Ninja 1000SX

by Bill Roberson from https://www.forbes.com It’s raining and I’m sheltering in place with my family, which sadly means no motorcycle riding as spring weather imminently arrives in the Northwest. Thankfully, Kawasaki just broke the boredom by holding a model reveal online, as is the sudden new norm, and the new bike is the 2020 Ninja 1000SX. It looks to be another fine machine from the always capable Kawasaki. But after the presentation, I found myself wandering down memory lane (and through digitized photos) to the first and only Ninja I personally owned. In the early 1990’s, I happened across a pristine first-gen Top Gun era 1986 GPz 900 Ninja in bone-stock, unblemished like-new condition (below). Resplendent in original red, white and blue livery, it was by that time somewhat of a performance relic, but I bought it anyway because, well, I had always wanted one and the price was right. Compared to the back-road-strafing Suzuki GSX-R 750 I was riding at the time, it was heavy, a bit wobbly when pressed in the curves, and big. But still, it was just so cool. It still is. One weekend, a riding buddy and I saddled up our respective bikes with some soft bags and headed out to parts unknown in the wide-open (and very lightly patrolled) reaches of eastern Oregon. Midway into a long leg of the trip, my cohort was complaining about the uncomfortable riding position of his mount and tried everything from using the rear pegs to sitting on towels to soothe the pain. But I had made an unexpected discovery: That big, heavy GPz Ninja was a near-perfect sport-touring machine, with a supple yet sporty suspension, a comfortable seat, a near-perfect bar-seat-peg triangle (for myself at least), and a willing, powerful engine. That was the first of many […]