I was talking to some of the guys at at the local Honda/Suzuki dealer Saturday and they pretty much confirmed what I said about Suzuki being dead in the water. Suzuki refuses to give deep discounts on the '09s that are still clogging the warehouses like Kawasaki did, no 10's were imported and they're not sure about '11s. Kawi moved their old inventory with massive rebates but at a cost to us that bought them in terms of resale value. Heck, I didn't buy any of my bikes for the resale value anyway so no worries.

One of the guys claimed to have seen a dyno run with an '11 pre-production ZX-10R versus a BMW S1000RR. The Kawi was more than a match for the Beemer according to him and also comes with active TC system. If true, Kawasaki could be in a good position to share the liter market with BMW. I am not hearing of anything new coming out of Honda or Yamaha.

It's going to an interesting year in 2011!

* Last updated by: Kruz on 9/13/2010 @ 6:59 AM *

Perhaps competition between manufacturers will involve much longer cycles and the improvements will be much more dramatic than they were in the past. We might see a couple of bikes that are very close in performance for 6-7 years while the others wait to unveil their newest and baddest bikes. Manufactueres might have to make their R&D really count for something considering how risky it is to spend huge amounts of money on production and marketing.

* Last updated by: Rook on 9/13/2010 @ 8:07 AM *

One of the guys claimed to have seen a dyno run with an '11 pre-production ZX-10R versus a BMW S1000RR. The Kawi was more than a match for the Beemer according to him and also comes with active TC system. If true, Kawasaki could be in a good position to share the liter market with BMW.

I bet it will be without a doubt but if a some guy at a dealership claimed he as seen a dyno of the pre-production bike then he is part of the R&D team and will be unemployed soon or he broke into my unicorn farm were I do all the dyno testing for the new zx10

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I was not impressed by the traction control.As soon as the front tire left the ground WHAM!!!!!Right back down.Didn't get much of a chance to test the suspension but tons of torque!!

Can't that be turned off to some degree on the K bikes like it can be on the S1000rr.Wheelie control has its place think about this when the front wheel is in the air you have less traction and you are carrying less speed.

* Last updated by: willidx4 on 9/13/2010 @ 12:12 PM *

I just came from the Kawasaki dealership where I bought my bikes, they have not heard anything yet on the new 10R. I believe the Kawasaki dealer show is coming up next month, rumours abound but no hard facts yet, hopefully that will change soon. I'm hoping KHI has an ace up their sleeve. One thing I'm fairly certain of, KHI is not "leaking" all of this hype unless they really have something. If it's a dud.... warmed over '10 model with "bold new graphics"... they just shot all future credibility. With all the bad news on the economic front we need a little excitement like an all out BMW-Kawasaki war, winner takes all. It actually makes sense in a way if KHI were to go all out while everyone else (except BMW) is licking their wounds and playing it safe. They could stand to capture major market share from the other players.

thats a tall order not to mention they need to keep thr bike priced well below the BMW. I think thet can get away without some of the goodies the loaded BMW has such as that goofy map/mode switch,wheelie control, quick shifter and even ABS. This might help them keep the bike priced well below the loaded BMW.Who knows what the price will be but my guess is 12,800 MSRP

Slightly off topic but I was just on Cycle Trader and there seems to be an awful lot of very low mileage BMW S1000RR for sale. They ain't givin 'em away either, average asking price was around $15,000. I wonder if the bloom is beginning to come off the rose and people are beginning to figure out it's just another motorcycle. I imagine a lot of posers bought into all the hype and thought it would make them into an overnight Valentino Rossi.

Slightly off topic but I was just on Cycle Trader and there seems to be an awful lot of very low mileage BMW S1000RR for sale. They ain't givin 'em away either, average asking price was around $15,000. I wonder if the bloom is beginning to come off the rose and people are beginning to figure out it's just another motorcycle. I imagine a lot of posers bought into all the hype and thought it would make them into an overnight Valentino Rossi.

That would be my guess also posing gets old fast.

And the price dispartity is huge between bikes like the ZX-10R and the Beemer. Used 2010 Beemers are asking $15,000, brand new 2010 ZX-10Rs are going as low as $9500 on Cycle Trader. I thought the Beemer was priced to compete with the Jap inline fours? More hype!

* Last updated by: Kruz on 9/16/2010 @ 2:21 PM *