Nothing for it but to have a go on it. Low seat, nice relaxed riding position - in town at least - controls light and the engine punched out enough torque to take off at tickover revs. It felt light and easy to flick through the suburbs, no apparent vibes from the water-cooled, vertical twin motor. I liked it!
In the 50 mile ride home I did find, though, that once the engine was fully warmed up the gearbox became very noisy when changes were made, even if they always clicked straight into gear. The laid back riding position meant the bike was good for up to 70mph cruising. Beyond that my arms began to ache, my thighs became cramped and, surprisingly given the plush looking seat, my bum went numb.
The ride home was on good, fairly straight A roads all the way, so I found the stability reassuring even with a few quick sorties up to 90mph. It was only when I tried to indulge in some fast back road work that things became unpleasant. I'm sure you know the type of road I mean. Those B roads that are almost deserted, with snatches of straights between tight bends with bumpy surfaces.
The Kawasaki was like some refugee from the seventies. Its long travel and softly sprung suspension would get tied up in knots. I found backing off the throttle in a situation where the bike was bouncing over to the wrong side of the road when leaned over made it veer across the road. Opening up the throttle just made it bounce all the more madly. It was necessary to whack on the brakes way before the curves to safely navigate them.
Yet, get the LTD on some fast, long sweeping A road bends and it'd stay steady and secure even with 95mph on the speedo. Perhaps the fact that I had to redistribute the weight forward by crouching down over the tank helped. Hitting a large bump at such a moment caused the bars to do a quick shimmy and then, luckily, settle down right away. The back end was less disturbed by a single bump, it needed a series of closely spaced undulations. Then the damping failed to react fast enough and it’d be pogo stick time.
Despite lots of suspension travel, it didn’t cope at all well with low speeds and rutted city roads. This was quite frightening in London, where many road surfaces really need an enduro bike to safely navigate them. Surrounded by psychopaths in snarling tin boxes, the Kawasaki had to be wrestled from pothole to pot-hole and often came within an inch of bouncing into the side of some auto. Luckily, the spread of torque meant it could be left in third or fourth gear, so there was one less thing to worry over.
The exact logic of placing such a sophisticated engine in a cruiser type bike is hard to comprehend. The LTD’s 450cc motor is very similar to that fitted to the much praised GPz500S, both based on the water-cooled fours of twice the capacity. Four valves per cylinder, twin carbs and double overhead cams seem somewhat wasted in a twin that produces power in the soft manner of a good British 500. Thanks to pistons that move up and down alternatively and a single gear driven balancer, the LTD has none of the nasty vibes present in the Brit twins. Around 5000 to 6000rpm there is a little roughness but the fact that nothing fell off and no bulbs blew speaks for itself. The belt final drive further emphasizes the overall smoothness of the plot.
Like the rest of the bike, the belt drive needed but minimal attention in the 10000 miles that I managed in the year I had the machine. I didn’t even bother to look at the valves, touch the carbs or even change the oil filter (although I changed the oil twice). One wanker (read dealer) tried to convince me that part of the £100 fee he wanted for doing a general service was for adjusting the balancer chain - he just wouldn't believe that Kawasaki had joined the twentieth century by using gears instead. After such a dreadful experience I kept well clear of the dealers.
I managed to crash the bike just once - all the fault of the car driver who rushed out of his driveway without looking where he was going. The Kawasaki hit the BMW in such a way that it wrote off a wing and two doors. The twenty stone driver was enraged that his brand new auto was wrecked and paid little heed to the fact that I was writhing on the floor holding my knee where it had hit the door.
Luckily, I hadn’t broken my knee-cap, I was just badly bruised. By the time the pain had receded and I was able to hobble upright, the driver had cooled down a little. The long Kawasaki forks had buckled inwards leaving the front guard touching the radiator. The bike was unrideable and it was my turn to rant and rave. The eventual outcome of our screaming match was that he plucked out £500 in fifties from his wallet on the understanding that we forget the police and insurance. The AA eventually picked up the heap and dumped it at my home.
MCN classifieds led to a breaker who had a good 450 front end - mine complete for £150. An afternoon’s spanner wielding had the bike back on the road, none the worse for wear. In fact, it seemed less prone to weaving - maybe the steering head bearings were wrongly adjusted on the old forks.
Fuel consumption never seemed to vary much, it always gave around 50mpg unless the bike was ridden really slowly when it would shoot up to 60mpg. Not exactly brilliant compared to the old Brits or even some of the 600 fours. Most of the blame can be thrown at the way the exhaust pipes exit the cylinder head, having a nasty twist in them to avoid the slim radiator.
The oil consumption between changes was so negligible that I eventually gave up bothering to check the level. The engine can take either 10/40 or 20/50 oil. The engine is supposed to run on unleaded fuel but I found consumption dropped to around 45mpg, which actually made four star cheaper. As the motor seemed to run a lot better on four star I stuck with it. I never experienced carb icing even in the coldest bits of winter; presumably the belt drive would have been able to absorb more of the force than a chain if the engine suddenly stalled.
Except for one adjustment when I bought the bike, the belt drive needed no further maintenance - just as well it seems to last so long as they are very expensive to replace. The front pads, which worked well in all weathers (to the extent of twisting the long forks at times) needed replacing with 8500 miles on the clock. Both front and rear tyres were replaced at 7500 miles - the rear was only just legal, the front had 2.5mm left - but their advanced state of wear was not detrimental to the handling.
The one really poor point about the Kawasaki is that the punters tended to laugh at the bike rather than gasp in admiration. I was apparently viewed as some rich poseur with no taste, style or machismo. The local lads on Harleys used to growl past and try to kick me off the LTD. Race replica riders were just as dismissive. The word most often used to describe the LTD was gaudy.
There was little that I could do to the Kawasaki to change its appearance. Anything radical would've meant lots of dosh expended that couldn't have been recovered when I came to sell the bike. The truth was that I had become rather fond of the Kawasaki. and its laid back manner. It was quite easy to just stick it in top gear and cruise around the countryside at about 70mph, just getting my kicks from the freedom that motorcycling gives without a worry in the world.
Unfortunately, | had a go on a friend’s new Yamaha FZR600. Despite the dreadful riding position - arse in the air, head between the instruments, arms and thighs in almost instant agony - the way the bike catapulted across the landscape with rock steady handling as the speedo hit 140mph had me converted. Before I had a chance to even think about the practicalities of the move, I'd traded the LTD for a brand new FZR. The dealer gave me £1500 in part exchange, which meant I'd had a year on the LTD for next to nothing, so who am I to complain?
Stephen Thomas