Green Tornado Comes Home - Kawasaki Z800 2015

Hola !!

As every other biker, it was a dream come true for me the day I picked up Z !

A bit about my bikes.

First motorcycle I rode - Dad's Bullet of 1980 which we still own and is part of our family now. I love to ride Bullet only when I am feeling lazy and thump at 50-60kmph. Basically it was not my types.



During my college days, got MY first bike in 2006, it was a "Honda Unicorn". I was sold on Unicorn for it's refinement , the mono shocks, the power delivery (compared to Bullet). Had the bike till 2010 and it was a pleasure riding her and it was very sad to depart from her. But it was time to move on.



July 2010, after departing with my Unicorn I had to buy a new bike. I wanted an upgrade with a limited budget and the options I had were P220, Karizma, RTR180. Without a second thought I went and booked a Yellow Karizma. I had ridden the ZMA earlier and I knew what exactly I wanted. When I went to book the ZMA, I did check out the ZMR and I loved the Speedo ONLY !! :D

Why I bought a ZMR ? Thanks to my Mom :) After seeing ZMA and ZMR together , my Mom insisted me to buy ZMR. I told her the bike is above my budget, she said you are not buying often so buy the ZMR. And made my Dad sponsor the difference money :D. To add, delivery of ZMR was readily available but ZMA was boasting a good 2 months waiting period. The Blue ZMR comes home :). So far ownership of ZMR has been pleasurable except for few minor niggles which every bike will have.



Dreams of Big Bike

As most of us, even I had a dream of owning a big fast bike. Always dreamt of owning a Fireblade, not sure how many hours I have spent starring at the photos from first impression thread here in xbhp. Owning a Blade will probably remain a dream forever.

From the time Triumph and Kawasaki brought in their new products last year the desire to own big fast and sweet sounding bike increased. It took it's own sweet for everything to fall in place.

Options within 10L - Inline 3/4 only.

I had only two options under the budget of 10L, Triumph Street Triple and Kawasaki Z800. I visited Kawasaki outlet to check out the bikes and was amazed by the looks of Z1000 and Z800. Z1000 was totally out of my budget and I liked the Z800. On enquiring for test ride, I was told I will get a call when test ride arrangements are done.

Test Ride

First week of July 2014 I got a call asking if I am interested to try the Z800. Hell Yeah !! I am interested.!!

I did take a test ride of the Z800 and liked the bike instantly. The torque, the gearing, the sweet sound, the looks etc etc. I was sold !!
Still wanted to check how the Street Triple would feel. Went on a Saturday to Keerti Triumph, I was disappointed by the attitude. Still checked the feel of bike by just sitting on bike. Didn't get a test ride as they were not offering test rides on Saturday. Later I never bothered to visit any of the dealers due to personal priorities buying of bike delayed.

Decision Making

Fast forward to January 2015, now I wanted the bike ! And as a surprise Kawasaki slashed the price of Z800. Now it was no brainer for me to decide between Triple and Z800 as Triumph had increased the prices and Kawasaki slashed it. Also I didn't take a test ride of Triple, probably because of the showing false figures + price hike.

I chose Z800.

Key things for deciding on Z800

Instant connect with the bike. I couldn't digest the looks of S-Triple (looks are subject, so no offence please :))

3 cylinder sounds good but Z800 sounds better IMO (Comparing stock to stock). Test ride bike of Street Triple has Arrow Slip-on but test ride bike of Z800 is stock ! Obviously huge difference.

Seating comfort of Street Triple is better, Z800 seats are hard rock ! You can get gel seats.

Street Triple has low ground clearance, with pillion you will easily scrape speed breakers. But with Z800's 150mm GC, you can tackle almost any speed breaker without scrapping.

Z800 price being 8.9L on road Bangalore and Street Triple priced a little above 9.5L . In that difference amount I can at-least get an Akrapovic for Z800

Booking Experience

Made booking on 23 January 2015 by paying 80K. Chetan (Kawasaki Sales executive) was very helpful and answered most of my queries. I had clearly mentioned them that I will need the delivery in first week of March.

Actually this delay gave me a surprise though waiting was a pain, but got 2 benefits. :)

Benefit 1

When I booked my bike, on road price in Bangalore was 9.19L as they were giving Rs.50000/- flat discount on earlier on road price i.e. 9.69L.

On Feb 26th new lot of bikes imported landed at outlet. Did a PDI, just basics like scratches or damages and oil level. After PDI went to make payment, I got to know the structure of invoicing is revised hence a little more benefit is passed on to customers. And finally OTR came to 8.9L saving 29k. :)

Benefit 2

After Invoicing, I got to know the bike is February 2015 manufactured. :)

Registration / Delivery

Had been to outlet with parents and wife. My bike was all shining, my heart was dancing like kids :D
Bike was delivered with 500 bucks petrol, can't they atleast give a full tank petrol. lolz.
Took delivery of bike without registration on 2nd March 2015 at around 11.30AM. I was told to visit RTO for inspection of bike, which later I got to know was not required. Rode home after all the process by 5.30PM and got the pooja done.

So far bike has done about 350kms and every km so far has been a pleasure. I am yet to check the FE figures.

Few photos..










I am not very good in writing, pardon me if you feel something funny :p

Attached Images