There were so many cheap imports around that I was spoilt for choice. The KZ1000R was so immaculate that I couldn't believe it had done the 19500 miles that showed on the clock. The North London dealer took one look at my beaming face and demanded that I take a test ride. On the pillion... one of the mechanics gave me a nasty grin, rubbed his hands in glee and leapt on board. He used all the four cylinders 105 horses to ride madly through the London traffic. It was pretty obvious that there wasn't much wrong with the engine!
The dealer wouldn't budge on the 1700 note sticker price, muttering something about it being a winter sale and I could expect to pay much more come April. He agreed to fit a new set of Avons, tax it for a year and give me a fresh MOT certificate. The 1983 machine was soon in my Hounslow garage. At 510lbs, with steering set up for high speed stability (a concept Kawasaki was just beginning to grasp back then, given the highway machinations of the Z1 and subsequent Z's) the R wasn't exactly easy to throw about London traffic,
It only really began to come together once past 7000 revs. The engine took on a spine chilling howl and the bike bolted forwards fast enough to almost break my wrists off. The speed tightened up the chassis and made it easier to manoeuvre, though things began to happen so rapidly that I was, ultimately, thankful for the triple discs. They were running Ferodo pads that could take the wheels right up to the point of locking, easily up to modem specs, though three fingers needed.
Top speed was around the 140mph mark. Beyond 120mph the bike became very uncivilized... secondary vibes buzzed the whole chassis, especially my feet, and the suspension, despite being pretty stiff, began to break down, letting the bike weave quite heavily. Hitting a ridge running at an angle across the road caused the bars to flutter alarmingly, the whole chassis going into a 130mph waltz. I slammed the throttle shut, totally panicked out of my brain, only to find that the whole bike was trying to break up under me. Only when the speedo clicked back down to 110mph did it come back on line. If the road hadn't been relatively deserted, I'm sure I would have hit something, so huge was the amount of space taken up by the madly oscillating bike.
I went over the bike looking for some sign of chassis weakness. The tyre pressures were spot on, varying them didn't help. Couldn't find any play in any of the chassis bearings. The shocks and forks were the prime suspects. Decided a fork brace out front and a pair of HD R and Rs out the back would sort it. The fork brace gave a definite improvement to directional stability and it was OK up to 125mph, with the same edginess thereafter.
The shocks made all the toad bumps that much more apparent but weren't much of an improvement over the stockers. In fact, I went back to the latter as they gave my backside an easier time. The forks look very spindly for such a large brute but I was so impressed with the stock brakes that I didn't want to do the obvious - fit a whole new front end.
Below seven grand the motor ran fine but didn't really lay down an excess of power this made it quite easy to ride on winter roads. Corrosion attacked the wheels and exhaust system but otherwise the finish survived the worst London rain and snow could throw at it. Just a bit frustrating to have to restrain my right wrist.
Ridden thus, the bike turned in 55mpg against a more normal 40-45mpg. Maintenance was mostly frequent oil changes - every 750 miles during slow town riding because the lubricant emulsified and turned white. The engine demanded a hard throttle workout to clear out its guts but do that on a wet road and the wild power at seven grand would have the back tyre fishtailing madly!
After about 6000 miles starting and low speed running went badly awry but this was nothing more than the carbs finally going out of balance. The clutch's rumbling sounded like the main bearings were on the way out but that also cleared up when the carbs were balanced. The valve clearances were checked at 10000 miles but were still spot on; haven't bothered looking at them since. The one thing to check out, that none of the rubber, on which the black boxes are mounted, has gone hard - if they have, the electrics vibrate to an early and very expensive death!
Spring, summer and autumn went by in haze of speed and good times, the Kawasaki running like clockwork and burning the rhythm of searing acceleration deep into my mind! I got to the point where I was quite happy skewering the bike through the bends on the edge of the exhaust system and really throwing it about like you would a 125.
I had several near misses when the excessive mass bit back but I hung on and mastered the beast! The effective limit of a 125mph top speed didn't really do any harm, as this was also a cruising speed which could be held without too much arm or neck strain. Road conditions don't really encourage high speed riding in the UK, not to mention the pointy headed ones! The bike was ridden both as a high speed commuter and as a fast tourer, taking just about everything I could throw at it.
Even a shunt with a Metro didn't really harm the Kawasaki. I hit it at an angle at about 20mph, the glancing blow tearing quite deeply into the side of the auto. The front guard was cracked and one of the indicators left in a thousand pieces. I'd charged through a gap only to find the cage veering into my path and tried to twist the Kawasaki into a too small space between cars on the other side. Nearly got away with it! The Metro's driver was some old dear who promptly burst into tears when she clocked the state of her car. You can guess who the peds wanted to lynch, the ancient leather jacket and torn jeans hardly helping my cause!
It was actually pretty surprising the amount of madness I could get away with on such a heavy, slow turning old brute of a motorcycle. The sensible riding position helped things along, I always felt relaxed and yet alert with none of the nagging pains present when riding the replicas. I've done some 1000 mile days on the R without ending up anywhere near crippled. Takes a bit of getting used to, needs some muscle and a strong set of balls to ride right but nevertheless a brilliant buy!
Tony Arlington