z900 quater mile time

B

bobl

Well-known member
I looking for a new ride, and have kind of' settled on either a the standard z900 Kaw, or gxs-s1000 Suzuki. The only quarter mile time I can find for the z900 is in Motorcycle Consumer News, and they no longer actually test, they compute with a formula. Their time listed is 12.2. I don't see how a bike with about 110 rear wheel horsepower and weighing 465 could be slower through the quarter than my 30 year old Yamaha Fazer 700 (11.8 from old Cycle World road test. Google searches only produce the piss poor road tests that today's magazines do these days, without quarter times. Any body got a reference?

Thanks.:afm199
 
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Surj

Surj

Uneasy Rider
Are you really shopping for a bike based on the quarter mile time?

Never mind.

Anyway, here you go. "Gathered from numerous credible sources," which probably include MCN, since it's showing 12.2 seconds.

We've tested both, but don't do quarter mile times because we don't have a drag strip and don't give a shit. The Z900 is a good bike, but we all pretty much preferred the Z900RS, despite it's blatant nostalgia.

We tested the Suzuki too, a few years back. Kickass power, a little too twitchy in fueling at the time. Nowhere near as engaging as the RS, which is a little surprising to say because I generally don't like fours as much as I loved that bike. It's probably top three for the last 18 months, for me.
 
Johndicezx9

Johndicezx9

Rolls with it...
As a Z900 owner it has more than enough power to get you in, and out, of trouble.

I also considered the GSX-S, but I liked the z styling a little better. I do like the new Katana, though.
 
DataDan

DataDan

Mama says he's bona fide
bobl said:
I looking for a new ride, and have kind of' settled on either a the standard z900 Kaw, or gxs-s1000 Suzuki. The only quarter mile time I can find for the z900 is in Motorcycle Consumer News, and they no longer actually test, they compute with a formula. Their time listed is 12.2. I don't see how a bike with about 110 rear wheel horsepower and weighing 465 could be slower through the quarter than my 30 year old Yamaha Fazer 700 (11.8 from old Cycle World road test. Google searches only produce the piss poor road tests that today's magazines do these days, without quarter times.
Click to expand...
Holy shit, that's a terrible estimate.

I ended my 24 years as an MCN subscriber in part because they quit performance-testing bikes and started publishing "estimates" instead. But I happen to have the issue with the Z900 vs. FZ-09 comparison (August 2017), and it has an equally stupid estimate for the Yamaha, 12.1@112. It's like they had some non-moto droid plug in numbers and run the app, but the editor didn't check for a reasonable result before shipping it off to the printer.

About 10 years ago I put together a motorcycle quarter-mile model that takes weight, hp, and top speed as input. At the time, I checked the results against my Motorcycle Performance Database from Hell (a compilation of MCN test data going back to 1995) and found that they were within a tenth of a second or two, and +/- a few MPH. So I dug it out of the archives and ran it on the Z900. Assuming the MCN weight and dyno results, and a 150mph top speed, it came up with 10.6 for the Z900 and 10.7 for the FZ-09.

Now, WTF could they have done to get it so wrong? On a hunch, I ran my model SUBSTITUTING TORQUE FOR HORSEPOWER. Bingo. With 67hp instead of 116 for the Kawasaki, my model estimated 12.1@ 107. Making the same error for the Yamaha resulted in 12.0 @ 107.


FWIW, I think quarter-mile MPH is a good metric for comparing bikes on the "How hard is she gonna accelerate?" scale.
 
banshee01

banshee01

Well-known member
Jus
Johndicezx9 said:
As a Z900 owner it has more than enough power to get you in, and out, of trouble.

I also considered the GSX-S, but I liked the z styling a little better. I do like the new Katana, though.
Click to expand...

This I also have one in my garage. The bike is plenty fast. My 701 is probably a closer to the quarter mile time you listed. My wife walks away from me on the z900 when we race in a straight line.

I have ridden the gsxs1000 also, that bike is very fast and will leave the z900 behind but i prefer the z900 to ride.

My wife says the z900 is Santa's fastest reindeer
 

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HadesOmega

HadesOmega

Well-known member
Haven't got a chance to ride a Z900 but I rode a Z900RS and it was great lots of power. I'm lookin to sell my ZR7 soon and if I was to grt another similar bike it'd be a Z900RS or Z900.

I rode the GSXS1000F and it's really fast too. The throttle is a little sensitive at the beginning of it's twist though.

I'd say both those bikes could do 12 or better on the quarter mile.
 
ScottRNelson

ScottRNelson

Mr. Dual Sport Rider
Have the magazines pretty much stopped publishing quarter miles times?

Out of curiosity I'm wondering that my KTM 1090 Adventure R is supposed to do in the quarter mile and haven't been able to find anything at all online.

What I really want to know is what the quarter mile times and mph are for the four different riding modes. But I'm sure nobody has tried that.
 
ST Guy

ST Guy

Well-known member
Don't make your decision based on quarter mile times. That's a sure path to disappointment.
 
DTM74

DTM74

It's not my fault...
Turbo Busa!

I had a GSX-S1000 for a couple years. It's a great all around bike. Plenty of power and insane after 8k RPMs. If I still commuted to work, I'd still have it. I put a throttle tamer on it and it pretty much solved the 'sensitive' throttle.
 
DTM74

DTM74

It's not my fault...
Sharky said:
I got my finger on the collective pulse of BARF as well as the NOS button!
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:laughing

1967-mustang-fastback-gone-in-60-seconds-eleanor-nitrous-go-baby-go-button.jpg
 
elskipador

elskipador

elskipador@gmail.com
having been to the strip several times i can tell you that q times have a strong correlation to the skill of the rider.
 
gixxerjeff

gixxerjeff

Dogs best friend
elskipador said:
having been to the strip several times i can tell you that q times have a strong correlation to the skill of the rider.
Click to expand...

Not to mention the level of abuse you want to put your motorcycle through.
I could probably get near what my bike is *capable* of but that doesn't mean I want to put it through what it takes to get those numbers.
 
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