It’s funny how a few bits of plastic can change the character of a bike. I’ve always admired Kawasaki’s Z1000 for its in-your-face streetfighter styling. With no windscreen or plastic fairings, all its manly looking metal is on view to give the Zed an aggro design that would make it a perfect prop in a Terminator movie.
Now the green team’s launched a fully-clothed version called the Z1000 SX, and suddenly the bike looks all grown up and respectable, like it’s wearing a tux. The addition of body panels and a three-position manually adjustable screen has definitely made the bike lose its hooligan edge, but it adds up to better long-distance touring ability. It also gets a nice big 19-litre fuel tank (four more than the Z1000) to extend its mileage between pitstops, and an optional pair of luggage panniers.
Selling for R124 995, including a two-year unlimited distance warranty, the SX is one of the market’s more affordable large sports tourers, aimed at riders whose budgets don’t quite stretch to bigger-engined mega tourers such as the BMW K1300 or Kawasaki GTR 1400. It’s much lighter and nimbler than those bikes too, giving the Z1000 SX more all-round appeal as a commuter and track bike.
In any case, unless you feel like breaking land speed records on every breakfast run, the Z1000SX has more than ample power and offers two-hundred-and-plenty ability on the open road.
It uses the same 1043cc four-cylinder engine as the Z1000, but with taller gearing to take advantage of the streamlined fairing. Power and torque outputs, at 101.5kW and 110Nm, are the same as the naked version. Though capable of highly illegal top speeds, the clothed Zed is more about bottom end grunt than outright scare-yourself-silly pace. It’s a user-friendly power delivery that pulls strongly from low down and doesn’t require over-enthusiastic revving.
As for the promised touring ability there were no false promises made, as this Zed is all about continent-crossing comfort. The seat is soft and comfy (my pillion passenger didn’t disagree either), and the handlebars are set high so you sit very upright without putting any weight on your wrists - in fact it’s perhaps a little too upright as I felt wind buffeting even with the screen in its highest position.
The back shock features rebound and preload adjustability, while the inverted 41mm front forks offer stepless compression and rebound damping along with spring preload adjustability.
I didn’t fiddle with the settings of the test bike as it delivered a cushy ride.
There was no chance to test it on the track but the SX felt adequately agile in the few direction changes I made on public roads.
Kawasaki says the SX will make a decent track bike and I have little reason to disagree as its 231kg mass is pretty light for a sports tourer.
The ABS-assisted brakes are excellent and the bike stops in a big hurry even with two people on board.
All round a well-sorted package. - Star Motoring