My cousin's what called a mature rider. Nice enough guy, but no idea about how to ride a motorcycle. He'd had this 1985 Kawasaki Z750 for a decade, done 40000 miles but kept it well polished and maintained. He was ready to buy anew 1100 Zephyr but the,dealer would only give him 500 sovs in part-ex for the Z750! OK, the 1100 was heavily discounted and there wasn't much room for manoeuvre, but the same dealer had some pretty nasty looking fours from the eighties on offer for over a grand. The obvious solutions was to let me buy it for six hundred quid.
This was quite a step up from my Kawasaki GPz305. Incidentally, the little twin had done 32000 miles flat out with no signs of exploding and was sold for 800 notes! Where the twin was all lithe, throttle to the stop, the four was stately, relaxed and damn hard work. In town it was ponderous until given a bit of throttle which seemed to sharpen everything up but no sooner had it accelerated harshly than I had to use the triple discs to stop myself hitting something.
The Z was about twice as wide and heavy as the twin, or felt like it was. I had to adopt a much slower riding style in traffic. At least I did at first... after a couple of weeks I was more willing to cut and thrust through unlikely gaps. The bike must've been quite intimidating to cagers, they often veered out of the way. My cousin had fitted a meaty set of crash-bars, looked like they would take the side of a car off in the blink of an eye.
My cousin had happily run the bike on stock suspension! This was just about adequate for running through town or loping along the motorway at the legal limit. Push the bike harder, it'd weave at 80mph and start to wobble at 90mph! Sag in the suspension meant that trying to throw it through the bends made the exhaust dig in, tried to throw the bike off the road. It took less than a week for me to become totally pissed off with the Z!
Enter the local backstreet mechanic. I'd actually gone to school with him, though the memories weren't exactly fond. Yep, he'd fit some stronger springs in the forks and had a pair of Hagon shocks somewhere. A day later the bike was transformed. The suspension appeared to be locked up solid! Needs a bit of running in, I was told!
The bike was much easier to control, went where it was pointed, but minor bumps rumbled through the machine. I soon got used to it. It took a fairly violent pot-hole to bottom out the forks. Out on the open road, I revelled in the new found ground clearance, swinging the 500Ibs of metal through the curves.
The new worry was the way the edges of the tyres squirmed as I tried to get my knee down. These were old Michelins that apparently lasted for about 15000 miles but didn't have a handle on grip. A look in MCN revealed that decent rubber cost horrendous amounts of dosh and that, anyway, the big, narrow, wheels on the Z weren't suited to them. Some Japlops were found in the breakers for twenty quid, including fitting!
Japlops have a bad rep but they worked wonders for the Z, although I couldn't quite get my knee down the exhaust dug in before that happened. There's an awful lot of top heavy mass waiting to go out of control, backing off the clever option. Despite some limitations I was soon enjoying myself and keeping up with friends on a diverse array of machinery - old CBR600, GPz500S, Z1000, XJ650, etc.
There's a lot written about the horrors of old disc brakes but the Z was running Goodridge hose, EBC pads and newish discs - nothing to complain about in this case, probably better than new! There wasn't even much of a wet weather lag, though I could make the back wheel lock up without much effort - fortunately, the rear end went into a controllable skid, that if I kept releasing and reapplying the lever would have the wheel snapping back and forth a good foot! Made the winter commuting run kind of fun, anyway!
Cruising speed was down to whether I could hang on or not. Bars were slightly raised, footpegs not far enough back, a combination, on sane days, that limited cruising to about 85mph. However, using the pillion pegs and getting my head down, allowed me to cruise along at about 120mph. For an hour. Two things intruded - my neck went all stiff and the secondary vibes became quite ferocious, more so in the pegs than the bars. Even the great slab of a petrol tank was affected. The mirrors were absolutely useless by then, trying to look over my shoulder, the lid was caught by the windstream, the strap tried to strangle me!
Amusingly, 130mph smoothed out the motor a bit! But this was too fast to hold on to the bars for more than a few minutes. I liked its naked, classic looks, didn't want to fit a fairing. The most I ever saw on the clock was 135mph but the vibes were in a real frenzy and | could hear the chain trying to break the sprockets - it's surprising the kind of racket the final drive causes. Perhaps I was just used to the smooth, quiet and sophisticated belt drive on the GPz305.
With the solid suspension there was only the slightest of weaves from the back end, even when the bike was held at highly illegal speeds! I actually rode over a bit of wood at 110mph, only had the slightest flutter from the bars. The bike much preferred to ride straight on in curves, needed maximum muscle to hustle it through the bends. The Z900 was much worse, the CBR much better. All depends on the rider, really, how much skill and guts they've got! I surprised no end of poseurs with the way I shoved the ancient four around!
Riding an old style four like that, accidents weren't unknown. One time I totally messed up a tight corner, ended up running right across the front of an oncoming car. Time seemed to slow, glanced at the driver who looked frightened out of his mind, I got the Z upright and held on as we ploughed off the road.
As a 500lb trail bike the Z750 was somewhat lost. The first bit of mushy ground, the front wheel dug in and I was thrown over the bars. Right over the top of a hedge! I landed well enough on my back, amusing a couple of sheep no end. I managed to get upright, only to find there was no way through the hedge! I could heard the Z popping away on the other side. After a half mile walk I finally found a way through and ran back to the Z. The bloody thing was covered in mud but no real damage!
Another time, I came off on gravel at 70mph. One moment I was king of the road, the next the bike was sliding one way, and me another (luckily, I wouldn't fancy having 500lbs of Kawasaki landing on my body!). The engine bars ended up well mangled, the handlebars a bit bent. My favourite jeans were torn to shreds and I ended up with some 200Ib nurse taking bits of gavel out of my skin. A bad day all round.
These accidents emphasized the general toughness of the big Z. It was more likely to kill me than write itself off! Bastard. At this point, I decided a bit more power was in order - K & N's, Motad 4-1 (used, meant for a GPz but it went on) and a carb jet kit... the power delivery was full of holes! Shit. The local mechanic was consulted again. He used a screwdriver to pierce the original airfilter. After several attempts he got it running right! A right old bodge but he only charged me a fiver.
The howl out of the Motad was music to my ears. Didn't go any faster but the acceleration now made the front end go all light, caused the bars to twitch in my hands! Rear-sets and Jota-style bars were next on the agenda. The bars could be set up for touring or like clip-ons, had the best of both worlds for town and back road racing. Still no faster - the aerodynamics more limiting than the power - but I now had a chance of cruising at the ton-twenty without ending up in serious pain or looking like a hunchback.
All this hard riding had an effect on the Z's motor eventually. After a year, with 64000 miles under its tyres, the camchain went rat-tat-tat. The tensioner had a bit of a reputation for sticking on this and other Z models but, in this case, it was just old age and a well worn camchain. A replacement was dropped in by the local mechanic who almost blew it by dropping a link into the engine but it came out of the sump with the oil. Never heard anyone swear so much. By the way, maintenance was a carb balance and oil change every 2500 miles.
The engine began to lose its edge by 75000 miles. This relative longevity down to its pampered early existence, Z750's can be dead meat in less than 40000 miles. The chassis started complaining somewhat earlier, a spate of dead bearings, the cast wheels starting to crack up where the spokes met the hub, and rust breaking out from under the paint, despite the fact that I'd polished it every day.
Just before it broke through 80000 miles I sold it off for 500 quid. Pretty good value, also a great ride for most of the time. Very versatile (once used to its mass and size) but heavy on fuel (40mpg) and consumables (nothing lasted for more than 7000 miles). A late model Z1100 its replacement!
Colin Chambers