![\"2001](\"http:\/\/www.ridelikeaturtle.com\/sport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_5510-1024.jpg\")
<\/a>Big and bad, its 1164cc of muscle.<\/p><\/div>\n
The big ZRX1200R ticked all the boxes: loads of torque, heaps of style, comfortable for two, and seemingly undervalued in the current market. There aren\u2019t too many of these floating around \u2013 and if you see one, it\u2019s probably green \u2013 and it\u2019s likely because once you have one you want to keep it.<\/p>\n
Being a big Kawasaki, you aren\u2019t exactly aiming for super-exclusivity, and you\u2019re not getting superbike-levels of performance.<\/p>\n
But for me, this is exactly what I was after. The battery is huge, the seat is huge, the brakes are huge, the storage and luggage capability is huge \u2013 everything is huge on this bike! And as a result, it weighs a ton \u2013 roughly 56kgs more than the\u00a02002 Honda CBR900RR2 Fireblade. So the shortcomings I\u2019ve experienced with sportsbikes are gone, as this bike is comfortable and beefy enough to handle any extra weight of tankbags, tailpacks or pillions.<\/p>\n
<\/a>It looks very nice in purple (\u201cmidnight blue\u201d) and silver, with gold accents.<\/p><\/div>\n
Pushing it into and out of the shed is a different experience, and not for the faint-hearted. But it\u2019s a small price to pay for what I think might be the perfect compromise between \u201csporty\u201d and \u201ccruiser\u201d.<\/p>\n
And have you seen a swingarm like the ZRX\u2019s? The competition \u2013 the Yamaha XJR1300, the Suzuki GSX1400, and the Honda CB1300 \u2013 all have fairly standard, and ugly, box-type swingarms. Instead, Kawasaki have created something just slightly more interesting to go along with the retro \u201cEddie Lawson\u201d paint scheme.<\/p>\n