TOPIC:

I was at the dealership today looking at the new z900rs and cafe . Nice looking bikes . Thinking about selling my ducati 1098s and buying one. Would be cool to have a new and old .

They look great. Lot better than the other Z900.

There was a lot of hype when they first came out in 2018, particularly the one in root beer colours. I looked hard at it but was disappointed that it wasn't more retro than it was. There were lots of little things like tank badges, side covers etc that they could have reprised. I also looked at some things that seemed poorly thought out. The brake master cylinder hangs off the bars on a plastic extension...why not do what they did with the Z1 master? I thought they could have done a better job on connectors for the rad too. It seemed to me that the designers lacked the vision possessed by the original Z1 designers. Just my opinion.

I'd like to ride one, They've all the mods done at probably half the price some folks throw at these old bikes and got the geometry right.

Meh. Doesn't do anything for me. Besides, why buy an imitation when you can have the real deal?

I like it a lot. Retro style with modern performance and reliability. Same reasons I ride a ZRX.

Very nice bike indeed. A Z1000 in a Trellis chassis, w/out plastics, but really has nothing to do with the old Zs or KZs. No more than than a FZ10 relates to a '78 XS1100, or a GSX-S1000 to a '80 GS1000......or a Ford F150 today to a '70 F100....they could have called it a Versys 900.

At least the Honda CB1100 retains air cooling...

.......don't get me wrong, I like this motorcycle...and If I had the room would like to have it, but it is really simply a naked modern bike, and what I consider interesting, is the Trellis chassis which is very light and allows engine visibility and accessibility,.... is what Ducati uses.......but personally, I don't even consider it 'retro'.,.. just very naked by today's standards.

An opinion thread. Where's a popcorn emoji when ya' need one?

From the front of the rear tire forward it looks good to slmjim. From there rearward it's too empty to look balanced front-to-rear, especially with all the empty space above the rear tire. The vestigal rear fender aggravates the imbalanced look of the rear end. Never been a fan of 4-1 exhaust systems. I like the balanced look of 4-2.
The abbreviated front fender won't do much for wet weather protection but, does offer the advantage of lessening un-sprung weight hanging on the fork lowers.
Mama Kaw got the paint right and, the striping scheme really enhances and blends with the flow of the lines. Nice color choices.
No centerstand. That's a deal killer for any chain drive bike for us.

Z1BEBE sez "Meh..., and it's too tall; lower seat height, please."
"The passenger seat borders on butt-floss & folds me up like a pretzel. I'm not 22 any more, and partially bionic. Wanna go Ridin' two-up? We're takin' one of the Z1's, one of the CB 750 Nighthawks (my red one preferably, 'cause it's prettier), or my ST1300. I wanna be comfortable for more than five minutes."

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

The Lime Green looks like a dirt bike. The other colors aren't that great either. I'd rather have a ZRex or Zephyr.

This 93 ZR1100 was on EB a month or so ago. Reserve not met. It was listed as used, but only had about 50 miles on the odometer & looked like a NOS motorcycle.

I like it... This past summer I was on my '78 LTD 1000 pulling out of a parking lot.. Paying more attention to the traffic and not vehicals in specific, I caught a climps of Kawasaki green flash by... What was that???... In my minds eye I saw a heavily modifiy late 70's bike... Well I had to see it... So becoming a stalker I proceeded to chase him down... From the rear it looked like a fat tire mod with a rear fender delet kit on a 1970 bike... Man I got more excited the closer I got from behind... Finally, I was able to pull up along side of him and at that point reilzed it was an '18 new Z900RS... I talked to him briefly and we aggreed to pull over, he was as interested in my '78 as I was in his... Short story long I like it... I had the same thought as BulletKZ, I would like to have old and new... What appealed to me was, it still has a good upright riding position....

The retro-bikes, one would think, would be successful like the Dodge Challenger or Ford Mustang, but they just never seem to sell, at all. I have yet to see a Kawasaki "W" bike on the street or even the CB 1100 retro. I come across KZ's at a 10:1 ratio compared to the Zephyrs ...maybe 50:1.

I can only guess that anyone wanting one, would rather just have the original, and the original is probably going to cost less to get into (before it's restored). Whereas the price of an original 1970 white Challenger is going to be astronomical for a decent runner.

I definitely need to sell my ducati and buy something that I can ride comfortably and have been looking at what to replace it with.
I don't know, it does everything like a modern sportbike but looks cool and it's comfortable.
But it doesn't look retro enough like the Honda cb, Ducati Paul smart or the triumph thruxton r.
I originally planned on buying the triumph thruxton r, but got tired of waiting for the ducati to sell so I bought my kz1000 to build my own . Then I started getting into the old Kawasakis and changed my mind.