“Great bike,smooth reliable and comfortable,and I'm 6'4. I've had mine from new,it's 8 years old and I still love it.U can ride it long distance effortlessly, but also great to go for a quick ride, keeps up with the sports bikes on the twisties,but is a hardcore ride with the power delivery,so not for the inexperienced. There are faster bikes now, and better handling bikes, but I'd only swap mine for the newer version, but no plans to do that in the near future.”
“Best bike I've had in my life and I'm 59 years old so I've had a lot of bikes
Super fast when you want it pussy cat round town traffic
Comfy on those long rides
And it goes round corners suprising fast for a big bike handles really well
Very Stable at speed”
“Before buying this bike I had a 2009 Fireblade so this might help those of you who are considering something a little less race orientated. The initial impression on my first test ride was that this was a heavy bike however once you have ridden it for a few miles you realize that it's quite nimble once you are moving. Its incredibly stable and inspires confidence on sweeping bends.
The torque is fantastic. As yet I have not used the engine to its limit as I want to keep my licence. Having said that, there's a real rush when you do use the power but the bike is so planted you don't get the "flying by the seat of your pants" feeling you get with the Fireblade. Brakes could be better in my opinion for such a ballistic missile. The addition of a servo would definitely help. I had a BMW K1200R with servo brakes for a short spell and the brakes were amazing. Bearing in mind that both bikes weigh about the same I'd say the ZZR needs a servo upgrade. If you have just moved on from a Fireblade you would definitely be looking for more brake power unless you have a vice like grip. The rear brake has to be really stood on to make it work.
Fuel economy is good on a run and you can easily get the claimed 45MPG and maybe more if you change up regularly at low revs. Around town and on short runs you are looking at about 38MPG. Considering you have 1441cc's on tap this good when compared to the Blade that gave me 45MPG and the K1200R 43MPG
1Corrosion resistance. Could be better. If you ride the bike in the winter you are going to have to use a good corrosion inhibitor or clean it after each ride. This applies to most bikes but the ZZR does seem to deteriorate quicker than the Blade due to a fairly light coating of zinc on unpainted parts. The discs show signs of rust pretty quickly.
Electrics. I had an issue with my gear change indicator after 10,000 miles. This was due to a poor connection in the gear position sender near the front drive sprocket. A Cleanup and re-grease sorted it but I was disappointed to have had to mess around with it, especially compared to my Blade experiences (1999 one had NO issues in 10 years. 2009 one had no issues in 3 years)”
