HANDLING, RIDE QUALITY AND BRAKING
Getting a hang of the Ninja on straights, it’s easy to get intimidated on corners- thanks again to the size of the motorcycle. But a couple of laps around a variety of bends, and the Ninja begins to feel like your everyday bike. The Bridgestone Battlax tyres at both ends offer tremendous grip and confidence to reduce the lean angle on every successive turn. Throttle response is impeccable and as mentioned earlier, fifth gear offers enough torque to pull you out of the corners even with the revs dropping to as low as 3000 rpm.
The Ninja 1000 happily says NO to clutching or downshifting to get that power to the wheels in the real world – all it needs is input from your right wrist. Missed your line? Dab on the brakes, correct your line and whack the throttle- the Ninja is back on track. Again for its size, the Ninja 1000 turns quick into corners and changes direction in a hurry as if it has shed half its weight. It’s an amazing corner carver and an extremely forgiving motorcycle that would bring more grins on your face than gushes of adrenalin in your veins.
Ride quality wise the 2014 Kawasaki Ninja 1000 is a comfortable bike for everyday riding conditions. Though not as upright, the riding position feels very similar to the Ninja 650R. The seat feels firm but not hard and with ample room to move about- the rider could easily shift position to his comfort. In conjunction with its higher positioned handlebars and the near-perfect placed rear-sets, the Ninja 1000 would easily accommodate any rider size. Comfort level on the pillion seat is quite different from that of the rider and we frankly feel should be good only for shorter distances.
We didn’t fiddle with the suspension settings and found the stock configuration to be perfectly balanced for mixed riding style. Bigger undulations did manage to disturb the comfort levels, but the Ninja does offer you the option to tweak up the suspension for a more pampering ride. So, pull up the windscreen to touring position and you’re ready to ride into the horizon.
The 2014 Kawasaki Ninja 1000 simply delighted us at every test we put to it, and braking was no different. The all new monobloc radial-mount front brake calipers coupled with new-gen ABS endows the motorcycle with incredible braking ability. The feedback from the front is extremely linear and predictable to the extent that you will actually breeze to a halt much before your decided point. The ABS works wonderfully well and you would really have to do something stupid to lock the front. The rear brake too has the right amount of bite and complements the front brakes extremely well. This had to be one of the best set of brakes we have ever encountered on a motorcycle.
NEXT PAGE FOR CONCLUSION AND TECH SPECS
Deepak it was really a delight to read your reviews.
You really dig deep into i=single screws in the machines.
Prce is only the issue , then everything deserves standing ovation
Thanks man
@Vikram/ Nishant: Thanks a lot for the kind words. Yeah I did love riding the Ninja 1000 a lot 🙂
@Sidharth: Thanks a lot for the comment. Regret of not posting a side angle of the motorcycle. In fact we had clicked a lot more pics of the Ninja. Unfortunately our other camera was flicked by a localite during the shoot 🙁
Dear Ed, at least post one side profile shot (no fancy angles) of the bike to give an idea of it's design and proportions. Thanks
love this
Deepak it was a delight to read this review either its because of my love for this machine or yours which is evident in your writing.
Any ways thanks for a wonder full read.