All Tests – 2014 Kawasaki Z1000SX Test Drive: Everything is Under Control! – The first electronic Zed

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2014 Kawasaki Z1000SX review: everything is under control !

All Tests - 2014 Kawasaki Z1000SX Test Drive: Everything is Under Control! - The first electronic Zed

The new version of the Kawasaki Z1000SX will be available in dealerships in December, but MNC has already been able to discover Akashi’s sporty road roadster (!) On the occasion of its European presentation, organized near Vienna (Austria).. A little waltz ?

The first electronic Zed

The other master asset of the Z1000SX 2014 has been carefully worked by the Japanese: its engine! The 1043 cc 4-cylinder retains most of its basic characteristics (see our technical and commercial sheet on the next page), but the mechanics and electronics are evolving.

It doesn’t take more than a kilometer to realize that the engine of the new Z1000SX is still so tasty. The big 4-legged purrs under 1,500 rpm at 30 km / h in sixth gear and sets off again without hiccuping, whether we relaunch it with a light trickle of gas or if we wring the handle wildly.

Perfectly docile, the Kawa block becomes wilder as soon as the needle exceeds 3500 rev / min. For 2014, the values ​​of the intake camshaft have also been revised: "lift of 8.5 mm instead of 8.8 previously and duration of 270 ° against 275 °", specify the Greens.

On paper, these new settings consolidate the low and mid revs. The adoption of four intake horns of equal length – against two short and two long on the previous generation – pursues the same objective, as do the connections between the exhaust pipes of oval section and no longer round….

On the road, the new Z1000SX – which already had no shortage of trunk in its old version – is extremely convincing in this 2014 version! So much so that sports bike enthusiasts will certainly not be disappointed by the acceleration of this apprentice Ninja.

The vigor of the revs is also reinforced by a more expressive air box, equipped with two additional openings and a new "resonator with its sixteen holes"(!). Without reaching the vocalizations of the" short "Z1000, the SX – with its pretty pots – now sings better when the mid-revs arrive..

Like the 2011 model, the 2014 engine strikes a second blow by exceeding 6,000 rpm and rushes fiercely toward the red zone, 5,000 rpm higher. Kawasaki indicates a maximum power of 142 hp and a maximum torque of 115 Nm, i.e. 4 hp and 5 Nm more than before.

According to Japanese engineers, these increases are mainly due to new machining of the cylinders limiting pumping losses. You can not stop progress !

On the handlebars, the gain is likely to go unnoticed, even among owners (non-French, of course) of the first model. The Z1000SX was already pushing very hard in high revs yesterday, and it will still be tomorrow. But for the Japanese, the essential is not there…

"We especially sought to make the bike more responsive, to offer a more instantaneous engine response.", affirm the responsible Kawasaki. The central ECU has been reprogrammed in this direction and the Japanese engineers must be congratulated on this point..

Energetic, the recoveries of the road – very – sporty certainly are, but they are very cleverly careful not to be brutal. Whether he is in the middle of a hairpin or full angle in a beautiful curve, the pilot is never bothered by a jerk and opens the throttle in peace..

The serenity aboard the Z1000SX is not however total when the needle crosses half of the tachometer. While small vibrations tickle the sneakers – much less the boots – at around 4,000 rpm, nasty sizzles rise towards the tank and itch thighs at 6,000 rpm…

According to Kawasaki, it is on purpose that the counterbalance does not eliminate all the vibrations, because "they participate in the impression of acceleration, increasing with engine speed". But for Site, if these tingling is acceptable during the acceleration phases, they are not at a constant rate..

Aware of the inconvenience, Kawasaki has all the same lengthened the sixth report for 2014 (from 25/22 to 31/28, the other ratios are not modified) in order to delay the appearance of tingling. Unfortunately, the Z1000SX still vibrates too much on the highway: to stall at 140 km / h "counter", it is necessary to run the engine at 6000 rpm, a speed where the beast begins to shudder.

As this first test of the new 2014 Z1000SX took place under excellent weather conditions, traction control (K-TRC) did not have too difficult a task. If modes 1 and 2 let the front wheel gradually take off from the ground, mode 3 automatically condemns any load shedding: everything is under control !

Much more restrictive, this third level of the K-TRC slightly moderates the sharp acceleration: on the first two gears, the yellow indicator at the top of the panel flashes several times and we hear the gentle interventions of the system on the ” ignition, then on the injection and the secondary butterflies if necessary.

No Z800SX, but a Z1000SX Tourer ?

Also available on the brand‘s sports cars (Ninja 600, 1000 and 1400), on the 1400GTR and on the trail derived from the Z1000, the Versys 1000, the power mode L (for "Low", F for "Full") efficiently the formidable 4-cylinder.

A little less responsive but above all less powerful (about 70% of 142 hp in the free world), the Z1000SX takes on the air of "Z800SX" … A little sister that some bikers – Site readers! – would like to welcome among them soon…

"This motorcycle is not on the program", however indicates Antoine Coulon, marketing and press director at Kawasaki France. The Z1000SX may well be a bestseller in England (one Kawasaki sale in three across the Channel, it seems!) and in Germany, the volumes that a Z800SX would generate do not are not enough.

The commercial failure of the Z750S does not encourage the Greens to (re) try the experiment. "In France, you have to realize that the streamlined version of the Er-6 only represents one in ten sales", Coulon San argues:"the young clientele swears by the roadster !"

At Kawasaki, bikers who want to combine sport and – relative – comfort therefore have no choice but to buy a Z1000SX. Invoiced 12,499 euros in its old version, the first "electronic Zed" available from the beginning of December 2013 will suffer a "slight increase not precisely known", tell us the Greens.

A Tourer pack may appear in the Kawasaki France online catalog, "this offer is not yet valid", warns us the French staff. Can customers expect a Z1000SX ABS with suitcases for less than 14,000 euros? Here again, the suspense remains."A big launch party will be organized the second week of December (just after the Paris Motor Show) in all of France"… To be continued on MNC: stay connected !

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