Kawasaki ZRX1200R reviews

Well after spending 14 months in Iraq I decided to reward myself with a new motorcycle. The decision was as easy as ZRX, anyway loved the bike from the first day I drove it. Not sure if many people have to go 100 miles to get their bikes from the dealer, but I did and the ride back home was great. This was the first 100 mile ride back home from Kaiserslautern (K-Town) to Hanau, I smiled all the way. The bike is a dream to ride, it has all the power you would ever need and I find myself getting off the throttle as 100mph is achieved extremely fast. Granted, I have the AUTOBAHN but, I prefer to ride on the secondary roads. The bike handles great, the engine is smooth with excellent acceleration. The brakes work very well, as I have had to test them a few times! This is what a motorcycle should be: Fun, Fast and great looking! Show less

Once again Kawasaki has proven that they are still aware of what a motorcycle should be like. This bike is like a stealth fighter, you will wonder what it was as it passed you. Show less

It's been 3 months and 2400 miles. This motorcycle does not disappoint in handling, braking, suspension, power (awesome stock!), lights, looks, tires, even the manual and tool kit! Tractability has improved and the sensitive throttle seems well designed for responsive and very agressive town driving. Changed to 20W-50 synthetic/petroleum blend at 700 miles. Transmission continues to get smoother but it is clearly heavy-duty and will take a real thrashing. Shifting is optional with this superbike... you can drive around in third gear and pull away at a light in it all day long if you want. Powerful, smooth and extremely tough factory clutch... good for 2 X the HP I think: some owners have turbocharged with the factory clutch without any problems. Torque from 2000 rpm is quite strong and it becomes downright scary at 8000. It will test your courage. You can't watch the tach because you had better watch the road... it is an absolute rocket from 6000 on and it will scare you at 8500. 0-100MPH in 8 seconds: bone stock. In three months not a single vehicle can stay with this great bike... not a 350Z, ZO6 Vette, Z28, 911. This motorcycle, driveable and smooth as it is for those inclined to go easy, will pull incredibly hard in a predictable way well past 125 mph all the way to 150+ and only those with nerves of steel will keep up because this is happening in seconds. Great tourer... smooth, quiet, reliable, will handle sweeping curves at incredible speeds on the interstates. What a great all arounder. I've driven to work at 42 degrees with a cotton jacket and leather gloves...that bikini fairing and wide radiator works well to protect from the wind. I'm very happy with this motorcycle and would buy it again in a heart beat. The handling and brakes are forgiving and protecting...the tires (Bridgestone 020 Battlax) have not let me down once and I thought they should have several times. I considered the Yamaha Fazer 1000, Suzuki Bandit 1200 and the Hayabusa as well as several cruisers (which fell down on handling and brakes and power/weight ratio). Bang for the buck? This is it, friends. You may find the seat height too high if you are under 5'9" and short legged. It's a 550 lb bike when fully gassed and a handful at an inclined stop (takes a bit of coordination and strength which is a good thing for me) but it becomes weightless from 5 mph on. If you are looking for limitless power, reliability, sportbike handling and brakes, comfortable seating, town bike capability with touring ability this should be on your short list. Well worth the price. Show less

This is the first big bike I have ever owned. I feel I made the right choice. Whole lot of power, not too much cost. I just installed a Hindle bolt on muffler, great sound, revs up quicker. Rode some v-twin cruisers after I bought my ZRX, love my power and handling a lot better than the cruisers. Show less

This bike continues to impress. So far I have travelled 18000 km with no problems, so reliability has been excellent. Engine has loosened up very nicely and I have finally settled on suspension settings that suit the crappy roads we have in Australia. I got lost for a while in the level of adjustment available. I went for my usual Sunday blast down my local scratchers road and a rider of a new 2004 GSX-R 750 couln't believe that I ride this road mostly in 4th gear when he was struggling to get out of 2nd. This sort of puts the grunt of the ZRX into perspective with the current crop of sport bikes. I highly recommend this bike to anyone who wants to own a do it all, large capacity road bike. Show less

Just purchased a used 2002 to quench my midlife crisis. I have not ridden in 20 years, but this bike made me feel as if I had never left the saddle. My last bike was a 1980 Honda CB750F super sport. Needless to say bikes have come a long way in 20 years. This bike can be ridden with a calm decorum or blast off like a raging beast without losing composure. I am glad to be back riding. Thanks Kawasaki for such a great bike! Show less

I've been riding for four years with this being the third bike I've owned, the previous two being a Kawasaki EX500 and a Kawasaki ZX-6E. I have had some minor problems so far: one of the plug wires was loose and would only fire on three cylinders (easily solved), and some minor buzzing coming from the fairing. Otherwise it has run flawlessly. I used the suspension settings found on the Sport Rider Magazine web site as a starting point and found that it handled well after being tweaked. At first the factory settings would make the front wheel feel a bit nervous when I was on the throttle; it's gone now. I like the smooth power delivery and the wide handlebars that make the bike easy to ride at slow speeds. Higher speeds are not a problem either; the bikini fairing takes a lot of pressure off of the chest at 75 mph. I find that the lack of bodywork actually makes it more comfortable to ride because the wind blast is more evenly distributed across my body rather than blowing directly at my shoulders and head. I just got back from a 4000 mile trip through four states and two provinces. The bike was up to the task, being all day comfortable and having the ability to get through and around any traffic on the highway. I highly recommend this bike. Show less

I have been a VMAX rider for many years. I loved the speed, looks and sound of the VMAX but I hated the front end and the way it handled, getting high speed wobbles at 150mph is just not happening! I finally found a Muscle Bike that truly compares to the VMAX, but handles a lot better! The ZRX1200 is everything the VMAX is and a lot more. NO MORE HIGH SPEED WOBBLES!!!! Show less

Retro style! Great power band. Deceptive looks hide the heart of a beast. This is not a novice bike! It has power that can get you into trouble real fast. Handling is very good! Not great, but very good. Braking is fantastic! She'll stop pretty fast! Great bike for the price. Show less

This bike is quite the time machine...if old Eddy could have only imagined. I have 19,000 miles on it, have not had any mechanical trouble of any kind. I bring it in for service at the set intervals in the owners manual and I have to say that I totally believe that I will see 50,000 miles with this thing! Yeah it might be heavy by sportbike purists, but they like all that plastic in front of them for protection from the wind, so they don't count. I haven't brought the rpms up over 7,000 even once yet, basically because it's insane and I'm afraid of the ticket. don't fool yourself people, this bike is fast. I didn't care too much for the Bridgstones that come stock, I'm using Metezler mez4`s now. They look like they'll last at least twice as long as the 10,000 miles I was able to limp out of them. that's where the extra weight comes into play. You can burn up the rear tire in less than 4,000 miles if you are the aggressive type. I recently installed a yoshimura muffler (rs3). I got the sound I wanted and a little more power as well, Now it sounds as awesome as it was intended to. The stock muffler was almost silent ! Performance is always good whether I have my girl riding two up or just solo, the electronic fuel/air/timing control sees to it every time. It's really very cool to have all the technology in a bike that makes you feel like your Mad Max back in the seventies! I suppose if I have a complaint it would be that my rearend gets sore after 3 1/2 hours in the saddle, I'm not sure if a corbin would save me this discomfort. The foot pegs are located just where they should be for long term comfort in between the distance of your knee and hip, so you can move your butt around on the long trips. I used to have a Bmw R60/6 and my ZRX is every bit as comfortable as it was, with 10 times the performance. I rode to Laconia this summer, round trip the same day with my ZRX, it was a 460 mile drive when I finished, and I wasn`t crippled like so many others were after the one way trip. With the exception of the posterior region aformentioned. I love this bike, yeah it's no ZX10R...but it sure isn't a slug either. It will take a good performance if they want to run with you, basically, watch them shrink in your mirrors, which don`t vibrate untill about 4,500 rpms. Did I mention that braking is phenominal? It is. If you know what you're looking for and find yourself looking at a ZRX1200R, you will not be disappointed. If something were to ever happen to this bike I would have to buy another without consideration of any other machine. Show less