Out of all the cage companies out there, what is the best cage for your crunchy piece?
This is not a fly by wire type of review, meaning that I have been running this cage for quite some time not just a few weeks. Just to give you an idea of the abuse I have put this thing through, in the middle of last season while learning no throttle hand tricks I made the mistake of bbbblllliiipppppiiinnnggg the gas instead of bliping the gas when the front end dipped. Needless to say, I was all over the brake but it was not enough, bike slammed hard enough on the bar that it tossed me off the back, I ran and caught myself. After about a 15 foot long drag of my fresh new round bar, bike pancaked onto the left side so hard that it completely flopped over to the right side after catching a bit of airtime. Fast forward to a few weeks ago, trying to learn seat stander coasters seemed like a good idea for a random Thursday. After dropping onto my bar, letting the clutch back out and bike getting all squirrly, then treating my handbrake as an on/off switch the bike damn near caught some hang time and slammed side first into the concrete. Just a little back story of some of the abuse this thing has taken.
Depending on who you spoke to some would tell you that F.I. makes the best cages on the market, or the worst. Alot of those opinions are also based on the bike that they are placed on. This is not a review of F.I. Cages overall, just a review of the 07-08 Kawasaki ZX6R cage.
This cage is not as attractive as many of the other cages offered for this year of bike, or even other F.I. Cages offered for other years/bikes. Certainly when it comes to cages, function is much more of a factor than appearance, unless of course you are a glamor stunter.
Positives of this cage, absolutely no chance of busted stator covers, which was a HUGE issue on some of the earlier years of Kawi's equipped with F.I. Cages. Ease of removal and install were a huge bonus, even if I ran full fairing this cage would still be as simple to install and remove as frame sliders. Never once has this cage allowed my bike to roll up onto my tank, even with the severe tosses and slams that I have put it through. Others that I have seen running different brands of cages have had issues such as rolling up on the tank, or even caving the frame in at some points. Another great point is that I have not once banged my shins on this cage, except for an incident involving a stuck throttle and a curb. :-)
Now moving onto the negative of this cage, first and foremost being PRICE, retail on these cages has gone up over the past year, thankfully I did not pay that for this one. (Gotta love gently used parts for sale on www.stuntride.com for cheap) Second issue that I have about this cage is the sliders, for several reasons. Sliders are an important part of cages, to soft and they are gone in one scrape across the lot, too hard and they shatter into pieces. I believe that the composition of the sliders offered on F.I. Cages is a good balance.
Unfortunately, the length of sliders is the issue on this particular cage, after a couple tosses of the bike, the sliders are worn down enough that they do not contact the ground before the hoop. The hoop contacting the ground before the slider causes a few issues, putting unnecessary stress on the hoop (thus the opposite slider), and grinding away at the wall of the tubing that the hoop is made of, eventually causing the hoop to be warn through.
I already know what you are saying, buy new sliders and it will save the hoop, yes that is correct. Buying sliders every 2-3 crashes per side is not the most cost effective option ($30 bucks a pair). If the sliders where longer, or the hoop was mounted further inside on the slider then it would also help greatly with this issue.
This is not a review conducted after a month or two of riding with this cage, time with this cage is approaching the one year mark. Overall I believe that the F.I. Cage on the 07-08 ZX6R is a good overall product but could use some further r&d to make it great.
Reviewed by Jacob Lankford/ Outlaw_FTP
