Kawasaki ZX-10Rs
£4000 vs £12,000
price of progress How an ’06 ZX-10R beats today’s best Words Matt Wildee Pics Jason Critchell
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Te Kawasaki ZX-10Rs cut and chase their way across the chilly winter countryside. Te newer bike is in front, leading the way as they tread the tightrope, towing the line between grip and slip that defines winter riding. Kev Smith and I are chasing the sun, trying to pretend it is summer and making the most of a drying tarmac. Kev is riding the latest, greatest ultratech 2011 ZX-10R. He’s got the traction control switched off and is arcing lines of rubber out of every slippery corner, covered in a debris of dried road salt. Talented little bastard. I’m on the old ZX-10R. By Christ it is fast. Its brawny midrange growling out of every corner, front lifting in the front three gears, chassis just about in check of this barely-controlled warp drive. Te way a ZX-10R delivers its power is full of anger and malevolence. Forget about midrange, this bike has midrage. Six years on and it’ll still rip your head off. It was 2006 when we first saw this ZX model hit the streets and in that time the world has changed. Tese day litre bikes have less midrange than they used to, more top end and the option of endless electronic controls. But there are no restrictions here. Everything about the old ZX-10R feels alive – throttle response instant at any rpm and the motor dominates everything, sending vibes and shakes through the chassis, sucking hard through the ram air, revs rising and falling instantaneously. It feels unrestrained, ready to break free. It resonates hooliganism.
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2011 Macau GP
WHERE LEGENDS FEAR TO TREAD The hairiest Macau GP ever had John McGuinness and event newcomer Michael Dunlop quaking in their Sidis Words & Pics Stephen Davison
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Te remnants of a typhoon that hit the former Portuguese colony on the south east coast of China made the 2011 Macau GP terrifying. Wet tyres weren’t even loaded into the air-freight crates that carry the bikes to the street circuit, a track considered too dangerous to ride in the wet. Te rain wiped out all of Tursday and Friday’s action and qualifying was run during the traditional Saturday afternoon race slot after more rain fell on Saturday morning. Te race itself was postponed until Sunday. Ten things got really nasty. Te series of car races that are run at Macau often disintegrate into carnage on the narrow streets and a couple of huge crashes left massive oil slicks at Lisboa Bend and at the terrifying 170mph Mandarin corner.
It was enough to spook TT winner Michael Dunlop, who was making his debut on the notoriously dangerous 3.8 mile Guia circuit on a Paul Bird Kawasaki ZX-10R. “I usually just fire my bike into a corner and if I get into a bit of bother I just hold on to her and use a bit of footpath or run on to the grass. You can’t do that here.” Hot, humid tension hung over the grid as the bikes returned after two sighting laps, but only one rider decided to pull in.
Obsession Yamaha R1
When you’ve reached the limits of fork technology, the only thing left to do is re-write the rules
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Words Alan Seeley Pics Tony Rabbitte
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Phase One GSX-R750 SRAD
Phase Words Jon Pearson Pics Rory Game
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The mission was to rebuild a championship winning GSX-R750 with original parts from the Phase One parts bin. The bin proved to be a pot of SRAD gold
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ndurance racing is about being unhealthily obsessed,” says Phase One team boss Russell Benney. “If you work with bikes you live that obsession, but if you involve yourself with an endurance racing team you take that to the next level.” Outside observers might think that you are living the dream, but this is a tough life. Mind-melting amounts of sleep deprivation, incredible attention to detail to enforce mechanical endurance, impeccable concentration when working to right a wrong at any hour of the day or night are all part of the job. And every aspect of these battle-won skills was employed in the rebuild of this amazing GSX-R750 endurance bike. Te M&P-sponsored, carbed Suzuki SRAD 750 was arguably Phase One at the peak of their powers. In 2000 they won their second of three world championships using this very bike. 000 41
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Kawasaki ZRX1200
the muscle with hustle The ZRX, or REX to its owners, has become a bona ďŹ de cult bike. And this is one of the best Words Gary Inman Pics Paul Bryant
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hen did Kawasaki’s ZRX change from a gaudy pastiche of a legendary bike ridden by blokes in urban camo trousers and Hein Gericke tribal pattern jackets into a credible, alternative street weapon? I missed the crossover, but it definitely has. Te Rex – as owners refer to the big retro – was always butch and had a cult following, always more than Yam’s XJR in the UK at least. But it seemed to be over-compensating for something. It was often referred to as a Z1000 on steroids and I never saw that as a good thing. It might have had physique, but it didn’t have real muscle. Beefed-up lumps and bumps appeared and it sold itself shamelessly on the historic connection. But with each year something more stylistically ridiculous is released (current Z1000 anyone? Nope? Don’t blame you) and now the ZRX looks almost restrained.
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