200 Horsepower

2011 ZX-10R. (Photo by Jeff Allen.)

“200 Horsepower,” my November 2010 issue of Cycle World screamed on its cover.
It’s the 2011 Kawasaki ZX-10R (above), a liter-bike (one liter engine displacement, 1,000 cubic centimeters).
My first reaction was “sheesh!”
A friend bewails 400 horsepower in automobiles.
He has a point.
Traffic is so bad you’re often stopped in traffic-jams just idling.
This is not true of Rochester, but in Los Angeles it is.
I remember 1-2 mph in Hollywood.
Dodging giant black Hummers with glittering chrome-alloy spider-wheels.
400 horsepower in a car seems pointless.
Where do you stretch it out?
And how do you pay for all the speeding tickets?
But 200 horsepower in a motorcycle is insane.
A car might weigh 3,000 pounds or more.
A liter-bike crotch-rocket might weigh 400 pounds or less.
And 200 horsepower comes at 14,000 rpm (revolutions-per-minute) or more.
You gotta be pumpin’ that kind of revs to wick the torque output up to 200 horsepower.
A few months ago a young kid crested a hill on a nearby country road at 89 bazilyun miles-per-hour, revved to the moon on his liter-bike.
He smashed head-on into a pickup truck turning left.
Snuffed him.
They couldn’t blame the four-wheeler.
If the bike had not been going so fast, he mighta been able to stop; or the pickup might have seen him.
He was probably putting 130 or more horsepower to pavement.
200 horsepower is even sillier.
About 200 yards north of our house is a sharp 90-degree left turn toward the west.
It’s posted at 15 mph.
It used to be a four-way intersection, but the state highway we live on turns west at that point, so the intersection was regraded.
Motorcycles do that curve at 50 mph or more — maximum lean.
And then accelerate past our house.
Often wound to the moon.
Other way too.
Revved to the moon approaching that intersection.
The speed-limit in front of our house is 40 mph.
The crotch-rockets blast by at 100+.
And it’s always crotch-rockets.
The Harleys might get about 80.

Photo by BobbaLew.

My 2003 Honda CBR-RR.

I have a so-called “crotch-rocket” myself (pictured at left in my garage).
Prettiest crotch-rocket of all, I think.
It’s 600 cubic centimeters, not a liter-bike, but fast enough.
In fact, it’s way faster than me.
Fast enough to put the kibosh on any car.
One time I was stopped at a traffic-light, and a ratty Honda car pulled up on my right.
His obvious intent was to put the kibosh on me.
When the light changed I put the kibosh on him.
Left him in my dust.
Probably putting 35 or more horsepower to pavement; I doubt I exceeded 8,000 rpm.
No drama, no theatrics, just left him behind.
Unleash 200 horsepower in first gear and I bet you pop a wheelie the whole time you’re in that gear.
You’d probably wheelie in every gear.
What price drama?
My motorcycle is red-lined at 15,000 rpm, but 8,000 was plenty.
15,000 rpm with a 600 cc CBR-RR is around 100 horsepower. I don’t need or even want it.

• We live in the small rural town of West Bloomfield on State Route 65, southeast of Rochester, NY. (“We” is me and my wife of almost 43 years, “Linda.”)