Kawasaki Z900RS

[the Ferret]

Here's another view of that tank from the rear

[VLJ_imp]

mickey, the views from above and from the front reveal just how squat and bulbous that tank really is. From the front it looks like a turtle shell, or a beetle. It's just a shapeless blob...







Now, compare that tank to the Z900's, which offers the same 4.5-gallon capacity...







So much shapelier, and narrower where it needs to be narrower.

[Capo]

So I stopped by the mega- brand dealership in Thousand Oaks today ( I’m in SoCal this week) and scoped out the RS, took a good long look, straddled it, took in all the details. I had done so in NJ at the reveal, but driven by this thread, I felt it was time to take another look.

Man, that tank is seriously swollen. It’s a really attractive bike, especially from certain angles, but they missed the mark, IMHO, especially considering how sleek the original Zed was. I’m not keen on the new CB tank either. I’m wondering if the Kardashians are involved in the retro fat tank trend.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Guth_imp]

So I stopped by the mega- brand dealership in Thousand Oaks today ( I’m in SoCal this week) and scoped out the RS, took a good long look, straddled it, took in all the details. I had done so in NJ at the reveal, but driven by this thread, I felt it was time to take another look.

Man, that tank is seriously swollen. It’s a really attractive bike, especially from certain angles, but they missed the mark, IMHO, especially considering how sleek the original Zed was. I’m not keen on the new CB tank either. I’m wondering if the Kardashians are involved in the retro fat tank trend.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Seriously swollen, lol — that's perfect.

Whether your talking about a motorcycle, a car or any number of other products, creating lines that make them look attractive from any angle while remaining functional is incredibly challenging.

Kawasaki had a tall task in trying to incorporate some of the visual DNA of the sexy Z bikes from the early 70's. I like the brown/orange combo the best on this bike. From some angles they make it work as much as they can while still attempting to scratch out the level of performance that a lot of people want from these bikes. So while I don't care for the large gap created by the suspension travel and the 17" rear wheel, and while the 17's wheels look a bit funky given some of the retro styling cues, I do like the design of the wheels. This awkwardness is compensated by the performance gains made. Obviously Kawasaki isn't trying to sell this bike to someone who rides like me, lol. But man, when it comes to the top view or the front view in particular, that tank just sticks out like a sore thumb (a swollen sore thumb). I look at it and I just can't help but think about that mushroom dude from the Mario video games my son played when he was young, lol. So disappointing. On the plus side, the exhaust looks great. Not so much the header pipes, but from that point on this is one of the most attractive production exhausts that I've seen in a long time. I dig the seat and flared rear fender cowl as well. The bullet clocks are a nice nod to the past. I wish they would have done a better job with the fenders. Those old Z's had one of the most cool looking front fenders ever. I can't say the same for the RS. Still, I think of this bike as a modern standard with some retro touches and from most accounts it sounds like it's a fun bike to ride for the most part. I do find it interesting overall and will be curious to see how well this bike sells

The other bike I would most likely compare the Z900RS to would likely be the Triumph Thruxton R, not quite so much from the specific styling but more from the standpoint of intent. Both bikes are retro-styled but not really truly retro. They've made a number of modern sacrifices for the sake of performance gains and appeal to guys who like a decent dose of retro with more modern day performance. Despite all of my recent voiced frustration over certain marketing decisions made by Triumph, I have to give them credit for doing a really good job with all of their "Modern Classic" bikes the past few years from a styling perspective. I saw the Thruxton R in person not too long after it was released so I could walk all around it and take it in from all angles. The only thing that I winced at was the radiator. No matter how hard anyone has tried, I've yet to see an attractive radiator. While Triumph hid it as well as possible, looking at the bike from the front 3/4 view was the only thing that really gave me pause. As with the Kawasaki, the large gap is there in the rear, but again Triumph had more serious performance oriented intentions in mind with this bike. (Yet another one that would be wasted on someone like me.) In case of the Triumph, the use of spokes does help visually compensate for the fact that these are only 17" wheels. Ignoring the radiator, this bike looks good from all angles and they obviously made significant performance gains by going with the water cooling. I prefer the silver paint scheme on the Thruxton R. It's obvious that Triumph put a lot of time into the design of this bike.

Triumph took a big gamble by ditching their air-cooled retro bikes in lieu of the new water-cooled machines and they obviously have succeeded with that move. The other thing notable about the new Bonnies was how small/compact everything looks. Nothing swollen, lol. I made the same observation about the late 60's Triumphs whenever they very first caught me eye earlier on in life. Those particular bikes, as I've stated before, remain perhaps the most beautiful motorcycles of all to my eye. Now if Triumph were to place the smaller sized tank shape from the Street Twin on the current T100, that would be the most attractive combination in my mind and come the closest to matching the look of those late 60's designs that appealed so much to me.

Creating a tank with sufficient capacity to appeal to guys who like to ride for longer stretches of distance rarely works out well from a styling standpoint. To get much beyond 3.5 gallons requires a lot of visual compromises for functional gains. I'm with Capo on the new CB tank I've personally never cared whether or not a tank has visible seams or not, in fact I never gave it any thought until I read other people talking about it so that's not a positive or a negative for me. I suppose the thing about the new CB tank is that it just doesn't remind me of any of the old Hondas. It looks much more modern than the rest of the bike. In fact, the only vintage bikes that I'm reminded of by the new CB tank are the the old Ducatis with the jelly mold tanks. I understand that lot of people find those bikes very beautiful, but they just didn't hold as much appeal to me.

[use2b_imp]

I set on one a few weeks back . was so excited to finally see one but was disappointed when i got up close and then on it.
the big tank does not hide that radiator which sticks out both sides where i am use to seeing engine hanging out.
that cap is out there isn't it ? looks like it is begging to be messed with and the radiator hose looks like an after thought.
might just be me but i got off thinking the only thing it has going is the paint job.

[VLJ_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.

[nhawk7504_imp]

The black Z900RS is my desktop wallpaper. Wheelbase. Tank has to fit in there somewhere. Longer tank is longer wheelbase and they really wanted the bike to ride well. 65 pounds lighter and than the CB11. Retro shocks don't work well. At 160 lbs I am lucky if TWO heavy springs work at all for me. My TU250 shocks were perfect for me. Most Harleys don't even squat at all when I sit on them. - I like both bikes. I go HARD into corners sometimes. Advantage 17 inch wheeled bike. Highway lazy cruise - advantage Honda with it's weight. I HAVE TO get Ohlins for the CB. The Harley ZR1200 shocks were MUCH better. I rode my friend's like a demon. The CB has that motor. The sounds of air cooled. The bottom end pull. The clean look. The new EX is a museum piece in person. The old tank was very 80s. I did not like 80's square looks, cars, bikes, the whole 9. All said and done, I like both bikes. I can't say one is better. I'd ride both if I had the money. Like shoes, the other one on opposite days. Gotta have two pairs my Dad said. Just like in the Army.

[VLJ_imp]

nhawk7504, the Z900 has a shorter wheelbase than the Z900RS, and the tank capacities are identical, yet the Z900's tank is significantly sleeker and slimmer. The Ninja 1000's wheelbase is shorter than the Z900RS's and its tank is a half-gallon larger, and still its tank is more slender than the RS's.

The wheelbase is not the reason for the fat, bulbous tank on the Z900RS. Kawi simply did a poor job with its design. They made no effort to give it any contouring.

As for dual shocks not working well, particularly for a 160 lb rider, go take a spin on a '17 CB1100. Specifically, a '17 model, not the previous-year models. City streets, highways, smooth sweepers or gnarled canyon twisties, ride them all on the new CB1100. I think you'll discover that dual shocks properly designed can work very well. I can tell you that the suspension on my '17 CB works better than the vast majority of single-shock designs from every other bike I've owned.

[Ulvetanna_imp]

So I stopped by the mega- brand dealership in Thousand Oaks today ( I’m in SoCal this week) and scoped out the RS, took a good long look, straddled it, took in all the details. I had done so in NJ at the reveal, but driven by this thread, I felt it was time to take another look.

Man, that tank is seriously swollen. It’s a really attractive bike, especially from certain angles, but they missed the mark, IMHO, especially considering how sleek the original Zed was. I’m not keen on the new CB tank either. I’m wondering if the Kardashians are involved in the retro fat tank trend.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Seriously swollen, lol — that's perfect.

Whether your talking about a motorcycle, a car or any number of other products, creating lines that make them look attractive from any angle while remaining functional is incredibly challenging.

Kawasaki had a tall task in trying to incorporate some of the visual DNA of the sexy Z bikes from the early 70's. I like the brown/orange combo the best on this bike. From some angles they make it work as much as they can while still attempting to scratch out the level of performance that a lot of people want from these bikes. So while I don't care for the large gap created by the suspension travel and the 17" rear wheel, and while the 17's wheels look a bit funky given some of the retro styling cues, I do like the design of the wheels. This awkwardness is compensated by the performance gains made. Obviously Kawasaki isn't trying to sell this bike to someone who rides like me, lol. But man, when it comes to the top view or the front view in particular, that tank just sticks out like a sore thumb (a swollen sore thumb). I look at it and I just can't help but think about that mushroom dude from the Mario video games my son played when he was young, lol. So disappointing. On the plus side, the exhaust looks great. Not so much the header pipes, but from that point on this is one of the most attractive production exhausts that I've seen in a long time. I dig the seat and flared rear fender cowl as well. The bullet clocks are a nice nod to the past. I wish they would have done a better job with the fenders. Those old Z's had one of the most cool looking front fenders ever. I can't say the same for the RS. Still, I think of this bike as a modern standard with some retro touches and from most accounts it sounds like it's a fun bike to ride for the most part. I do find it interesting overall and will be curious to see how well this bike sells

The other bike I would most likely compare the Z900RS to would likely be the Triumph Thruxton R, not quite so much from the specific styling but more from the standpoint of intent. Both bikes are retro-styled but not really truly retro. They've made a number of modern sacrifices for the sake of performance gains and appeal to guys who like a decent dose of retro with more modern day performance. Despite all of my recent voiced frustration over certain marketing decisions made by Triumph, I have to give them credit for doing a really good job with all of their "Modern Classic" bikes the past few years from a styling perspective. I saw the Thruxton R in person not too long after it was released so I could walk all around it and take it in from all angles. The only thing that I winced at was the radiator. No matter how hard anyone has tried, I've yet to see an attractive radiator. While Triumph hid it as well as possible, looking at the bike from the front 3/4 view was the only thing that really gave me pause. As with the Kawasaki, the large gap is there in the rear, but again Triumph had more serious performance oriented intentions in mind with this bike. (Yet another one that would be wasted on someone like me.) In case of the Triumph, the use of spokes does help visually compensate for the fact that these are only 17" wheels. Ignoring the radiator, this bike looks good from all angles and they obviously made significant performance gains by going with the water cooling. I prefer the silver paint scheme on the Thruxton R. It's obvious that Triumph put a lot of time into the design of this bike.

Triumph took a big gamble by ditching their air-cooled retro bikes in lieu of the new water-cooled machines and they obviously have succeeded with that move. The other thing notable about the new Bonnies was how small/compact everything looks. Nothing swollen, lol. I made the same observation about the late 60's Triumphs whenever they very first caught me eye earlier on in life. Those particular bikes, as I've stated before, remain perhaps the most beautiful motorcycles of all to my eye. Now if Triumph were to place the smaller sized tank shape from the Street Twin on the current T100, that would be the most attractive combination in my mind and come the closest to matching the look of those late 60's designs that appealed so much to me.

Creating a tank with sufficient capacity to appeal to guys who like to ride for longer stretches of distance rarely works out well from a styling standpoint. To get much beyond 3.5 gallons requires a lot of visual compromises for functional gains. I'm with Capo on the new CB tank I've personally never cared whether or not a tank has visible seams or not, in fact I never gave it any thought until I read other people talking about it so that's not a positive or a negative for me. I suppose the thing about the new CB tank is that it just doesn't remind me of any of the old Hondas. It looks much more modern than the rest of the bike. In fact, the only vintage bikes that I'm reminded of by the new CB tank are the the old Ducatis with the jelly mold tanks. I understand that lot of people find those bikes very beautiful, but they just didn't hold as much appeal to me.

Seriously swollen, lol — that's perfect.

Whether your talking about a motorcycle, a car or any number of other products, creating lines that make them look attractive from any angle while remaining functional is incredibly challenging.

Kawasaki had a tall task in trying to incorporate some of the visual DNA of the sexy Z bikes from the early 70's. I like the brown/orange combo the best on this bike. From some angles they make it work as much as they can while still attempting to scratch out the level of performance that a lot of people want from these bikes. So while I don't care for the large gap created by the suspension travel and the 17" rear wheel, and while the 17's wheels look a bit funky given some of the retro styling cues, I do like the design of the wheels. This awkwardness is compensated by the performance gains made. Obviously Kawasaki isn't trying to sell this bike to someone who rides like me, lol. But man, when it comes to the top view or the front view in particular, that tank just sticks out like a sore thumb (a swollen sore thumb). I look at it and I just can't help but think about that mushroom dude from the Mario video games my son played when he was young, lol. So disappointing. On the plus side, the exhaust looks great. Not so much the header pipes, but from that point on this is one of the most attractive production exhausts that I've seen in a long time. I dig the seat and flared rear fender cowl as well. The bullet clocks are a nice nod to the past. I wish they would have done a better job with the fenders. Those old Z's had one of the most cool looking front fenders ever. I can't say the same for the RS. Still, I think of this bike as a modern standard with some retro touches and from most accounts it sounds like it's a fun bike to ride for the most part. I do find it interesting overall and will be curious to see how well this bike sells

The other bike I would most likely compare the Z900RS to would likely be the Triumph Thruxton R, not quite so much from the specific styling but more from the standpoint of intent. Both bikes are retro-styled but not really truly retro. They've made a number of modern sacrifices for the sake of performance gains and appeal to guys who like a decent dose of retro with more modern day performance. Despite all of my recent voiced frustration over certain marketing decisions made by Triumph, I have to give them credit for doing a really good job with all of their "Modern Classic" bikes the past few years from a styling perspective. I saw the Thruxton R in person not too long after it was released so I could walk all around it and take it in from all angles. The only thing that I winced at was the radiator. No matter how hard anyone has tried, I've yet to see an attractive radiator. While Triumph hid it as well as possible, looking at the bike from the front 3/4 view was the only thing that really gave me pause. As with the Kawasaki, the large gap is there in the rear, but again Triumph had more serious performance oriented intentions in mind with this bike. (Yet another one that would be wasted on someone like me.) In case of the Triumph, the use of spokes does help visually compensate for the fact that these are only 17" wheels. Ignoring the radiator, this bike looks good from all angles and they obviously made significant performance gains by going with the water cooling. I prefer the silver paint scheme on the Thruxton R. It's obvious that Triumph put a lot of time into the design of this bike.

Triumph took a big gamble by ditching their air-cooled retro bikes in lieu of the new water-cooled machines and they obviously have succeeded with that move. The other thing notable about the new Bonnies was how small/compact everything looks. Nothing swollen, lol. I made the same observation about the late 60's Triumphs whenever they very first caught me eye earlier on in life. Those particular bikes, as I've stated before, remain perhaps the most beautiful motorcycles of all to my eye. Now if Triumph were to place the smaller sized tank shape from the Street Twin on the current T100, that would be the most attractive combination in my mind and come the closest to matching the look of those late 60's designs that appealed so much to me.

Creating a tank with sufficient capacity to appeal to guys who like to ride for longer stretches of distance rarely works out well from a styling standpoint. To get much beyond 3.5 gallons requires a lot of visual compromises for functional gains. I'm with Capo on the new CB tank I've personally never cared whether or not a tank has visible seams or not, in fact I never gave it any thought until I read other people talking about it so that's not a positive or a negative for me. I suppose the thing about the new CB tank is that it just doesn't remind me of any of the old Hondas. It looks much more modern than the rest of the bike. In fact, the only vintage bikes that I'm reminded of by the new CB tank are the the old Ducatis with the jelly mold tanks. I understand that lot of people find those bikes very beautiful, but they just didn't hold as much appeal to me.
Well-reasoned. Nice. Cannot find any flaw in your logic.

I daresay Kawasaki will not, either. But my experience with that tank is the same as with the 2017 CB1100. At first (as I posted here a while back) I thought it was "bulbous" and too large for the bike as compared to the 2013. But after I sat on the bike and got used to the way it looked, I came to like it.

That tank is in no way going to hurt sales of the machine, it really looks fine when one sees the bike in a parking lot full of other motorcycles. It somehow just comes together.

Speaking of Triumph, I rode most of the day yesterday with a friend. she rides a Street Twin. Plenty of curving road, some freeway, city. The Street Twin and Street Cup (which I was riding) are just fun bikes, nice-looking, and exceptionally easy to ride. The Street Twin especially won't break the bank.

She's a newer rider and was commenting about how easy the machine was to ride with respect to the powerband, ease of handling, and comfort. A new set of Z8's on the bike, according to her, just transformed the handling to very neutral and confidence-inspiring.

Sometimes all it takes is just a simple change to a better tire to make a bike a lot better, even one that was good to begin with.

[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.