Kawasaki Z900RS

[johnf514_imp]

It's very obvious how intensively Triumph and Honda sweated the details with their retros, vs Kawi's passing nod to those same details. In the case of Triumph, their cooling fins are real fins—their functionality or lack thereof can be debated, but there is no debating that they are, in fact, actual fins—not merely tacked-on cosmetic protrusions, as they are on the Z900RS. There are no cables sloppily draped across the side of the motor on the Modern Classics, while the clutch cable just hangs right out there on the Kawi. They didn't even rout it out of sight, as Yamaha did with the clutch cable on my XSR. The Thruxton's remarkably skinny tank is as slender as the old ones were, while the Kawi's is a shapeless fat blob that splays the rider's knees out. Triumph did everything possible to hide the radiator, to such a degree that it's basically invisible from the side view. It's certainly not in the rider's line of sight from the saddle. The Kawi's radiator is an inelegant eyesore, made worse from the rider's point of view by the stark prominence of the radiator cap.

Bottom line, the Z900RS is Kawi's answer to the XSR. It's a thoroughly modern motorcycle based on an already-existent naked sportbike, with a few stylistic nods to the past. It's not a retro bike, at all. In that sense, it doesn't hold a candle to any version of the CB1100, either in retro-authenticity or, especially, attention to detail.

As for the tank on either version of the '17 CB1100, while it may not resemble the shape of the previous models, it is in no way fat, bulbous, or unattractive. Despite having the same capacity as the Kawi tank, it's so much more slender between the knees, and everywhere else. It's also artisan-level beautiful, with its smooth, seamless contours and ultra-rich, lustrous paintwork.

Agreed completely, and IMHO, does a much better job at bridging the gap between retro and modern. Happened to see a Z900RS on the road today and they look even better in motion.