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.
An hour later we were hitting the cut-off to Highway 36, which would be the real sporting portion of the ride and a new favorite route for our next sportbike test. Within 20 miles the road was so twisty and full of crazy-ass blind corners, rises and dips that I started to get giddy at the prospect of another 120 miles of asphalt insanity.
This is a road the separates the pretenders from the contenders, to which the myriad of skid marks leading off into the ditch attested. Since no one was familiar with this route, it put a premium on braking and flickability. Well-designed sweepers, downhill decreasing radius turns, braking-bump infested mountain roads covered in pea-gravel and even a long stretch of rough single-lane switchbacks made sure we sampled every type of road you could possibly be faced with.
During photo shoots, where we rode the bikes back-to-back through the same sections repeatedly, to our surprise the
Hayabusa, despite having a 1-inch longer wheelbase and less aggressive rake and trail figures (24.2 degrees x 97mm versus 23.0 degrees x 94mm for the ZX), was easier to manhandle in the turns. And weight doesn't play a role, as these two blasters scale in almost identically with their tanks empty: the ZX at 527 lbs to the Busa's 530.
The
Suzuki's agility and a more aggressive riding position made it feel more comfortable navigating the turns at a faster pace. The Hayabusa was starting to close the gap on the
Kawasaki after a couple hours in the really twisty stuff.
"In my opinion, the Busa wins hands-down," says Lavine. "That bike simply does what I expect a motorcycle to do, and that is getting around a corner with ease. I would have never thought I would be interested in either of these two bikes. I mean, they are big and heavy, and their only claim to fame is their ET. The fact is they both offer a very nice ride and tremendous acceleration."
The Ninja requires slightly more effort to turn in and the wider bars and mellow riding position give the bike more of a sport-touring feel than the sportier-feeling Suzuki. This is good news to the majority of folks who will likely take this bike on long rides rather than hitting trackdays with it. It may not feel as flickable as the Suzuki but the ZX still tackles the turns pretty well, especially the long sweepers and fast switchbacks. The Ninja holds a rock-steady line once muscled into a turn.
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.
These bikes are more suited to point-and-shoot riding than they are to finesse or carrying lots of corner speed, so take it for what its worth. The Busa feels more competent in the tighter stuff and the ZX is at home on the more open turns where you can bend it in and pour on the gas to make a bee-line for the next turn. When you're pinning it in the bottom three gears of one of these bad boys, even for a few seconds, the brakes better be up to task or you'll be picking guardrail out of your teeth (or vice-versa).
Accelerating between corners on 160-hp behemoths allowed for a serious test of the binders, and the Kawasaki emerged as the clear-cut favorite. The
Hayabusa features traditionally-mounted six-piston calipers, whereas the
ZX-14 is equipped with trendy radial-mount 4-piston calipers and petal-style rotors. They are stronger, smoother and offer considerably more feel at the lever. The Hayabusa brakes are plenty capable and when sampled on their own they are pretty good. Unfortunately, they just don't perform at the same level as the ZX brakes do. Plus, the Busa rear brake was not good at all. It required a long throw at the pedal to even begin slowing, and even then it was either on or off. Despite what Lavine thinks, the advantage here goes to Kawasaki.
Eventually we made our way through this marvelous road and merged onto Highway 101 south of Eureka for the last few miles of day one. It was cold and dark, so we took this opportunity to compare headlights for the consumers who really need to know. The Hayabusa low-beams get the nod but the ZX high beams are simply awesome. Too bad you can't leave them on for long because oncoming traffic starts flashing you from miles away, UFOs initiate their final approach, and. well, you get the point.
Cruising through the stop-sign riddled ocean town revealed that although the
Hayabusa clutch isn't stiff, the ZX clutch action is the lighter of the two. Also, when accelerating away from a stop, the
Suzuki felt more abrupt, a fact attributed to Kawasaki's effort to tame the power production in the lower 4,000 rpm compared to the Suzuki which is always chomping the bit and raring to go. No matter which bike you are on, they both feel big when you're backing them into a parking space or maneuvering them in the garage. You feel the weight a lot more when you're using man-power than when the bikes are rolling down the road.
We finished up the ride with one of our classic routes through the Redwood Forest, past my hometown and back to the office. Without even realizing it, I was going 25-mph over in a stretch I know is littered with fuzz, and that sums these bikes up. You must pay attention at all times because the danger associated with riding a nearly 200-mph vehicle takes many different forms. Just ask Duke Danger, who got popped for speeding when he was "taking it easy" on SoCal's Angeles Forest highway.
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.
These bikes will spend the majority of their time on the street, and which one makes the better choice depends on what you're looking for. Both bikes have different riding positions yet feel similar in that they are so smooth, huge and fast. The Hayabusa works better in the tight turns, but the ZX was even smoother and more stable in the wide, fast stuff, so the right thing to do is call this round a draw.
"Although it's surpassed by the new ZX-14 in both power and comfort, the trusty old
Suzuki warhorse acquits itself quite ably," explains Kevin Duke. "It feels more like a sportbike than the Kawi, and its charms can be best summed up by saying that it would be a better trackday mount than the ganglier ZX."
This means that the
Hayabusa will have to win the acceleration battle in order to retain the title.
