Let me start out for those of you that don’t know motorcycles have been my only transportation for the past 6 years. And I have ridden thru a lot of tropical storms on all kinds of bikes. So I decided to do a ride report on how the 2008 ZX-14 stacks up with other bikes I have ridden in conditions most smart riders would avoid. Debby produced 45mph seedy wind with 60-70mph gusts every 3-4sec and nonstop rain. So with the ZX-14 the first thing I noticed was going in to the wind head on was no hesitation or lack of power obviously and how strait the bike tracked! Cursers tend to sway back and forth from the wind hitting your shoulders and you have to tuck like no tomorrow on 600’s and 1000’s sport bikes! But I’m doing 60mph and it feels like 120mph and getting shot with 100 airsoft guns all at the same time! But the fun really begins when the wind is at your side and you have to go into a 20-30 degree lean just to keep a straight line and adjust as the gusts very in speed! I find cursers are less affected by side wind due to the lack of firings and 600’s and 1000’s you need to keep a lot of weight on the front end but are affected the same as the 14. Now on to tail wind with this all bike types are the same but it is a very strange felling doing 60mph with no wind but you can hear your engine perfectly! and another plus side of the 14 is that the front tire does not splash water in to your shoe’s/boot’s! But if anyone is worried about shorting something out on their bike if you ride in the rain don’t worry I have ridden thru rain so hard you can’t see 10ft in front of the bike and turned my ZX-14 in to a jet ski more than once!!!!
P.S. Michelin road pilot 3’s are the tires I am running on my ZX-14 best rain tire in the world!!!!

Coming home from the 2012 COG National rally, between motel in western Kentucky and motel in western West Virginia, I ran into a torrential thunderstorm which lasted all the way to WV, about the last 4 hours. It was a driving downpour, with high winds. But not Debby high lol.

I agree 100% on the Pilot Road 3 tires. I never had a slip or a slide in the rain, even on exit and entry ramps, and the ride was always quite smooth.

Anyway, she handled great in the rain and sun both, and I have a surprising amount of tread left after bombing around the mountains in NW Arkansas for a few days.

Yes, the rain hurts at speeds over 20 mph. I will never forget riding my loaded down ZX11 south on Belgium 10 (dead flat, dead straight from north border with Holland to south border with France) in an Aerostich Roadcrafter and the winds got so high cross ways that they were blowing me 2 lanes over sometimes. Then the rain started, and right through the Roadcrafter, as heavy as the cloth is, it was like being shot with hundreds of needles all over the arms and top of the chest.

Kawasaki makes competent bikes, and all we have to do to survive conditions like you write about is operate them safely.

I remember riding in the early nineties on an old 81 GPz 750.It was raining very hard and I was coming around the Washington Mall exits.All of the sudden the wind kicks up sideways and hydroplanes both tires.I started heading for the mediun strip which is 20 ft higher then the other side.Next thing I know I caught traction and just shot down the straight like a luge on the winter olympics.Damn that was nuts.Took the next exit and hit the back roads.I hated that bike.
Craig

FYI Craig... I just had a BT-016 installed to replace that dead Avon. Let's see if it can withstand "the machine".