NAUGHTY NAUGHTIES NINJA ZX-10R LIVING WITH AN ’05
Rich West’s ZX-10R has captured his heart like no other bike has done before. He tells us why…
Igot this bike four years ago now, after wanting one for ages. In fact I’d wanted one as soon as this model first came out – remember reading about them being a bit of a hooligan bike. The stats were great; light, powerful, and straight away they got the bad boy reputation that I really liked. I’ve always like the look of this one too, so when the opportunity came to swap my old Aprilia RSV Mille R for this 2004 ZX-10R I jumped at the chance.
I usually change my bikes fairly frequently, in fact I can’t remember the last time I kept a bike for more than one season, but I have had this one a while now and I’m still not bored of it. It’s just what a sports bike should be, loud, lairy and a bit of a handful.
When I got it, it’d had a few parts chucked at it, like the Nitron Pro Race shocker, the Austin Racing end-can, rear sets and steering damper. The kid had spent a fair amount of money on it and you could tell he’d looked after it.
I mainly used it for road miles although I do like doing the odd trackday every now and again. All my mates are pretty quick riders so we do like to get a bit of a move on when we ride on the road, and it’s perfect for that. It keeps up with newer stuff easily, I know it doesn’t quite match the newer bikes’ power figures but realistically you don’t get many opportunities to use all that power on the road anyway. And it’s certainly more than a match for bikes a similar age; I’ve not ridden a brand new ZX-10, but I reckon with the Nitron Shock and the K-Tech fork internals it probably handles as good as the modern day version. I love the adjustability you get with aftermarket suspension, and if it hadn’t been on the bike when I bought it, I probably would have gone down the route of getting some anyway – I’ve got it set up perfectly for the track, and I leave it as it is for the road. It is quite stiff, but it comes into its own when you start pushing it a bit and it always goes round corners as fast as I need it to (probably faster than I need it to).
One think I have struggled with, though, when I have been really pushing it on the road or when we have been on trackdays, is the brakes fading. It was quite bad when I first got it but I put some Hell braided brake lines on and fresh fluid and that helped. I’m running EBC dual sintered pads and I’ve put a Brembo master cylinder on too so the brakes are really sharp now. I still suffer a bit with brake fade every now and again; it’s nothing like what it was but it’s still noticeable, so I put a remote span adjuster on so I can wind the lever out a bit if it gets bad. I think I’m maybe just a little bit heavy on the brakes.
Because I like the bike so much and I know I’m going to keep it for a while, I’ve treated it to a few other upgrades. I put an HM quickshifter on, which has been great, some blue hoses, a Harris fuel filler cap and some NRC engine covers. I’m thinking of getting a Translogic dash too, as the standard one is crap. You can’t see the speedo properly and it doesn’t have a gear position indicator on it so I have had to fit an aftermarket one.
I love riding it because it’s all the things a good sports bike should be. It’s light, it’s fast and I think it handles really well. The only thing that lets it down for me as far as the engine goes is the midrange, and it doesn’t have a great deal of grunt low down either, but when it gets going it’s a right good laugh. As soon as you learn how it needs to be ridden it’s never ever boring. The harder you ride it the more fun it is; the motor is dying to be revved and the Austin Racing can sounds great when you’re ringing its neck.
I’ve ridden new bikes, and the ZX-10 isn’t anywhere near as refined as the modern stuff, but it’s lacking a lot of the technology that comes with newer bikes. It feels a lot rawer, but I like that about it. It’s got more of a race bike feel to it and it’s before traction control, ABS and all that nonsense got a stranglehold on riding bikes. To me it’s among the last of the great analogue bikes, along with stuff like the K5 Gixer – everything is done with your right hand. It’s the way it should be; completely raw.
I’ve done a lot of miles on it and since I have had it, it’s been fairly reliable. Last year I had a problem with the gearbox caused by a dodgy second gear which I’ve heard is a common fault with them. I rode around with it for a few weeks just short shifting to third but it didn’t take long before it was totally gone. Unfortunately it’s a case of taking the engine out and splitting the cases to get the gearbox out, which was a bit of a pain, but I soon got it sorted and we were back on the road in no time. The gearbox parts were dead easy to get hold of. Other than the gearbox I haven’t had any real problems with it, but I do like to look after it well and I try to keep everything well maintained.
I have got some fairly exciting things in the pipeline for the ZX-10; I’ve just bought an ex Vivaldi British Superbike engine so I’m hoping to get that in during the next few weeks. It’s going to be a really special bike
with that top-spec motor in and I can’t wait to see what it’s going to be like. The standard ZX-10 engine is lacking a bit of bottom end so fingers crossed the BSB engine will have a bit more grunt, as well as a load more top end power. I don’t want to have to limit the miles I do on the bike once I’ve put the new engine in, so I have decided not to flash the ECU so I can keep the 12,500rpm rev limit. I’ll service it regularly too so I’m hoping I can maintain the reliability and longevity of the engine. But if nothing else it’s going to be great for bragging rights – it was built by Chris Mayhew and cost £20k apparently. I picked it up for £1,200 and if you ask me it’s worth that just for the Nova gearbox that’s in it. I think I will keep the original engine as a spare though, you never know what’s going to happen!
I’ve also got some 16.5in PVM wheels to pick up; they were used in BSB by Scott Smart, so they will be going on it as well. They come with Brembo discs, too. They’ll look ace but I know it’s going to be a nightmare trying to find rubber for them, I’m probably going to end up having to run cut slicks, or wets on them. I’ve got some PVM narrow track discs but I can’t find callipers for them anywhere, so I won’t be able to run them until I find some. Has anyone got any for sale?
I think what I love most about my bike is just how much fun you can have on it for what it’s actually worth. For less than £4,000 you can have something that keeps up with a brand new £20,000 superbike. I know it might not be as fashionable but for less than 20% of the price you can have more than 80% of the fun. That’s the way I look at it anyway. It’s a cheap way to get your thrills and it has meant I could spend a bit more cash on getting the upgrades that I want as well as proper special stuff like the BSB engine that will be getting fitted shortly. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the perfect tool for the road and perfect for me on track. I absolutely love the bike so I can’t see me getting rid of it any time soon, and while it still holds its own against the new stuff I don’t see the point in chopping it in. As long as it keeps making me smile the way it does, there will be a space for it in my garage.