2006 Kawasaki ZX-14 vs. Suzuki Hayabusa

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2006 ZX-14 vs. Hayabusa
7/15/2006
By Ken Hutchison

In this era of miniscule MP3 players, miniature data devices and dainty hybrid automobiles, it may not come as a surprise that some people truly believe bigger isn't always better. Well, there are exceptions, and in the case of the venerable Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa and the brand new Kawasaki ZX-14 Ninja, they would be wrong, dead wrong.

Everything about these two land-based projectiles is big. The bikes are big, the motors are big, and with the ability to surpass 100 mph in less than 5 seconds, the consequences of riding one while trying to push them to their limits can also be big.

For the last decade the Hayabusa has had a stranglehold on the ultimate-sportbike category, as Suzuki likes to call it, and has laid waste to all-comers. In the process, the Busa spawned a new genre where extended swingarms, chromed chassis and wicked paint jobs - supplemented by turbochargers and nitrous bottles - are a prerequisite for even being accepted into the group. Sure, there have been a few contenders over the years, but the Busa has beaten them all back with its combination of a bad-ass motor, a solid chassis and one of the most unique profiles ever seen on a modern motorcycle. It poses the question: Is there a contender out there that can dethrone the Hayabusa?

Yeah, it's brand new, it's called the Kawasaki ZX-14 and it absolutely rocks. But once you're the King of the Hill, like the Busa has been, you have to be knocked off, and that's where this test comes in. We put these two heavyweights through the gauntlet at three different venues in order to uncover the winner: A horsepower shootout on the dyno, a 36-hour 800-mile ride on the street, and to cap it all off a decisive head-to-head battle at the local dragstrip, to settle once and for all which bike is the baddest mo-fo in the valley.

The design of the Hayabusa has remained relatively unchanged since its introduction in late 1998 for the '99 model year. The bike was met with mixed reviews from the public, due initially to the sheer size of the bike as well as its bulbous aerodynamic bodywork and pointy nose. Once the news of its performance envelope was revealed, it rapidly matured to legendary status on the street. Nothing else could hope to hang with it at the strip, as it was the first production bike capable of running a 9-second quarter-mile. The Hayabusa has been a staple for dealers, as sales have steadily increased year after year, beating the sales number of the previous season since '99. Suzuki says more than 10,000 units were sold in 2005 alone.

In comparison, the ZX-14 was only introduced earlier this year. An entire faction of Kawasaki fans have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the biggest Ninja ever created, and we're here to decide if it was worth the wait. When the bike was unveiled at the famed Las Vegas Motor Speedway, we learned that Kawasaki intended to dethrone the Hayabusa with this bike. We discovered at the introduction that anyone with a bit of skill at the strip can post 10-second runs on the ZX, and our fast guy even ran an uncorrected 9.78 at 147 mph. The new ZX was purposely designed with the art of drag racing in mind, and the 186-mph-capable machine is stuffed to the rev limiter with the latest trick hardware from Tokyo. In the high-stakes world of drag racing it is the numbers that count, and Kawasaki knows it.
Holy Kaw
The first setting we pitted the new ZX against the Hayabusa was Hansen's Motorcycle's Dynojet 250 dyno. On paper, these two machines look close, so the only way to get the answers everyone is looking for is to run 'em on the dyno. The Hayabusa motor, which has been the bane of Kawasaki's existence for a few years now, is a 1299cc DOHC, 16-valve fuel-injected beast featuring an 11.0:1 compression ratio with an 81mm bore and 63mm stroke. The ZX-14 mill is a similar but bigger 1352cc DOHC, 16-valve fuel-injected fiend with a slightly larger bore and shorter stroke numbers, 84.0 x 61.0mm, and a 12.0:1 compression ratio.

First up: the Hayabusa. The Suzuki posted an imposing 155.9 horsepower at 9,900 rpm on its best run. The power curve gets the jump on the ZX-14 until just before 5,000 rpm and then arcs across the 150-hp mark around 8,600 rpm. Its torque output was equally impressive thanks to a whopping 94 lb-ft at 7,000 rpm. Again, the Busa takes the early lead with a 7-8 lb-ft advantage from 2,500 to 4,000 rpm. It's easy to see why this bike has been so popular with the speed-crazed freaks all over this miserable little politically-correct planet.

Next it was time to find out what the ZX-14 could do. Pre-run predictions ranged from 170 to 180 horsepower, but that would end up an optimistic postulation. The ZX could only muster a best run of 169.1 hp at 9,500 rpm. Pathetic, isn't it? Did you catch the sarcasm there? Nearly 170 horsepower from a stock bike - what is the world coming to? Seems pretty extraordinary but, wait, there's more. As impressive as the Busa torque figures are, the ZX holds a clear torque advantage over the reigning champ from 4,500 on to redline, pumping out its peak of 103 lb-ft at 7,800 rpm.

What you will notice is the big dip in the results at the very beginning of the ZX curve. Kawasaki claims to have engineered this so that the bike would be more user-friendly on the street. By contrast, the Hayabusa has no such safety measure, so you get a noticeably more-abrupt feeling from the throttle on it than the Kawasaki. Whereas the Suzuki feels like it wants to pull a wheelie as soon as you crack it open, the ZX-14 remains a bit more tranquil. It doesn't look so good on paper, but the Ninja's massive torque figures will quickly erase any notion that this is a shortcoming as soon as you dial-up some throttle.

With this disparity in both the horsepower and torque figures acknowledged, the Kawasaki is the unanimous winner in round one. On the dyno, the Ninja reigns supreme, but there are still two more arenas in which this battle is to be waged. Next up: The street ride.


Cannonball Run
Do you remember the theme song from Smokey and the Bandit? 'We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there.' Well, that's what kept playing in my head as we made our express run for the border of Northern California. It was Thursday morning and we were just leaving HQ in Medford, OR, and the plan was to drag race the bikes the next evening at the local Friday Night Drags at Champion Raceway. Our route would cover nearly 800 miles, starting with a 180-mile excursion down I-5 to NorCal's Red Bluff where we hooked-up with the curvy Highway 36. This was the start of the 180-mile run to the Pacific Coast and our destination at the end of day one, Arcata, CA. The next day we would complete the loop by riding up the Highway 101 past Crescent City before hooking up with Highway 199 that would take us almost the rest of the way home, through the Redwood Forest, up the Smith River canyon, past Illinois Valley and back to Medford, hopefully with time to spare. If you want to get from point-A to point-B in record time, might as well do it on than the fastest bikes ever built.

Droning down the freeway never is that much fun, but here in Oregon we're blessed with the Siskiyou mountain range that ensures the interstate is in fact a twisted one. Each bike offered up decent wind protection for a sportbike but the riding positions are markedly different. Both bikes are much more comfortable than any pure sportbike over the long haul, but your body size and personal preference will play a big part in which one will suit you best.

The Hayabusa has a much more sport-oriented riding position, so the lower, narrower bars put a bit of extra pressure on the rider's upper body and wrists while the pegs force your legs into a more acute angle. This pays dividends when the road turns into a roller coaster, but you pay for it during the long and boring stretches of the ride. The twin-spar aluminum frame and big fuel tank on the Busa causes it to feel wide between the knees and subsequently makes it feel even bigger than it really is.

The ZX bars are higher and the pegs feel lower, so the rider's body and legs are not in such a cramped position, but the heat emanating from the opening in the ZX bodywork is directed onto your thighs. That fissure of warmth was useful when it got cold, but it wasn't so great in the heat and was really noticeable around town. The monocoque frame wraps over the motor rather than around it, which keeps the girth to a minimum relative to the Suzuki. The tank feels narrower too, so when you climb on the ZX after riding the Hayabusa it feels like a smaller bike. Wind protection from the Ninja's windscreen and the bodywork is quite a bit better thanks to its enormous front cowling.

Both seats are equally wide and supportive, so it took a while to figure out any shortcomings. After swapping bikes a couple times and spending close to an hour in the saddle, the ZX feels like it is pushing the rider forward into the tank. Its seat is comfortable, but it packs down near the tank after about an hour in the saddle - sitting further rearward helps. The Busa seat is plush, but after awhile it irritates a rider as it starts to mold to the shape of your butt cheeks. In both cases, a rider benefits from repositioning on the seats for maximum endurance.

The counter-balanced engines are super-smooth with very little in the way of vibration making its way through the bars. In fact the ZX feels downright silky and only gets vibey once the tach swings past 4500 rpm. In contrast, the Busa motor sent more vibes into the bars, but it too was very smooth and only started to get annoying after 4500 rpm. In either case, those revs equal about 90 mph, so it can be argued that this is barely worth a mention. The instruments of both machines include temperature, fuel, dual tripmeters, and clock, but the ZX's LCD information screen nestled nicely between the speedo and tach (including a gear-position indicator) looks new and high tech compared to the Suzuki's bland dials and faux-carbon-fiber frame. The mirrors on the Busa are partially obstructed by the rider's elbows whereas the ZX stalks are longer and place the mirrors farther out, which offer up an unobstructed view but makes for a long reach to adjust them once you're underway. On these bikes, it's important to keep your eyes peeled and your butt covered since the fuzz often approaches from the backside of its prey.

Suspension on either bike is very good, and stability from the long wheelbases, 58.5 inches for the Busa and 57.5 for the Ninja, make for pleasant highway rides. They both feature a fully-adjustable 43mm inverted fork complimented by a single shock at the rear. No matter which way you go, you can rest assured both of these bikes roll down the road like a freight train running on velvet rails. They made believers out of us during the long freeway ride to our first stop at Railroad Park Resort. This little gem features cabins that are actually retired cabooses from the not-too-distant past, tucked away secretly against the backdrop of Castle Crags State Park in northern California.

 

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It took some convincing for MCUSA photog Tom Lavine to give up shooting scenic photos and keep pushing on toward our hotel before we burned too much time. At this point, the ZX's comfier riding position, smoother engine and better fairing protection were giving it an advantage during highway burning. It's positively loafing at 80 mph, and the onboard computer reveals a respectable 40-mpg in the process.


An hour later we were hitting the cut-off to Highway 36, which would be the real sporting portion of the ride and a new favorite route for our next sportbike test. Within 20 miles the road was so twisty and full of crazy-ass blind corners, rises and dips that I started to get giddy at the prospect of another 120 miles of asphalt insanity.

This is a road the separates the pretenders from the contenders, to which the myriad of skid marks leading off into the ditch attested. Since no one was familiar with this route, it put a premium on braking and flickability. Well-designed sweepers, downhill decreasing radius turns, braking-bump infested mountain roads covered in pea-gravel and even a long stretch of rough single-lane switchbacks made sure we sampled every type of road you could possibly be faced with.

During photo shoots, where we rode the bikes back-to-back through the same sections repeatedly, to our surprise the Hayabusa, despite having a 1-inch longer wheelbase and less aggressive rake and trail figures (24.2 degrees x 97mm versus 23.0 degrees x 94mm for the ZX), was easier to manhandle in the turns. And weight doesn't play a role, as these two blasters scale in almost identically with their tanks empty: the ZX at 527 lbs to the Busa's 530.

The Suzuki's agility and a more aggressive riding position made it feel more comfortable navigating the turns at a faster pace. The Hayabusa was starting to close the gap on the Kawasaki after a couple hours in the really twisty stuff.

"In my opinion, the Busa wins hands-down," says Lavine. "That bike simply does what I expect a motorcycle to do, and that is getting around a corner with ease. I would have never thought I would be interested in either of these two bikes. I mean, they are big and heavy, and their only claim to fame is their ET. The fact is they both offer a very nice ride and tremendous acceleration."

The Ninja requires slightly more effort to turn in and the wider bars and mellow riding position give the bike more of a sport-touring feel than the sportier-feeling Suzuki. This is good news to the majority of folks who will likely take this bike on long rides rather than hitting trackdays with it. It may not feel as flickable as the Suzuki but the ZX still tackles the turns pretty well, especially the long sweepers and fast switchbacks. The Ninja holds a rock-steady line once muscled into a turn.

These bikes are more suited to point-and-shoot riding than they are to finesse or carrying lots of corner speed, so take it for what its worth. The Busa feels more competent in the tighter stuff and the ZX is at home on the more open turns where you can bend it in and pour on the gas to make a bee-line for the next turn. When you're pinning it in the bottom three gears of one of these bad boys, even for a few seconds, the brakes better be up to task or you'll be picking guardrail out of your teeth (or vice-versa).

Accelerating between corners on 160-hp behemoths allowed for a serious test of the binders, and the Kawasaki emerged as the clear-cut favorite. The Hayabusa features traditionally-mounted six-piston calipers, whereas the ZX-14 is equipped with trendy radial-mount 4-piston calipers and petal-style rotors. They are stronger, smoother and offer considerably more feel at the lever. The Hayabusa brakes are plenty capable and when sampled on their own they are pretty good. Unfortunately, they just don't perform at the same level as the ZX brakes do. Plus, the Busa rear brake was not good at all. It required a long throw at the pedal to even begin slowing, and even then it was either on or off. Despite what Lavine thinks, the advantage here goes to Kawasaki.

Eventually we made our way through this marvelous road and merged onto Highway 101 south of Eureka for the last few miles of day one. It was cold and dark, so we took this opportunity to compare headlights for the consumers who really need to know. The Hayabusa low-beams get the nod but the ZX high beams are simply awesome. Too bad you can't leave them on for long because oncoming traffic starts flashing you from miles away, UFOs initiate their final approach, and. well, you get the point.

Cruising through the stop-sign riddled ocean town revealed that although the Hayabusa clutch isn't stiff, the ZX clutch action is the lighter of the two. Also, when accelerating away from a stop, the Suzuki felt more abrupt, a fact attributed to Kawasaki's effort to tame the power production in the lower 4,000 rpm compared to the Suzuki which is always chomping the bit and raring to go. No matter which bike you are on, they both feel big when you're backing them into a parking space or maneuvering them in the garage. You feel the weight a lot more when you're using man-power than when the bikes are rolling down the road.

We finished up the ride with one of our classic routes through the Redwood Forest, past my hometown and back to the office. Without even realizing it, I was going 25-mph over in a stretch I know is littered with fuzz, and that sums these bikes up. You must pay attention at all times because the danger associated with riding a nearly 200-mph vehicle takes many different forms. Just ask Duke Danger, who got popped for speeding when he was "taking it easy" on SoCal's Angeles Forest highway.

These bikes will spend the majority of their time on the street, and which one makes the better choice depends on what you're looking for. Both bikes have different riding positions yet feel similar in that they are so smooth, huge and fast. The Hayabusa works better in the tight turns, but the ZX was even smoother and more stable in the wide, fast stuff, so the right thing to do is call this round a draw.

"Although it's surpassed by the new ZX-14 in both power and comfort, the trusty old Suzuki warhorse acquits itself quite ably," explains Kevin Duke. "It feels more like a sportbike than the Kawi, and its charms can be best summed up by saying that it would be a better trackday mount than the ganglier ZX."

This means that the Hayabusa will have to win the acceleration battle in order to retain the title.


Fight Club
One of the allures of the Hayabusa has always been that it is a force to be reckoned with at the dragstrip, even in stock trim. Thousands of happy Hayabusa owners will argue that the bike doesn't meet its full potential without anything less than a bottle of nitrous-oxide attached to it, but even more owners can say its fine just the way it is. After all, the bike is really, really fast right off the showroom floor. It is for this very reason that Kawasaki went through such great lengths to make sure their challenger had the muscle and the engineering to go head-to-head with the Busa in the arena it has owned for nearly a decade.

We just couldn't wait to find out how they would fare in the quarter mile, so we signed up for our local Friday Night Drags to see how the two monsters would do in some bracket racing. We're happy to see a trend at most drag strips encouraging street racers to take it to the track. It's safe and fun, and you get a grandstand full of people listening as the announcer pumps you up.

 

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I took the task of controlling the potentially slower Hayabusa, since I had spent quite a bit of time at the strip during the ZX's introduction. Brian Chamberlain, MCUSA's Creative Director, would be riding the ZX-14 in his first foray into dragracing. We survived three practice runs and discovered that bracket racing on a dragstrip is not as easy as it looks. For the first round of eliminations we both lined up against a couple of street riders and, honestly, we felt we were going to win our respective races and end up in a mano-e-mano battle for the bike class title, as well as the inter-office trophy.

That pipedream was quickly extinguished when the Gixxer punk, who showed up late and only got one run in during practice on his 1000, waxed me off the line and eliminated me in my first race. BC took a win on the ZX and now I was in the loser bracket where I was promptly dispatched in Race 2 by a kid in a '66 Mustang with a 6-second head start. Reaction time can be a killer and, as you can see in the video, I was caught sleeping at almost every light. BC lost his semi-final race against that same Gixxer pilot and was subsequently dropped to the loser bracket which set up the anti-climatic final showdown of our drag strip competition. Both of us dialed-in a 10.0 so there would be no excuses this time.

We rolled to the staging lights in a cloud of smoke after an extended burn-out to get the crowd fired-up and assumed the starting pose. My heart was pounding and all I could think of was how much grief I would get if Chamberlain beat me when he had zero drag racing experience. The yellow lights trickled down while we sat there pondering the prospect of losing and having to face the heckling for months to come. The tree went green and fortunately our sloth-like reaction times didn't come back to haunt either of us in this contest.

BC was off the line first in .333 on the ZX while I launched in .425 aboard the Busa. The first 60-feet went to the rider with the better clutch hand, as I got a strong launch out of the hole and made it past the 60-foot mark in 1.870 seconds to BC and the ZX's 1.956. Both bikes were still burning-out and trying to wheelie but they were side-by-side and piling on mph like crazy.

The Busa and I arrived at the 330-foot mark in 4.683 seconds to the ZX's 4.867 seconds had a 0.226-second lead by the eighth-mile mark. Both bikes were passing 110-mph with the Suzuki ahead by a fraction, midway down the track. The gap remained the same for the next half of the race, so the Hayabusa took the win with an uncorrected ET of 10.484 at 135.48 mph while the ZX-14 crossed the line in 10.683 at 137.65 mph. Both were our best runs of the night. Advantage: Suzuki. For the moment.

This microcosm of the battle for class supremacy was won in the first 60-feet, but there's more to drag racing than pure acceleration. It was impressive that Chamberlain was able to do as well as he did, a testament to the design of the ZX-14, for which Kawasaki offers an impressive dragracing contingency program. Funny thing is, these same bikes had just completed nearly 1000 miles of sport touring with soft-saddlebags just a few hours earlier. The lesson we learned here is that the Hayabusa is not going to go down quietly. It was going to take our resident drag-meister, Duke Danger, to find out precisely how fast these machines perform through the quarter mile and beyond.


Dangerous Velocity
When the Hayabusa arrived on scene its top speed of 190-some-mph started making some politicians around the world nervous. Euro safety-crats coerced the manufacturers to limit top speeds of production motorcycles to 186 mph since the 2000 model year. This fact is a heartbreaker for some people, but it really doesn't take anything away from these bikes which offer unparalleled levels of power and acceleration.

If you have an insatiable need for speed, we are here to tell you exactly how much time and precisely how fast you will be going in order to reach your destination, if it's under a mile from the house. Cue the Mozart-inspired intro, its Danger time.

Everyone knows the Hayabusa is capable of posting amazing acceleration numbers, but we had never officially recorded a single high-speed pass on the bike and only a half-dozen runs at the drag strip, so we were anxious to get the data from Duke's test runs. We had turned quite a few passes on the ZX-14 (and had it dang-near tapped on the banks of Las Vegas Motor Speedway), so we knew it was faster than hell. At long last it was finally time to find out just what they both are capable of with one fast rider at the controls and no lights or dial-in times to muddle the outcome.

After coming up on the short end of the 'unofficial' quarter-mile contest with BC at the controls, the ZX-14 was primed to put the Hayabusa in its place. And it did. Duke's best corrected pass on the Busa was a 9.85 at 149.8 mph - and that was set with just four runs for each bike. Damn near 150 mph in less than 10 seconds is plain crazy, but the ZX was even faster. Kawasaki engineered the ZX-14 with straight-line performance in mind, and it paid off in this showdown. It ran an impressive 9.65 at 153.2 mph, only a couple of tenths off the best corrected time (9.46) Duke set during the ZX's press introduction in Las Vegas where he made at least 20 passes.

And the acceleration train doesn't stop at 150. Although the Hayabusa begins to narrow the gap to the ZX after 170 mph, the Kawasaki arrives at 180 mph a half-second ahead of the Suzuki: 18.90 seconds vs. 19.42. Both bikes kept accelerating to a true 184 mph (even if the speedos were reading well above that mark) but stopped short of 185 due to the ECU programming restrictions. In reality, there's not a big difference in acceleration times, but in a world where success is judged a quarter mile at a time, the Ninja comes out on top. Advantage: Kawasaki.
Final Analysis
When the smoke cleared, the riot police returned to headquarters, and the orphans stopped weeping, it was time for the victor of this epic saga to claim its place at the top of the food chain.

On the dyno the ZX drew first blood with a 13 horsepower and 9-lb-ft advantage in the motor war. On our sport-touring ride the Busa redeemed itself and pulled off a draw, which meant the final decision would be made on the long straight road. The Hayabusa started things off with a near knockout punch at the dragstrip but the pure numbers without taking the rider-ability into play was the final factor. The real-world performance numbers attained from our Vbox data-acquisition system at our top-secret testing facility ultimately decided the winner.

"For what is the quickest-accelerating street-legal vehicle ever sold to the public, the ZX-14 can be a docile plaything," muses Duke Danger. "Keep the revs low and it's a Gentlemen's Express kind of machine, suave and effortless. That said, the blue bomber will positively take your breath away when you give it the reins, compressing time and space with a force unequalled from anything with a license plate. It lunges forward with a ferocity that makes even a speed junkie nervous."

After seven years of ruling the streets, the Hayabusa has been deposed by the more-powerful and better-refined Kawasaki ZX-14. The big Ninja took a clear win in two out of three categories, so we must anoint the 2006 Kawasaki ZX-14 Ninja as the new king of the street.

 

[kerpal]

Hmm.. Can it go up against a Ducatti??

 

[andykhol23]

I hope Suzuki will look seriously towards this and will not let the Ninja to rule more.

 

[diamondgoldsilv]

This is a road the separates the pretenders from the contenders, to which the myriad of skid marks leading off into the ditch attested. Since no one was familiar with this route, it put a premium on braking and flickability.