I have ranted about my trip across the Middle Earth like there was no tomorrow. But in all that melee of words and emotions I had completely overlook the most important member of this trip – the motorcycle which silently took the thousands of corners, some hundred kays of gravel and the rain and enabled me to complete the ride of my life in 6100 kms in less that 17 riding days. The vehicle in question was a 2007 Kawasaki Concours 14 and I was about to take it around your beautiful country and in the process unveil, but only some, of its wondrosities to my people back in India through pictures and the works.

My biggest ride had been a Honda Blackbird, and this one outweighed (and outperformed!) it by a healthy 50kgs to put the marker at 279 kg, dry for my ABS equipped steed. And it comes with the works – an electronically adjustable windscreen, tyre pressure wireless radio sensors, an LCD console which displays almost anything except your pillion’s age, keyless ignition with a transponder, functional rear view mirrors, side panniers and the super smooth tetra lever shaft drive. Plus it easily takes my vote for the best looking tourer in its category. I had also taken a 2005 Honda Fireblade 1000RR around India in 2006. So you can imagine the kind of comfort, space and ride quality this born-to-tour machine provided to me. Not for a moment I realized that I was riding a shaft driven machine. Now did the weight overwhelm me in the many tight corners. The biggest asset for me was the integrated panniers which allowed me to carry a lot of stuff – required and sundry

Looks

As I have testified earlier, I would rate this as the best looking tourer in its category. The curves and well defined and yet not edgy, the overall styling is contemporary as well. I especially loved wide headlights giving it a mean purposeful all encompassing look. At times when I was riding well into the night, it was more than sufficient to light up small and big creatures that roamed the roads, lending me that extra confidence required to take on the curves in pitch dark when the destination is still a hundred miles away.

Performance

The bike delivers the punch to match its looks. The best part about it is the xxxx lb/ft of torque, which was more than enough to propel out of dense Auckland traffic even in the 4th gear. This means I had to change fewer gears while travelling. The detuned ZX14 mill also gave enough power off the line to actually have a chance against its athletic sibling. It was like having the best of both worlds. The throttle response was fantastic and precise with a very little play even after 7000 kms of varying twists. I would not babble upon of the top speed done for obvious reasons, but let me tell you, its mighty fast and quick for what its made.

Ride Quality

The ride quality was fantastic and often stupefied me. How can something so big, powerful and complex be made so transparent and smooth. And it remained the same throughout the 7000 kms that I did on it in 17 days. The seat was not too soft or hard, just the right mix to prevent any kind of saddle sore. I would though prefer it would be a little thicker and softer for lean butts. The ride position is quite comfortable with most of the switchgear ergonomically located. The windscreen specially comes in handy at high speeds and rain, especially at its tallest setting. For even better results you can of course for an aftermarket taller screen. I don’t remember myself riding with the screen in the tucked in mode for a long time. The heavy weight lends a sub conscious feel of security and well plantedness, even in heavy crosswinds. But at the same time it prevents you from going to real off road tracks, or doing any fun maneuvers. But I guess that’s a totally different purpose and you would have a separate bike for that. We are talking about eating grand miles here with the least effort.

The moment I sat on the Bike I was overwhelmed with its ultra compact size and was astonished by how featherweight it was. The latter quality was even more magnified by the Law of Proximity with respect my riding the behemoth of a Concours. The difference between the size and presence between the two bikes is tremendous. The Concours is a bully of a bike forcing its way in the visual field of every living thing with an inclination towards and internal combustion engine, while the ZX6 forces its way out of an invisible hyperdrive and into the view with its high pitched shriek. The ZX6 almost reminded me of my bike back in India– Karizma, a 223CC puny bike with 16bhp! Even the Hyosung GT650R which I rode in Australia seemed bigger that this miniature bomb on wheels.

I inserted the key and turned it to the on mode. The pretty console came to life with its LCD checks. I was searching for the fuel indicator when I was reminded that most sportbikes have a light come on when it hits reserve. The ZX6 console had a dedicated vertical column to indicate the gear number too. The seating posture came across as very extreme, again maybe it was due to the Concours. All my weight was on t he wrists and shoulders. It really made you feel like a Ninja on a mission. I hit the ignition and the ‘toy’ came to life. The absolutely beautiful exhaust note sold me off! I was hooked on to the bike. I really didn’t care if it had two pear shaped headlights to lead the way. I was excited enough to take this for a run. Quickly enough I shifted the tank bag from Concours to it’s less-than-half-cced brother. Now this was a problem. The tank bag made it quite challenging to maneuver the without being extra careful. The minuscule fairing up front the Bike wasnt really helpful now since I not crouch anywhere near it due to the bag. The disadvantages wrt to the Concours were starting to show up. And anyways it would be grossly stupid to compare the two bikes which were meant for different purposes. I put on my backpack, the tripod and sat on the bike, feeling very nervous (and like a Ninja with the full Camo Draggin Jeans gear that I had). The posture was feeling very low and extreme.

The first few kays were in the city and to my lodge some 30 kms away. I was comfortable with the Bike and all the heavy bags that I was carrying and I had to go on the motorway. Anyways I reached safe at my lodge and decided to head for a location to shoot the Bike the next day. I had a pretty hard time deciding on which location, because I almost done everyroute worth going near Auckland.

Finally, I took the Ninja to a 600kms run on the beautiful Coromandel coast in NZ (which I had already done on the Concours just some days back). There are thousands of corners there. The agility and fun factor of the machine was unbelievable. In fact I found a fantastic rider on a VFR800 to trail. I never pushed myself to the limits I did that day. My stance on the Bike coupled with the tank back and the highly convoluted corners mad sure that my shoulders and wrists were strained to the limit of exploding. I could barely manage to get used to the machine in the challenging route, plus it was Saturday, which meant that there were a lot of Bikes and one cannot simply ride slow on a Bike like this (to keep your pride meter high)! As I said earlier, the icing on the cake for me was the sound, especially at higher RPMs (and a 20,000 rpm meter does make you swell with pride!). The power was also good enough for high speed runs, makes the litre bikes a little too surplus with power.

As I spent two days with this incredible machine my fondness for it grew. Initially, I was from the contingent who dislikes the curvaceous front end of the new Ninjas, but I actually started loving it. It is something which you start adoring with time.