Green Hornet Looks at Its Sibling ie Z1000SX

The original CBU Kawasaki ER6-F comes from the City of Kawasaki, Japan. The City of Kawasaki is located in northeast of Kanagawa Prefecture , adjoined by Tokyo across the Tama River on the north and Yokohama on the south. It faces Tama hilly terrain on the west and Tokyo Bay on the east.

The colour scheme for my bike is Kawasaki Lime Green, a colour scheme that is similar to its bigger brother, the Z1000SX. It is no surprise then why I called my bike the Green Hornet. In its stock form, the bike already looks meaner than a beginner mid-engine superbike; and most people thought that it costs a lot more than its retail selling price.

Green Hornet in its stock form.

Kawasaki Z1000SX tourer with optional touring panniers.

I like the touring looks of the Z1000SX and to go into the transformation towards its touring purpose, Givi panniers from Italy were sourced. The side panniers were from model V35 while the rear box was from model V46; and onlookers have commented that the panniers look very OEM and suited the bike like gloves. You can get the full set-of-three from most bigger bike accessories shops for around RM5k, including installation. Note that there was also similar-looking boxes from Kappa (retailing at slightly cheaper prices).

Panners from the Z1000SX.

Panniers from Givi G35, made in Italy and imported to Malaysia.

The above colour codes were actually similar, but the discolouration was due to the below picture taken with the camera from my BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone, which left the results to be more wanting.

Stock Kawasaki wind visor,

The stock front wind visor from Kawasaki had a sticker that reads "Kawasaki" etched on its lower front side, and was clear (as in transparent). This made way for a made-in-Germany aftermarket wind visor, MRA brand, which was bigger in footprint size and came in a darker tint. The MRA new wind visor assisted to deflect the wind better when traveling on highways, and you can get a variety of aftermarket wind visors from RM300 - RM500, depending on the country it originated from and the associated quality.

The sliders, BM horn and reflective tyre stickers went on Green Hornet next, to arrive at its current sports tourer looks. Total bike modification cost was calculated at approximately RM6,000.


Green Hornet looks and rides like a million dollars, but the standard exhaust note is somewhat wanting. Somehow, it just doesn't have the exhaust presence of a superbike as yet. So on my wish list now is to look for a better aftermarket exhaust system to give Green Hornet the glory that it truly deserves.

In fact, I saw a 3-month old AHM system selling at RM400 (RRP : RM800) online yesterday; and was tempted to take it for Green Hornet but the seller informed me that it was sold shortly after the advert was posted. I have also browsed videos of ER6's with after-market exhausts eg Yoshimura, Akrapovic, Leo & Vince, Two Brothers, Scorpion, etc on Youtube; and the Yoshimura carbon-fibre slip-on looks and sounds great. RRP is said to be approximately RM1,800 brand new.  The Akrapovic slip-on is a tad more expensive when queried at the bike shop, with a RM2,300 price tag.

So the planning continues...

Note the Yoshimura carbob-fibre slip-on exhaust.

And here's how Green Hornet looks like today :

Let the good times roll, mates!