2006 Hayabusa vs ZX-14 Photo Gallery

2006 Hayabusa vs ZX-14

The 2006 Kawasaki ZX-14 Ninja & Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa - Wallpaper

The 2006 Kawasaki ZX-14 Ninja gets a thumbs up.

The 2006 Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa

The 2006 Kawasaki ZX-14 Ninja

The 2006 Kawasaki ZX-14 Ninja & Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa.

When the lights faded to dark, we were able to do a little bit of headlight testing. The Hayabusa had better low-beams, but the ZX's high-beams blew us away.

The 2006 Kawasaki ZX-14 Ninja

The 2006 Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa

The 2006 Kawasaki ZX-14 Ninja & Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa at Railroad Park Resort with Castle Crags in the background.

The 2006 Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa

The 2006 Kawasaki ZX-14 Ninja

Passing through the Redwoods and on home, we couldn't decide which bike won head-to-head out on the street. Both bikes were admirable performers, with each one excelling over the other in specific areas, so we had to call this portion of our test a draw.

The 2006 Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa

The Hayabusa begins a high-speed run with Danger at the helm.

Name that tune: Danger is crouched at the starting line - engine bumping and thumping in time...

The name is Danger, Duke Danger. Sitting astride the machine on which he would get pegged for speeding later that very day, Duke rattled off some eyebrow-raising results during our performance testing.

That is a ram-air intake on the ZX-14. Consider that those dyno numbers you are so impressed with don't even factor that into the equation!

The battle for big-bore sportbike supremacy is on. With the introduction of the ZX-14, Kawasaki has shaken the mighty Busa off its throne and now reigns as king of the street.

One of the strong points of the ZX-14 are the radial-mount Nissin calipers and petal disc brake combination.

The ZX-14 was Duke's choice of hyper-bike and it seemed to like him too.

The ZX-14 offers up a sweet ride through the Redwoods.

On Highway 199 the Hayabusa showed it has the moves to keep the Ninja guessing.

The ZX-14 is a capable sport-touring machine although it doesn't have integrated luggage and other cruicial goodies.

While perhaps not quite as nimble as its rival, the Ninja keeps a steady line through turns and is best utilized in what Ken describes as 'point-and-shoot' style riding.

The Hayabusa flat gettin some through the Redwood forrest.

First pass - not so great - lets give the Busa another shot though...

The ZX wails and just because it was not quite as sharp as the Busa, it still carves a good line.

The 2006 Suzuki GSX-1300R Hayabusa on the pier at Crescent City, CA.

The 2006 Kawasaki ZX-14 Ninja on the pier at Crescent City, CA.

The Hayabusa gets attention anywhere it goes.

Our street ride included a stretch along the Pacific Coast Highway, with plenty of twisty asphalt in between to throw the front-running ZX against its Suzuki rival.

The Hayabusa looks cooler than Ken don't ya think?

Loaded with saddledbags full of clothes and camera equipment the Hayabusa and Ninja are ready for anything.

Along the Northern California coastline you will find your nirvana. If not, pin it on one of these bad boys and crabs will be picking the meat off your bones.

The Busa's sportier riding position comes via a footpeg position which obliges a more agressive angle for the legs, as well as narrower bars which put pressure on the upper body.

In case you can't tell its a really, really big tree.

We thought the giant Coastal Redwoods near our Southern Oregon HQ made a fitting backdrop for the two largest sportbikes in the market as we rode the machines to the Pacific Coast down US199.

Ding, Ding, Ding... And at the conclusion of Round 1, the challenger in blue is ahead of the champ due to pure power on the dyno.

A glance into the Hayabusa's mirrors shows part of the rider's elbows rather than an unobstructed view of the road behind. A disadvantage, since you must take special pains to keep an eye out for the law on these speed-limit-abusing mounts.

The Hayabusa's old-school 6-piston-caliper brakes don't offer the amount of feel as the radial-mount 4-piston units on the Ninja.

Once the road got a little gnarly the Hayabusa, to our surprise given its less aggressive geometry, rose to the top when we had to muscle the machines around the corners.

The Hayabusa pulls hard any time you twist the throttle so hang on.

The Hayabusa is the ticket for back road bombing runs.

The Klamath River has many scenic stretches on it but this cool old bridge is just one of them we crossed during our 36-hour, 800-mile test ride.

We had already seen what the Hayabusa could do to straight expanses of asphalt on the open road, but with its illustrious dragracing credentials we would be doing everyone a disservice if we didn't take the Busa out to the local dragstrip for a few runs.

The 2006 Kawasaki ZX-14 may be massive but it is a real hoot to ride.

For our first ever zero-180 graph, the ZX reached the mark a half-second quicker at 18.90 seconds to the Busa's 19.42.

A quick look at our acceleration chart and you can see that the Hayabusa's dominating reign over drag racing could be at an end.

The first place the two heavyweights would slug it out was on the dyno. The Suzuki cranked 155.9 horsepower at 9,900 rpm, which in a normal world be a crippling body blow. The Kawasaki, however, took the shock and counter-punched with a decapitating headshot of its own, 169.1 hp at 9,500 rpm.

You looking for the express train to the big house? Twist the grip on the ZX-14 and go from 0-to-180 in less than 20 seconds.

BC shows us his game face while Ken calmly awaits his turn at the dragstrip.

With the sun having already set on Friday Night Drags, it was time for the moment of truth. Ken, with his previous experience dragracing the ZX-14 decided to even things out by taking the Hayabusa and leaving dragracing first-timer BC on the giant Kwakker.