Flyguy
Well-known member
This months MC came with renewel notice inclosed which went immediately into the round file after a thorough read. After all the supportive prose regarding the ZX14, Hearn starts his piece by referring to the consensus of opinion around the office as follows: "The distilled, collective mutterings from young spunkers and old sages alike . . . nobody apparently had many kind words for the ZX-14 as it was. ('06-'07 models). A far cry from the accolades heaped on the new design. And what about that weak bottom end that they glossed over touting the NASA like qualities of the upper R's. He refers to it now in hindsight as "a peaky engine with nothing below 8k." But all sins have been fixed and it now pulls from 3k up. That actually might be true on the latest version but if you couldn't be accurate before what makes us think you can now? After riding the new '08 I have to agree it's power band is much improved even if peak power is down a tick. Evolution is a good thing.
Later in the article Lon Rozelle states " Having been thoroughly underwhelmed by the Concours 14, which I found to be a leaden, ponderous, way-to-heavy-to-be-fun lump". That comment was way out of line, not because Lon isn't entilted to his opinion, it's that his opinion shows just how much he dosen't get it! Not to mention that these observations serve the readers much better up front rather than after the fact. If they don't have the balls to say what they think up front then they should just shut up rather than make some gleeful new owner question his decision.
Lastly, Ron - SST's are supposed to be heavier! The ratio of sprung to unsprung weight pay big dividends in long distance comfort. The trick is to have that majic mix of weight in the right places playing in harmony with a compatible suspension and willing engine. The guys at MC seem to forget that there are a variety of riding styles and they can only manage to evaluate one of them.
Later in the article Lon Rozelle states " Having been thoroughly underwhelmed by the Concours 14, which I found to be a leaden, ponderous, way-to-heavy-to-be-fun lump". That comment was way out of line, not because Lon isn't entilted to his opinion, it's that his opinion shows just how much he dosen't get it! Not to mention that these observations serve the readers much better up front rather than after the fact. If they don't have the balls to say what they think up front then they should just shut up rather than make some gleeful new owner question his decision.
Lastly, Ron - SST's are supposed to be heavier! The ratio of sprung to unsprung weight pay big dividends in long distance comfort. The trick is to have that majic mix of weight in the right places playing in harmony with a compatible suspension and willing engine. The guys at MC seem to forget that there are a variety of riding styles and they can only manage to evaluate one of them.
