Especially after my brief run-in with bizarre weather, it was time to finally face the inevitable: washing the Kawasaki.

Week-long loans allow sufficient opportunity to get a general idea of whether or not you like a motorcycle, but there’s nothing like a long-term test to become truly acquainted with a bike; it’s like the difference between a couple of hot dates, and moving in together and having to wake up next to each other in the morning every single day. One particularly unique form of bonding—in addition to long rides or hands-on mechanical work—is the washing process. You have to touch essentially every surface of the bike; running your sponge over the curves of the gas tank, the chin spoiler, across the fairing ducts, etc. Doing so allows you to take in the three-dimensionality of the machine far more palpably than can be done with your eyes alone. Strangely, one of the most intimate things you can do with a vehicle is to wash it.

The ZX-14’s proportions are large, and its sparkle white and flame paint job seems to only heighten its perceived size. Up close and personal, body panels don’t fit quite as perfectly as they could, but then again, on a $12,000 two-wheeled land missile, what do you expect? The tank’s more voluptuous than might appear to the naked eye, and the rear seat cowl balances the bulbousness of the nose nicely. The long, shiny cans resemble .444 Marlin hollowpoint shells more than typical supersport bike exhausts, and their brightwork dimishes any illusions of no-nonsense functionality; contrast them to the GSX-R1000’s carbon fiber ovals, and you get an idea of the less focused, more mass-appeal touches of the ZX-14.

The bike’s now sparkling, ready to get dirty once again; and as its tires dry in the springtime sunshine, I feel like I know the ZX-14 just a bit more than before.

www.kawasaki.com