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80 Posts
so since my race bike is in the shop and i had a non refundable trackday, i decided to take my daily driver for a run at thunderhill.
report: what a truck!
compared to a gixxer, the z has no ground clearance, no top end power, no brakes, and no suspension. this was expected, but i was surprised how extreme the difference is.
the good news: all those things make it a hoot! where the gixxer is a precision tool for chasing lap times, the z is a holigan toy. its somewhere between a supersport and a supermoto. if you're not concerned about times, being able to explore its relatively low limits is fun. it bucks and weaves under braking, same on exit, not to mention easy wheelies due to the high riding position.
i had to enter wide and really square off corners to keep from pole vaulting off the peg! what you are seeing is the max lean possible with stock rearsets. you can see coming off corners that the z lacks top end power, i had it pinned shifting at redline, yet compared to my buddy's 636 kawi it looks like im going backwards. my fastest lap of the day was a 2:10 (the slow end of A group), which is around 15sec slower than average times on my gixxer 600.
the only aspect that had me regretting having the z at the track is lack of ground clearance. the pegs hit way earlier than anything else (due to them being so low and wide). the next to drag are, in order: the shifter, kickstand, brake lever, exhaust, engine (!). i didnt actually drag engine while riding, but as a test my friend and i lowered it to the ground just to check where everything was and sure enough the left side of the engine will hit not long after the peg. in the video you can see sparks, mainly in left turns from the kickstand. according to other riders, the sparks were actually pretty extreme at times. look at rearsets if you are planning to track your z.
i was running a set of street michelin power races. had a few slides from my own errors, but in general they hooked up great (not as great as dunlop 211's) and handling was very light and neutral. i had them at 23psi rear, 32 front.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoXoX_TEv0k
report: what a truck!
compared to a gixxer, the z has no ground clearance, no top end power, no brakes, and no suspension. this was expected, but i was surprised how extreme the difference is.
the good news: all those things make it a hoot! where the gixxer is a precision tool for chasing lap times, the z is a holigan toy. its somewhere between a supersport and a supermoto. if you're not concerned about times, being able to explore its relatively low limits is fun. it bucks and weaves under braking, same on exit, not to mention easy wheelies due to the high riding position.
i had to enter wide and really square off corners to keep from pole vaulting off the peg! what you are seeing is the max lean possible with stock rearsets. you can see coming off corners that the z lacks top end power, i had it pinned shifting at redline, yet compared to my buddy's 636 kawi it looks like im going backwards. my fastest lap of the day was a 2:10 (the slow end of A group), which is around 15sec slower than average times on my gixxer 600.
the only aspect that had me regretting having the z at the track is lack of ground clearance. the pegs hit way earlier than anything else (due to them being so low and wide). the next to drag are, in order: the shifter, kickstand, brake lever, exhaust, engine (!). i didnt actually drag engine while riding, but as a test my friend and i lowered it to the ground just to check where everything was and sure enough the left side of the engine will hit not long after the peg. in the video you can see sparks, mainly in left turns from the kickstand. according to other riders, the sparks were actually pretty extreme at times. look at rearsets if you are planning to track your z.
i was running a set of street michelin power races. had a few slides from my own errors, but in general they hooked up great (not as great as dunlop 211's) and handling was very light and neutral. i had them at 23psi rear, 32 front.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoXoX_TEv0k


