t expect the company to boast about its GP effort as it has been largely a lacklustre affair with a handful of podiums amongst a sea of Honda RC211V and Yamaha M1 machines. Nonetheless, the new Ninja ZX-10R is the latest expression of Kawasaki’s commitment to building the most exciting supersport bikes in the world and knowing the competition would be extremely tough, the ZX-10R is built to take Kawasaki back to the top of the supersport 1000cc class of 2006.

Accordingly, the Ninja 10R is getting a complete engine, chassis and aerodynamic makeover to ensure it remains competitive on the street and becomes competitive on the track.

Kawasaki’s men in white coats have found ways to unleash more power from the 10R’s engine. A thorough package of upgrades to reduce mechanical loss and improve combustion efficiency results in more power across the rev range (enough, in fact, to comfortably meet Euro-III emissions regulations while maintaining the awesome output of the ’05 model), with smoother, more linear delivery.

Power delivery

One of the most significant things Kawasaki has learned over the years is that on the racetrack, maximum power is important – but it isn’t everything. To go quickly on the track, the rider has to get into the turns smoothly, even under hard braking, he must be able to hold or even adjust his line mid-turn, and then be able to get the gas on early to make a strong corner exit – because it is this corner exit speed which ultimately decides how fast the rider can go down the straight.

To achieve these goals Kawasaki engineers and test riders took the tricks they learned from years of racing and developing supersport machines and applied them to the 10R’s chassis, thoroughly investigating both static and kinetic centres of gravity. They also redesigned the 10R’s power curve for more power in the mid range and more linear power delivery across the rpm range.

Cornering Performance

...continued