You can read the original magazine story by clicking HERE.
Photography by Kevin Wing
A single cylinder, two wheels and a handlebar – that formula is motorcycling in its essence. Uncomplicated and unadulterated. Easy transport for easy fun. It’s a formula Honda has known for ages with its legendary Grom, and now Kawasaki is gunning for a piece of the little bike pie with the all-new Z125 Pro.
The big things, small packages cliché could not be more adept to the Z125 Pro. It’s also got some solid expectations nestled on those tiny 12 inch tires, because this bike is aimed at a pretty broad range of people for something you might think at first is very narrowly marketed.
The little Z is important for another reason. This will be many riders’ first bike, and your first bike creates a special place in your memory bank. It also creates a brand loyalty that, if nurtured, will serve the manufacturer well for years to come – Yamaha still has part of my heart thanks to the SRV250 16-year-old Rennie once owned.
Unlike a number of bikes that are new here but old everywhere else in the world, the $2999 MSRP Z125 Pro is a brand new machine from Kawasaki. Obviously aimed at taking attention away from the Honda Grom, the mini Z’s bodywork lines mimic those of the larger Z800 and Z1000 siblings, with similar colors, Z-emblazoned side shrouds, the famous Z taillight, two gallon gas tank, petal front disc, an analogue rev counter and a digital dash packed with the stuff normally reserved for pricier machines like a gear indicator, digital speedo, clock and trip meters and a fuel gauge.
The steel backbone chassis is actually rated to carry a full 578 pounds on that flat 30.7 inch high seat, meaning two-up riding is not out of the question, although I really wouldn’t push the little Z that hard because despite that claim, it’s best enjoyed as a single seater.
On the road it’s surprising how much poke the oversquare 125cc single has. Kawasaki’s got the fuel injection mapping pretty much spot on with the Z; there’s little to no jerky action at the twistgrip and there’s plenty of power to get you up to speed in city traffic. It’s by no means fast, but that’s half the fun. Anyone will be able to get on a Z125 Pro and wring its neck, clicking up through the slick four speed gearbox to a top speed of about 60mph. The engine will pull the entire way through the rev range, letting you hit the limiter, so you can really hammer the thing if you like.
I can’t say I cared much for the clutch. It didn’t take long for the lever to start gaining some fairly sizeable freeplay, and granted although we may have been riding them a tad hard, ahem, I still thought the clutch would be a little more robust. This point may become a larger issue considering the majority of owners will most likely be new riders who have yet to really get the knack of smooth getaways from the lights.
The best part of the Z125 for my money is the chassis. It’s a bit cramped for my 6’1” frame but all you need to sort that is a set of rearsets and some high-mounted bars –easy fixes. The little Z carves corners way better than I expected, especially considering my weight and those itty-bitty inverted forks and the four-way preload adjustable shock that handled absolutely everything I could throw at it, including no-footer jumps… The balance of the Z is brilliant. The engine is mounted low and forward and the chassis can handle high-speed bends just as easily as slow ones thanks to the generous amount of ground clearance, even with a mid-mounted underslung pipe. It took a fair cranking over for the pegs to start grinding, by which stage the riding had gone from tame and easy to flat out racing on the chalk-lined course Kawasaki had set up for us.
You get two-piston Nissin calipers up front for your money. And after a solid afternoon of racing around in circles on Kawasaki’s chalk-lined track in San Francisco, I still didn’t get much fade at all at the lever, which was surprising, but on the road there’s more than enough feel and power to haul you up smoothly and safely.
More than the specs and parts, the Z125 is just plain cool. Unlike the Honda Grom, which is clearly designed on its own, the Z125 is designed to be part of the Z family and looks super sharp as well as being an absolute blast to ride. That’s just the start of it, because companies like Two Brothers, Yoshimura, Rizoma and renowned Japanese minbike hotrod specialists Takegawa are all developing Z125 specific parts that will give any quick Grom a run for its money.
Plus you can get mini slicks for them! This kind of racing is growing enormously in Asia and Europe as well as here in the U.S. Euro guys like Leon Haslam and Sam Lowes are avid pitbike race fans and use them on indoor kart tracks for practice, so I can only imagine how many of these we’ll see racing the M1GP 24 Hour at Willow Springs this year…
Even if racing a Z125 Pro is the last thing on your agenda, the fact remains this thing is a ton of fun to zip around town on. Stay off the freeways, take the backroads and you’ll have fun for years – maybe more than if you had a bigger bike.
Specifications
Kawasaki Z125 Pro
Engine: Air-cooled single-cylinder four-stroke
Displacement: 125cc
Bore x stroke: 56 x 56.6mm
Horsepower: N/A
Torque: N/A
Transmission: Four-speed
Chassis: Tubular steel trellis
Front suspension: 30mm inverted fork
Rear suspension: Single shock absorber, adjustable spring preload
Front brake: Single 200mm discs, single-piston caliper
Rear brake: Single 184mm disc, single-piston caliper
Front tire: 100/90 R12
Rear tire: 120/70 R12
Fuel capacity: 2 gal
Weight: 224 lbs (wet, claimed).
Color: Green, Grey
MSRP: $2999
You can read the original magazine story by clicking HERE.
For more Cycle News Standard motorcycle reviews, click HERE.
For more Kawasaki motorcycle reviews, click HERE.
