Chocolate and peanut butter; bacon and eggs; campfires and ghost stories; Thelma and Louise — some things are just better, together. And you can add one more paring to that list: the Kspeed STX Intake grate and the legendary Kspeed STX ride plate.
Brisbane Kawasaki’s Kspeed division — one of the most reliable go-to solutions for serious overhauls, upgrades and performance enhancements for your Kawasaki — offers an STX intake grate and an STX ride plate that, taken separately, each stand on their own as top-quality, high-impact upgrades.
The Kspeed STX Intake Grate ($243) is the result of years of research and development and hours of testing, delivering improved traction over the stock grate, allowing you to reach your full power and top speed quicker. By maximizing water flow to the jet pump, which leads to better hook-up, and reducing the amount of air getting sucked into the pump (cavitation), you will experience a more “locked-in” feeling on the water.
Whatever your skill level or riding style, the STX Intake Grate will deliver quicker acceleration, higher top speed performance and a much smoother and more predictable ride over the O.E.M. intake grate, with improved control in both low speed and high-speed turns.
The Kspeed STX Ride Plate ($297) will improve speed performance in all conditions, but its mastery is in the ramp-up of speed and reliable handling results in heavy chop, as well as straight-line handling, due in part to the extended length of the KSpeed Ride Plate over the original ride plate’s 9.5 inches. Similar to a boat’s trim tabs, the ride plate alters the PWC’s running angle.
As water flows under the plate at high speed, the KSpeed Ride Plate’s roughly 5 extra inches in length increases the surface area behind the jet pump, creating increased hydrodynamic downforce that keeps the nose of the PWC down and the hull firmly planted on the water, smoothing out the ride, improving handling during high-speed turns and providing better stability.
As one satisfied customer stated after installing the STX Ride Plate, “I have never felt more stable, dry and comfortable. Forget the extra 2.5Mph I picked up on top! This thing is the cat’s meow; feels like I’m on rails in all conditions and it’s a sin I waited this long for an upgrade!”
And when you combine these upgrades, the leap in performance and handling will multiply those benefits significantly and offer a synergistic improvement to your jet ski’s overall performance. Check out the KSpeed website and be sure to browse through the extensive catalog of tutorials, upgrade walk-throughs and performance tests on their YouTube channel, like this video of the test-run of a KSpeed Intake Grate and Ride Plate installation, along with the KSpeed Sponsons, on a client’s PWC.
