Kawasaki Z900RS

[Ulvetanna_imp]

The tank on the Z900 is very wide at the front, with respect to the two "ears" which are nicely concealed by the scoops blending it with the larger radiator, which was needed to handle the much higher HP of the Z900s engine.

The extra capacity is done the same way KHI did it with the KLR650. Z900 is much wider at the front but had none of the styling concerns of the Z900RS.

It is what it is, the tank shape is probably not going to factor into the sales of the Z900RS in any meaningful way.

That bike, in fact, reminds me very much of the design of the A6M Zero, a very sleek, svelte single-engine aircraft. It made excellent use of the "French Curve" which is exactly what I am seeing on the Z900RS's tank.

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.

And, unfortunately, the veracity in that statement is exactly why I sold my 2013. It just didn't deliver the performance and handling I'd hoped for. By all accounts, the 2017 does just that.

KHI, I believe quite wisely, elected to build a bike that looks retro, to appeal to those grumpy old guys trying to recapture their lost youth, or to those noisome Millennials (who have no idea how things work but certainly know what looks cool).

But the Kawasaki is going to run like stink, they can ask about the same price for it, and not have a metric shipload of them unsold years later. The extra HP, lighter weight, and basically more impressive "spec sheet" once again is going to sell bikes.

I'm loving the 2017 EX and for my purposes would not purchase a Z900RS but many lovers of all things retro, who also ride, will gather themselves to the Z900RS enthusiastically. And have no regrets.

KHI will likely release the RS Cafe in the future; that's a bike that I really do love as far as the looks go.