I had been running a 1982 CB650 Honda for the best part of a year. During the summer of '86 1 decided I'd like to try something bang up to date, so having saved up hard, I was, by October '86, looking for a keenly priced, clean low mileage 600R. Fortunately, I had the services of a friend who used to manage a bike shop, and who was willing to give up a few Saturdays to see that I was not conned.
After scanning the MCN classifieds during the week and phoning around, we took to the road with car, bike trailer and cash in hand. All in all we must have covered nearly 1000 miles and were offered an amazing variety of bikes ranging from spotless but very expensive thru slightly tatty but still expensive to downright dangerous and a bit cheaper We even tried a few dealers, but saw, B-reg bikes priced as high as £2450 which is crazy when discount dealers are selling new bikes for £2800. The smaller dealers asking the high used prices don't seem to want to bargain for cash either.
I only saw one bike in the private sector I fancied - this was a genuine one owner from new but a bit late (April '86) and too highly priced for me. The guy was in no hurry to sell either, so bargaining got me nowhere.
Two 600Rs Ken and I looked at up north stick in my mind as an illustration of what to beware of: Number 1, on the phone after the usual preliminaries he said: There's a few small scratches here and there so I'll take £1850 for cash. On viewing we found it had been thrown up the road twice, once on each side with a possible end over end job for good measure, followed by a quick rebuild. Although I can't be sure about the last bit as the only sign of fore/aft impact was overstressed main frame welds with paint flaking. Number 2 was described on the phone as '86 C-reg, 5000 miles, good tyres etc. Upon arrival we found a nice tidy bike but with a Q plate - the seller denied describing it as a C-reg despite the fact that I'd repeated the question twice on the phone. I tagged him dishonest and went home. Ken spotted that the bike had been in a crash, anyway, when he lifted the side panel and discovered dented frame tubes. Asking price £1950.
I finally bought my dream bike in a cash deal after some hard bargaining with a dealer who was well known to my mate. The bike was a 1985 C-reg, one owner from new, 4500 miles and came complete with service history. I must admit I didn't do much during the winter months, being content to pull it apart for cleaning and polishing and generally finding out what made it tick. I bought a workshop manual which cost me £18.50 - a bit steep for a paperback but it is, at the very least, very comprehensive and easy to use.
I put the bike on the road at beginning or March '87 and my first ride had a nasty little problem with the front brake when the brute refused to stop when braking from 90mph... subsequent examination of the front brake calipers showed that despite careful reassembly after cleaning and checking of pads the sliding pins had become distorted and were sticking intermittently, thus fighting the hydraulics. Some careful realignment and application of WD40 restored smooth movement and full braking power - and, fortunately, this was the only teething problem which came to light.
Apart from this nasty little problem, I was, from the first, impressed with the whole concept of the 600R. I've always had a soft spot for a nicely styled cafe racer and the 600R has the punch to go with the looks. The liquid cooled four has four valves/cylinder, produces a claimed 75hp at 10500rpm and is turbine smooth from tickover up. Despite the high state of tune it has a good spread of power, letting it pull away with just two grand on the clock. A small amount of vibes are felt at 4500rpm, but wind it on some more and it smooths out as the bike begins to take off. The exhaust notes sharpens, from a steady purr to a nasty growl. Eight grand through the gears will see a ton on the clock very quickly, whilst pushing it to the red line at eleven will send the bike streaking for the far horizon with the wind screaming over the screen and the rider's helmet and the exhaust note a disembodied wail (stirring stuff this, let's not get carried away).
At high revs the engine becomes very remote and the electronic tacho needs careful watching - although I recently read that the latest 600 and 750 Kawas were safe to 13000, but I don't intend to try that sort of experiment with my Kawa.
The air/oil front forks are smooth, responsive and well damped - they'll take the worst that our wonderful British roads can throw at them. Mine seem to work best at 8psi (with the stanchions linked by a balance pipe the pressure's always equal). The twin front discs are smooth and progressive, and used gently will steady the bike and check its headlong rush. Increasing lever pressure rapidly slows the bike very smoothly, whilst squeezing really hard will. dip the front end and squeal the tyre. It's good in the wet but needs care due to its great power, but the excellent feel helps here. The brake is linked to a fluid operated anti-dive which works well on all three settings and stops excessive dive under heavy. braking.
I'm not so keen on the rear brake, the single disc lacks feel and if used hard can stall the engine after locking the wheel, hence it needs to be treated with respect, especially in the wet. I can't help feeling that a well designed drum would be more use here.
An alloy swinging arm pivoting on needle rollers is linked to a single shock using Kawa's normal UniTrak system. The shock has four preload settings and can be air pressurized. I was advised to try 2nd or 3rd preload at atmospheric pressure, which works but is a bit soft and twitchy over bumpy going. I now use, 15psi on the 1st preload, which copes well with most road surfaces. A pushbike pump with an adaptor is quite adequate for adding air to the system.
The positioning and complexity of the UniTrak pivots cause havoc and rapid wear in winter weather. The manual suggests stripping and greasing the pivots every 6000 miles, but I do it every 3000 miles for optimum performance and low wear. The main frame is a wrap around twin top and down tube affair, the latter detachable for easy engine removal, the engine itself rubber mounted. Constructed in light gauge high tensile square section steel tube in the interests of light weight, the frame doesn't survive crash damage at all well, so there are lots of bikes in breakers and hence lots of engine parts available.
I don't think much of the satin black exhaust finish, the dreaded red stuff has already put in an appearance and | fear this horrendously expensive item is of the quick rot variety. Tyre wear is another nasty, with between four and six thou from a rear Arrowmax depending on how you ride. Expect around eight thou from the front unless you really hammer those front discs. Pads go for around eight grand. Use Ferodos as they are cheaper and just as good. In fact, better as I replaced the rear pads and they made the brake far more progressive.
The manual claims 6000 mile oil change intervals but I change the oil every 1500 miles and the filter at 3000 miles, just to be on the safe side - I mean this is a highly tuned engine. Both carb balancing and tappets are a pain due to accessibility problems, but at least the tappets have simple screw and lock nuts. I'd have been happier with a side mounted camchain but the central endless hyvoid does its job OK aided by an automatic tensioner. Speedo cables are fragile but only cost five notes. to replace. The only other problem I've had was the gearbox which is stiff and clunky, although, to be fair, there are no false neutrals.
Even loaded up with camping gear the thing was still very stable, the faster I went the better it became. It was also exceptionally quiet at high cruising speeds. with just the wind whistling by for company. I took the bike to the Island and it went like the proverbial bomb and handled like a dream. Twice the engine went into the red without any ill effects and all I had to do was adjust the chain once. High mileage engines can suffer burnt out exhaust valves, clapped camchains and dead ignition units (very expensive), but it's generally a tough unit. You're much more likely to find a bent chassis than a poor engine - so check over the frame carefully for signs of bent tubes or blistered paint.
To sum up, the 600R is a really nice bike, great fun, easy to ride, comfortable (one-up) and well capable of ton plus cruising with a top speed around 140mph at 11000rpm. Accessibility has been ruined by too much plastic. However, on the whole a nice one Kawasaki. However, I'm going to sell mine as I've become addicted to high tech and want to try something newer and bigger. Kawasaki have certainly come a long way since that horrid Mach 2 H1 triple I used to ride in the seventies but that is another story.
Steve Burgoyne