Through some wheeling and dealing I was able to trade one of my track bikes + some cash for an absolutely lovely 2005 Kawasaki ZX-10. I bought this bike site unseen, and honestly having never even ridden a ZX10 or ZX9.

I'm replacing my 2001 GSX-R 600 with this bike and in the 120ish miles I have on this bike so far, holly crap is this bike a big upgrade. I'm use to the nice suspension on the race bike, but it cost about 2k. So to go from a worn-on 01 Gixxer6 to an almost never ridden 05 ZX-10 it's been quite the nice step.

All the niceties aside that you can read about anywhere else on the web, the biggest upgrade has been for my girlfriend riding pillion. The passenger pegs are set much higher and more aggressively and the seat is tilted at a forward angle. What this results in is having her shoulders much closer to me and her knees right at my hips.

On the gixxer she almost felt far away, now she feels like she's part of me... The only thing I plan on changing is her seat material. Her seat is smooth and fairly slippery. I plan on getting it reupholstered with something a little more rubbery and textured... I also think I might get some bar risers, since this is only a commuter and pillion bike; I stopped riding on the street for much else a few years ago.