Tag Archives: Cycle World Magazine

I love riding. I ride every time I get a chance as far and as long as I can. That’s the key phrase here … “as long as I can”. My H-D was a great bike for putting long days and many miles in the saddle. It’s not hard to enjoy a long ride when you have a seat like this:

The seat on the Ninja 1000 was a bit of a change for me:

It is really hard to compare the H-D to the Ninja because they are such different bikes. However I do feel that it’s fair to make the comparison since they are both street bikes and touring oriented. The similarities pretty much end there, but the overall mission for these bikes has the same roots. With that in mind I expected the Ninja’s seat to be softer and able to at least allow me to stay on the bike through a tank of gas. Unfortunately, at this point I can’t. I can do about an hour and then I need to take a brake, stretch and then I’m good to go. I never had delusions that the Ninja’s seat would anything like the couch that the H-D’s seat is, I did expect it to be a little more pliant. To be fair my backend has been babied by the H-D, so maybe it’s a combination of breaking in the Ninja’s seat and getting my rear toughened up. It’s still early in our riding relationship. I do hope that it get’s better because I think this is a terrific bike and I want to be able to ride the pants off it … just not the other way around.    

Wind protection is important for a number of reasons. My first two motorcycles didn’t have any wind protection at all. I remember going on day rides with my friends and just feeling exhausted at the end of the day. Fighting the constant pressure of the wind on my chest made my arms and shoulders tired. The wind sucked all the moisture out of my body leaving me more tired than I would have been otherwise. So when I bought my next bike I made sure that I had protection from the wind. I think I went a little too far though. With the H-D very little wind gets to the rider, which is fantastic in rainy, cold weather but is not comfortable in the heat, especially in Virginia where the humidity makes summers pretty harsh.

I was instantly impressed with the windscreen on the Ninja the first time that I rode it. The wind management is great. Airflow over the front of the bike to the rider is very smooth, and that’s just with the screen in the lowest position, there are two higher positions the screen can be set at. I generally prefer the second position in warmer weather. It pushes the air right into my helmet vents and allows a good amount of air to get to me, but in a good way. In its highest position the screen works well for highway travel, and really that’s about it. It dramatically increases noise and stops air from reaching my chest. The noise isn’t a big deal when I’m on the highway, but not having to pull against the wind at higher speeds is ideal. I get a good range of protection from the three positions with excellent air flow management. I suspect that the highest position would also be great in colder weather, but I don’t think we’re getting any of that anytime soon.

Arriving at Manassas Honda Kawasaki Suzuki this morning I was greeted by the very friendly and curious sales staff.  After talking about the Ninja 1000 experience and the bike itself I filled out the paperwork, had a run through of the bike, and then I was handed the keys.  My first obstacle to overcome was to get my lap top bag strapped to back seat.  Once that was accomplished I was ready to go.

Right off the bat, there are many things so drastically different from my Harley, that I think I’ve got the next months’ worth of blog posts all ready to go. I’ll spare you the details for now, but there’s going to be a lot to write about.  My first impression is that this is a really smooth and easy to ride bike.  I took the really long way into work.  Several cars were gracious enough to drive slowly in front of me, allowing me the time I needed to get used to the power delivery, shifting and even to adjust the mirrors.  About 25 -30 miles into the ride I was feeling pretty comfortable with the bike in general, but It’s going to take some time to become proficient in shifting and to get used to the throttle and the lean angle that are possible.

I will say this though, I’ve read a lot of reviews of bikes over the years and there’s a phrase that, being a Harley owner, I’ve never understood.  It goes something like this “…bike XXX is a little buzzy when you …” I always laughed at this because if you’ve ever pulled up next to a Harley at a stoplight and looked at the handle bars or the engine you understand how much these bikes shimmy and shake at idle. So, when I read that this bike was “buzzy” around 75 I wanted to see how that compared to the Harley ‘stoplight shake’. It didn’t.  That’s the short answer.  I actually had to strain to feel the buzz … any buzz … at all. In fact the bike was so glass smooth at idle that I had to keep checking the tach at the first few stop lights to see if it was still on or if I’d stalled it out.

One last thing I had to get used to that I think no one else in the N1K 10 will, is that the mirrors and windshield don’t move when you turn the handle bars!  This totally threw me the first few turns (the first being out of the dealers parking lot) I took.  I am so used to the fork mounted front fairing on the H-D that I was taken totally by surprise when the mirrors and windshield didn’t move on the Ninja when I turned the handlebars.  Now, rationally I knew they wouldn’t, but instinctively I guess my mind just expected that they would like they have for the past 3 years I’ve been on the H-D.

I expect to be writing a lot more about the differences between the Ninja and my bike, but I’ll also be writing about the Ninja and where her and I get to go.  Oh, and I’m very excited the my Ninja is all black.  All of my bikes have been black.  They’ve also all been named Betty (long story that I’m sure I’ll get to in a future post … maybe).  So the Ninja, since we’re just dating for a while, will be Miss Betty … we’ll see if things get less formal as we get to know each other.

~Stay Safe~

On April 20th while looking through my email I came across one that drew my attention. The subject of the email was “Cycle World and Kawasaki have selected YOU!”. I immediately had visions of opening the email and seeing an Uncle Sam type ad with a man in big red, white and blue hat pointing a finger at me and declaring (in large font) what a great deal I could get on XXX bike from Kawasaki because I’d been a long time subscriber of Cycle World. I was perplexed to see a logo with the words Cycle World Ninja 1000 Experience and the words “Congratulations”. As I read further it wasn’t a sales ad, it was an opportunity to become a gust contributor for Cycle World and a test rider for the new 2011 Kawasaki Ninja 1000. The idea is to test ride the Ninja 1000 for 90 days and write about my experiences. I’ve always thought riding bikes and writing about them would be the dream job. I downloaded the entry form, I’ll admit with a little skepticism, and with a small prayer I sent off my entry form. Fast forward to May 12 when I opened my email and saw the subject “CONGRATULATIONS!! You have been selected as a Cycle World Contributor for the Ninja 1000 Experience.” I read the letter several times to make sure that this wasn’t the next stage in a twelve step process, it turned out it wasn’t it was the real deal.

So at this point I’m waiting with seven of the ten other guest contributors for our bikes to arrive and to start enjoying the “experience” for ourselves. Two of the ten have already received their Ninja 1000’s and are making me really anxious to get mine. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping for good news next week.