Kawasaki Z900RS, first glance

[Brockett]

I and two pals, went to the local dealer today and found they had one of the new Kawaski Z900RS. Hmmmm. Thay call it a retro model but with what looks like a single large LED headlight, upside down forks, and a mono shock rear. Radial caliper brakes, the lightest clutch I have ever operated and a nice four into one exhaust terminating in a smallish but nice endcan. However in keeping with the modern look a skimpy rear hugger that will allow the rear tyre to throw road filth an rain all over the shock and the rear of the bike, where it is really difficult to clean. The front mudguard is a plastic horror that is cut short so the front tyre can fling even more gritty filth and rain onto the headers and the front of the engine. The very pretty header pipes will not be pretty for long. Then came the killer. The saddle is wide and tall. It seems Kawasaki wanted to have a retro style one piece saddle and pillion. To achieve this the rider seating height has been jacked up to 800mm (31.5 inches). It is a nice looking saddle but my pals have 28 inch legs and although I am 31 (ish) mine are just weak and feeble. We were in agreement that we are not going to spend £10k  on a bike and have to rely on tippy toes when stopped. 
I wonder how many riders that seat will rule out.

[tallpaul]

  Rules me out. Far too low...

[Brockett]

 

[MartinW]

I could have one for each foot .....

[sharealike]

The retro stuff always attracts me so had a poke round one last month in Milan. Parked nose on to the original it looked nothing like it. From the side the tank, seat and tail were easy to spot as being loosely related. Once I sat on it the tank was soooooo flaming wide to cover the top of the engine it was uncomfortable. Well it was after all the nice new narrow V twins, parallel twins and singles which every manufacturer worth their salt were launching new retro versions of.

[vwee]

Brockett why worry if it gets filthy.This is a bike to pose on when the sun shines.the v strom/burgervan for every day use and the Harley for ploughing fields 
Talking of dirty my three month old nc750x DCT is covered in mud(half Honda jazz engine)definitely  not a slug.will wait for excel show and have a good look at it

[Brockett]

Engineers make things that work and then a stylist come along and ruins things with demands for trendy shapes and colours. Hence; beaks, spokes and the dreadful yellow slashes on current strom models.  (Hmmm yellow slash er... yep that just about sums it up)

[Rusty Nuts]

Horrible thing. Pointless. It's not, and never will be, the thing it's supposedly paying homage to. Like the bloated BMW "Mini" that will never be a Mini, and the stupid VW "Beetle".
They are missing the point. It worked in its time, and was of its time. In the words of Sam Goldwyn, let's have some new clichés.

[hotbulb]

My daughter has a Fiat 500 (I reckon a fair homage to the rear-engined original) which has a pretty small "boot" ...... I gather the BMW "Mini" has an even smaller boot. BMW must have tried really hard to achieve that in a car which takes up far more road space than the 500!

[doboy]

well I thought ..this is going to be if nothing else a great looking bike [ as the Z1 is ] but when they put that ZEPHYR 750 stubby tank on it , it just ruined the the look all together for me .. I'm not into retro stuff anyway no advancement .

[old git]

I thought I'd go down the retro route when trying to disentangle myself from the addictive performance of my Fireblade and bought one of the latest generation T120 Triumphs. A big mistake! After the initial novelty wore off I was left with a crap bike. It was uncomfortable, it had little ground clearance, it had pathetic suspension and brakes and it didn't have tubeless rims. The power was seriously lacking given it had a 1200cc engine and to top it off the materials and build quality would have embarassed the Chinese. The warranty wasn't worth the paper it was written on either.

For the money I spent on it I could have had a decent original T120 Bonneville that would more than likely have gained more value over time. It got traded in for the V-Strom which is the bike I should have bought for the Fireblade detox 

I'll never go down the retro route again. If I want the look of an old bike then I'll buy an old bike.

[doboy]

a while ago a saw this immaculate Suzuki 850 gt [ shaft drive one ] the thing was as new so had to have it as a second bike ...big mistake ...I hardly ever rode it . old brakes,  poor handling,  heavy ..no you cannot beat having something up to date .

[Rusty Nuts]

By all means get something up to date,  but don't get one that's trying to look like the ones we couldn't afford forty years ago. Lazy designers and a wallet-raping wave of nostalgia are stopping valid new bikes from hitting the showroom floor.

[old git]

a while ago a saw this immaculate Suzuki 850 gt [ shaft drive one ]

I remember them in the days when they were new and they were great bikes. How things change