Cycle World : zx-14 & busa VS HYPERSPORTS

[christianjax]

Just for the record, I think they had a slow Busa for this test. Their quarter mile time was the slowest I've seen on the K8 in any magazine. I've seen 9.4, 9.6, 9.5 and they get a 9.9? That is enough of a difference to put the Busa at the top of the heap. I find it hard to believe that the ZX10 could beat the average K8 to 180mph. Just doesn't add up.

 

[MetalDisorder]

What does it take to get a little respect!

 

[Over_Easy]

Just for the record, I think they had a slow Busa for this test. Their quarter mile time was the slowest I've seen on the K8 in any magazine. I've seen 9.4, 9.6, 9.5 and they get a 9.9?  That is enough of a difference to put the Busa at the top of the heap.  I find it hard to believe that the ZX10 could beat the average K8 to 180mph.  Just doesn't add up.

They noted in the article that the 4,000+ feet in elevation likely effected performance.

 

[MetalDisorder]

Wouldnt that affect all bikes equally?

 

[select20]

Wouldnt that affect all bikes equally?

No, it can affect each bike differently.

 

[MetalDisorder]

Hmmm

 

[2Wheels2Live]

Until suzi or kawi steps up and makes a big dog with some serious liter beating steam those little sobs are going to be running us big boys ragged. For every step up the big bikes take the liters take 2. It doesn't help that the new busa is 20+lbs heavier than a first gen fully fueled either

As usual you want the quickest roll-on street bike get a liter......want comfort get a busa

The liters are just getting too advanced, the days of the big dogs ruling the street are over.

 

[gunmetalbusa]

I agree with "Rookie" the zx10 beating the K8 just doesn't add up. I went and bought the mag, read the article, and was very disappointed with the information. I find it hard to believe these liter bikes are busting the K8 during the high speed roll ons. I've read that the K8 hits the speed limiter hard, where the liter bikes struggle with those last high numbers. That alone should weigh in for the Busa. Aerodynamics, and torque advantages should also work to the K8's advantage. I'm thinking the numbers might reflect a gearing advantage that the liter bikes have. I have an O5 LE and I've switched with friends late model liter bikes,(CBR, R1). There is no comparing the difference in percieved power, that's for sure. The Busa is still king in my book!

 

[Wheelie]

Top speed ? we know the bikes are limited to 186mph, and the speed o's are pretty far off at those speeds, how did they get the bikes to reach those actual speeds, or did the read the speed-o's? and actual speed was less.


wee

 

[2Wheels2Live]

I agree with "Rookie" the zx10 beating the K8 just doesn't add up.  I went and bought the mag, read the article, and was very disappointed with the information.  I find it hard to believe these liter bikes are busting the K8 during the high speed roll ons.  I've read that the K8 hits the speed limiter hard, where the liter bikes struggle with those last high numbers.  That alone should weigh in for the Busa.  Aerodynamics, and torque advantages should also work to the K8's advantage.  I'm thinking the numbers might reflect a gearing advantage that the liter bikes have.  I have an O5 LE and I've switched with friends late model liter bikes,(CBR, R1).  There is no comparing the difference in percieved power, that's for sure.  The Busa is still king in my book!

Its a little dissapointing that a brand new busa is already getting beat in roll ons (which is the main type of street racing done) by the liters  

 Doesn't bode well at all for us busa guys  

 At least we still have the dragstrip by a slim margin.....

 

[Italian Trev]

I agree with "Rookie" the zx10 beating the K8 just doesn't add up.  I went and bought the mag, read the article, and was very disappointed with the information.  I find it hard to believe these liter bikes are busting the K8 during the high speed roll ons.  I've read that the K8 hits the speed limiter hard, where the liter bikes struggle with those last high numbers.  That alone should weigh in for the Busa.  Aerodynamics, and torque advantages should also work to the K8's advantage.  I'm thinking the numbers might reflect a gearing advantage that the liter bikes have.  I have an O5 LE and I've switched with friends late model liter bikes,(CBR, R1).  There is no comparing the difference in percieved power, that's for sure.  The Busa is still king in my book!

Its a little dissapointing that a brand new busa is already getting beat in roll ons (which is the main type of street racing done) by the liters  

 Doesn't bode well at all for us busa guys  

 At least we still have the dragstrip by a slim margin.....

Yea but how many times can you get to put it to the test?

The litres are uncomfortable track bikes with lights.

Anyone over 5ft 6 will find them cramped - give me my adult sized bad boy Busa everytime with it's bad ass looks and kick ass engine - it's the REAL WINNER in the real world

 

[shred is not dead]

remove the busa 08's speedlimiter in 6 and change the gearing(busa hits 300kmH in 5th !!) a la literbike and the result will be different

 

[MetalDisorder]

Yep

 

[2Wheels2Live]

remove the busa 08's speedlimiter in 6 and change the gearing(busa hits 300kmH in 5th !!) a la literbike and the result will be different

That brings up a good question, why do the factories gear the busa and 14 so much taller than the liters. Not sure why the big boys need to be geared for 200+ when the liters are geared for mid 180's? Specially since all bikes are now restricted to 186? The flagship dragstrip machines really need a little better "real world" gearing

 

[High-Gain Busa]

That brings up a good question, why do the factories gear the busa and 14 so much taller than the liters.

Helps keep the bloody front end down

They gave us the power... The gearing is up to us and cheap to alter. I took my 43 to 45 and what a difference that made. Here at 6000' pre-08's and 08's just dont lift off the ground without a snap or clutch help. Guys I ride with are amazed how the front comes up when the tach aproaches 7k... no help.

 

[2Wheels2Live]

That brings up a good question, why do the factories gear the busa and 14 so much taller than the liters.

Helps keep the bloody front end down

They gave us the power... The gearing is up to us and cheap to alter. I took my 43 to 45 and what a difference that made. Here at 6000' pre-08's and 08's just dont lift off the ground without a snap or clutch help. Guys I ride with are amazed how the front comes up when the tach aproaches 7k... no help.

I don't know how you guys stand the higher elevations. I had my 03 up to around 4300ft and it felt like it lost a third of its power  

 The throttle response just died and it seemed to take forever to pick up r's  

 6000ft? holy hell  

 

 

[john74]

i still cant believe a ZX10 can get up to 180mph faster than a K8 busa.......im willing to drag any liter back up to 180mph anyday,hopefully i will find one on the road while i have my camera mounted on the tank

 

[Clocker]

My opinion is that the article indicates that there are several very fast motorcycles out there for very reasonable prices. However, if I were solely looking to purchase a motorcycle with the quickest time to max. speed, I wouldn't buy one based on the data presented by CW. In general, my concerns center around the history and condition of the motorcycles, the meteorological conditions encountered during testing, and the number of runs / direction of runs. Additionally, there's something about the GPS data acquisition setup that bugs me. I'm not a journalist, so I know nothing about deadlines or space limitations, but I wonder, how difficult it would be to tell the readers the following?:
1. Was the motorcycle new, broken in properly, previously flogged by the press, or possibly, purpose-built for these sorts of tests and sent to the crusher afterwards?
2. Did all the motorcycles meet the vendors guidelines for serviceability prior to, and after the tests were conducted? Usually we have to assume that all the tolerances/levels are within spec., there are no fault code issues, and the air filters are clean.  
3. Test procedures. At the minimum, I would think that they would have attempted two runs in both directions, and tried to get them all in during a period when the meteoroligical conditions would have had minimal impact on the data acquired. The article leads me to believe that they did one run with each motorcycle, swapping the data acq. package (did they only have one?) to a different bike afterwards. If that's the case, then my guess is that the time interval between runs was at least 15 minutes. When you factor in the number of bikes tested, is it probable that the wind and temp/humidity changed over that period of time?  
4. They had problems acquiring data with Noonan's 'Busa. IIRC, it was something to do with his ignition having an effect on the VBox GPS. If it was EMI related, I wonder if the same anomaly was present to a lesser degree during runs with some of the other motorcycles, possibly having an impact on the data.
I own a K8 and absolutely love that motorcycle. With that being said, every time I read that article, I have a nagging suspicion that the ZX-14 got short-changed during parts of CW's test process.

 

[lacker]

Clocker nice observation....As I own a 14.The busa is a great bike also..

 

[ichiban]

tks for the article