We know. Stock bikes often suck.

But there’s a certain stocker from a few years back that, in its simplicity and straighforward brawn – has us all het up.

Kawasaki’s ZRX1200R is not only simple, muscular and to-the-point – it is relatively affordable. Keihin carbs, four into one. Bikini fairing. What’s not to like?

The bike emerged as a ‘replica of a replica’ of the bike that Eddie Lawson rode to victory in the AMA Superbike Series in the early eighties.

And that’s the thing, I reckon, that is the motif of the bike’s appeal. There’s something in the letters AMA that denotes a certain badassness that is eternally appealing.

You heard it here first. Or did you?