Hi All

My name is Vinay and this is my first post on xbhp community. Pretty nervous and excited to be part of this community. Nervous - because I am a rookie among many of you experienced folks. Excited - Can't wait to be a part of this knowledgeable community and get to experience all good things about biking.

Now, coming to point I am going to share my experience when experience of planning to buy Kawasaki Z800. The newly opened showroom for Kawasaki in Bangalore is in Indiranagar, it shares the same building with KTM but has clear divisions to bifurcate them. Showroom is quite small and has nothing fancy. But, Sales guy named Chetan is very helpful and answered all my queries and the best part he does not push you for sales that makes him trustable.

There are five bikes in the showroom

Ninja 1000
Nina ZX-14R
Ninja- ZX-10R
Z1000 (this bike makes you drool)
Z800

Z1000 is the bike that will catch your attention the moment you enter the showroom. Its design will leave wet marks on ladies pants and make the guy roding it look like an sex god[IMG]file:///C:\Users\VKASHI~1.AKA\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlcl ip1\01\clip_image001.png[/IMG][IMG]file:///C:\Users\VKASHI~1.AKA\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlcl ip1\01\clip_image001.png[/IMG]lol!. All the bikes have superb fit and finish. There are no test drives for all the bikes as of yet. Since, most of them are yet to be registered with RTO, though Z800 is the first bike to be registered and I was one of the few people who were invited for a test drive near Nitte Meenakshi College road on Sunday early morning.

Z800

This is second eye catchy bike in the showroom and will be an instant attention seeker when Z1000 is not around. Currently, in Indian Market Z800 is available only in Black colour and that's a huge disappointment. When asked about this issue Sales guy(Chetan) said this is the only color that is currently being sent to India from Japan(not Indonesia as this is not CKD) but, things may change in future. However, he was not ready to confirm on this. Secondly, seat height can be a big turn off for an average Indian. I am 5ft 7 inches and have to tip toe this bike.Third, there are no accessories currently for Z800 (or for any other bikes) and they will only come as and when they are ordered.

There are advantages though, it is 100 times better looking than Triumph Street triple (went on a test drive), its a four cylinder engine, even though its quite heavy 234 Kgs, its flickable in city and stunning machine to ride. The exhaust note is awesome too.

Test Drive

On Saturday, I was informed through email that test drives will be given in Nitte Meenakshi College road early morning Sunday at 6 30 am. So, I was all excited due to which I could not sleep the whole night and was waiting for the clock to hit 6 30 am. Got ready at 5 am and started from RR nagar on my Yamaha FZ 16, picked up my friend in Navrang and used the Google maps to locate the destination it was 51 km ride fro my place and in the early morning it was an amazing feeling thinking of the fact that I was going to drive a 116BHP bike after having ridden 15BHP Yamaha FZ bike for 3 years. i was very nervous and praying to god that please make sure that everything goes well.


So, finally reached the location, thanks to Google maps and later handful of other riders came on their KTM 390. there were 4 bikes and all of them had KTM 390 seems like its the new Pulsar now. This was joined by Ninja 650 and then there was Hero of the day Z800. Man, I was shocked because in showroom it did not look like it was such a big deal. But, out in daylight and in real world it was THE BIKE(for the price point) to have, its massive tank arch, mean headlight and those sexy Z shaped tail lights were so perfect, I kept staring at it for minutes. After, all the admiration and drooling Chethan(sales guy) gave us Indemnity forms to be signed and then he gave us instructions.

Test drive was going to be 6 KM (back and forth), he asked us not to go over 80km speed and rev more than 5K rpm. Also, note that Nitte Meenakshi College road was the perfect location to test Z800 as it had all the ingredients to bring out the capabilities of Z800. Speed Breakers, deep curves and straight roads.Few of the first riders followed exactly what was instructed by Chetan(sales guy), but after my turn was over everybody drove like they had stolen it[IMG]file:///C:\Users\VKASHI~1.AKA\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlcl ip1\01\clip_image002.gif[/IMG] Now, came my turn to ride the 234 kg monster. So, hopped on it and pushed it into first gear and let go the clutch and off I was. The first thing you will notice in Z800 is it has very short gear ratios and it loves to be revved. I was into 2nd gear and was surprised because it too had short gear ratio and till 5th gear it was the same, then when I pushed it onto 6th this was a long one and I believe this is what will help in high way cruising. I clocked a max of 113 km/h speed in 4th gear and it I was thrown back a bit because I had never experienced anything like that in my life. So, I hit on back brakes and it came to halt in a very short notice. Now, the idea came to me to see if this bike can pull from a speed of 17 km/h and it did with a very minor chain cluttering. I was not satisfied, so I went to 6th gear and decreased the speed to 30 km/h and increased the speed again and it did not disappoint and pulled effortlessly without any cluttering all they way up to 103 km/h. But, most surprisingly I did not not feel the bike was heavy even for a second. Its so balanced and hides it weight that you don't feel it at all. Z800 has no vibrations and the gearbox is butter smooth. the bikes needs preferably 95 octane petrol and first service will cost your around 3-4k at 1000 km and later on every 10000 km and the charge maybe 6-9k per service.

The only, uncomfortable bit for me is during stopping as I am 5ft 7 inches. Its pretty, difficult to balance it in slow speeds and you lose confidence in it and you stress yourself so as not to do anything to embarrass yourself.


All in all It was an eventful weekend. As, for booking part today I will be meeting him to give 1 lakh as booking amount. Though, i have mentioned to him that I will take the bike after 3 months only (30 days is the waiting period). As, I am hoping kawasaki will give us more colors to choose from.Lastly, I am thinking of reducing the bike seat height by 20 mm as once of the service guy from Kawasaki said the can do it or either I will be importing seat lowering kit from following link Kawasaki Lowering kits | Kawasaki Lowering Links | Suspension lowering | Kawasaki Ninja ZX6R, ZX9R, ZX10, ZX12, Z750, Z800, Z1000 Lowering kit. to resolve seat height problem once and for all.

Let me know if you have any questions and and below are pictures and my ride during test drive