The bike even had stock shocks which let the thing weave nastily at 80mph on my test ride. It was so bad that I accused the owner of dropping the bike, although I could find no evidence of crash damage and Z1000 frames are renown for their basic toughness. I had a friend who'd hit the side of a bus hard enough to bend the forks back so that the wheel touched the exhaust, but hadn't needed to straighten the frame...
The motor sounded good, he even had service receipts for the whole of the bike's life (something I'd never seen before), but the chassis was a little tatty and the original exhausts pitted with rust and rather loud. He wanted £850, I offered £650, went up to £700, telling him we could do the deal there and then. He accepted and agreed to drop the bike off at my house.
I love the shape of the Z1000. That large teardrop tank looks so much better than their later efforts and somehow goes well with the lines of the engine. With the raised bars the bike has the kind of raunchy looks that too few modern bikes possess.
My first job was to junk the shocks. They really were too much. Lean the beast over in any bend that had a few bumps and the whole plot would pogo viciously. I wasn't able to push the bike beyond 100mph because the weave was just too large. I could have spent a hundred notes on state of the art equipment, but ended up parting with £35 to a breaker for a set of unidentified shocks off a Z900 with a heavily mangled front end. They made the ride much firmer and appeared to have a modicum of damping. No more instant pogo acts and the weave only came in above 105mph.
Not that I could sustain that kind of speed for more than a few seconds. Those flash looking high-rise bars combined with forward mounted pegs were one hell of a pain above 70mph. Not only did they lead to arm and thigh pains they also made it impossible to look backwards, because the wind tended to try to snap the helmet off my head. They were put there originally to make the Z1000 an easy bike to throw through traffic. With 550lbs, big wheels and old fashioned steering geometry it was the only way to make the Kawa easy to shift at low speeds, and, besides, those bars do look good.
I do find the bike a real bastard to manhandle when parking, although the centre stand is quite easy to operate. I choose my parking places very carefully. I've dropped the bike twice at walking speeds because I've been caught out by its top-heaviness. This largely disappears once rolling, only to re-emerge when the bike gets into heavy trouble.
At town speeds the engine smacks out useful torque. Although there's plenty of go, the motor isn't really turned on until there's 6000rpm dialled in, then it'll take off to around ten grand when secondary vibes are more apparent than an excess of power. The only irritant in town was the heavy clutch (that would occasionally cut in when you weren't quite ready for it).
Any attempt not to use the clutch would upset the finicky five speed gearbox. Clunk, cluck, er, click. With rapidly strengthening left hand muscles from forced use of the clutch, the gearbox appeared to become more precise as time went on. Actual missed changes were rare, and, by now, I'm used to its action and don't think anything of it.
At moderate speeds on country roads there were no real problems. The bike could be leant over and powered through bends. It wiggled a little if you had to back off the throttle, but nothing to frighten the natives. Braking hard was quite foolish, as the twin discs would have the forks on their stops, radically alter the steering geometry and try to get the bike to cut up the nearside kerb.
The faster the Kawa goes the more frightening it becomes (surprise, surprise). I know well a road that has a series of sharp little hills that can be shot up at around the ton, both wheels off the ground for a few moments. The bike would often land on the front wheel with enough force to try to shove me over the bars.
The bike twitched along its whole length, although once both wheels were safely back on the ground, it quickly settled down to a reasonable semblance of stability. Sometimes on this same road, it swerved violently just after the apex or the bottom of a hill. Grabbing all the brakes and whacking down the gearbox before the chassis had a chance to fully settle down, really upset the bike, the suspension just couldn't sort out what it was supposed to be doing and the back wheel felt like it had become detached. If I was feeling really brave I'd open up the throttle in third or fourth, feeling the power fighting its way through the chassis; the Kawa always felt more secure when it was under power and would even tighten up its line in the curve.
The engine pushes out just under 80hp, which nowadays is nothing very special, but as it equates to 130mph top end or 110mph cruising is more than adequate for my needs. The engine is both very tough and runs more or less maintenance free. The built up crankshaft runs on roller bearings, tuned engines often have it welded up for racing, but for road use it's tough enough as stock. One of the crankshaft webs has teeth machined into it for gear primary drive to the wet multi-plate clutch. A long chain drives the two camshafts from the centre of the crankshaft. Two valves per cylinder are controlled via bucket and shims that need little adjustment, although I check them every 3000 miles, I only have to change one or two shims every 9000 miles or so (it's a very fiddly job and it's quite easy to lose a shim down the engine).
I've done 25000 miles on the Kawa in two years, my maintenance was limited to 1500 mile oil changes, a couple of shim changes and one new set of spark plugs when it started to take more than a few seconds to fire up from cold. It's also had some new silencers, three sets of disc pads, two drive chains, six tail bulbs, two headlamp bulbs (not the best headlamp in the world but adequate), three rear and two front tyres, and a respray of the tank, side panels and mudguards. Add to these reasonable running costs that the engine still runs and sounds A1 and the fact that it's actually gone up in value, to realise just why I'm so happy running the bike.
Even the fuel consumption isn't too horrendous for such a large and heavy bike. It's averaged out at around 45mpg, going down to 38mpg if I thrash it and up to 60mpg if I just potter along at reasonable speeds. I have a friend who has a similar bike with Motad and K&Ns. fitted, which, he claims, does even better, averaging 50mpg and doing as much as 65mpg.
I also followed his lead by fitting an aluminium box section swinging arm with needle roller bearings. I only did this three months ago and I just wish I'd made the swap when I first bought the bike, because the handling wobbles have all but been cleared up. Only when I'm in a real wild race do the weaves and wobbles come back. The only problem is that the improved rear end shows up the 46000 mile old front forks for the soggy things they really are. Stiffer springs, heavier oil and a fork brace are the next things on my shopping list.
So where does that leave the Kawa? Unfortunately, its nine years of life have not been too kind to the chrome (pitted forks, rusty wheel spokes and brown downpipes), to the frame (badly rusted where you can't see it), to the engine alloy (white dust everywhere) and calipers that need careful cleaning every time the pads are changed. Decay is settling over the Kawasaki and I have to keep cleaning the thing every weekend just to keep up with the corrosion,
Although I could probably prise a grand out of someone's hands for the Z1000, I probably won't sell it because there's not anything better that I can buy for that kind of bread and, besides, the has carved out a place in my heart. It's just the way the thing slogs on in the face of neglect (which reminds me - I must adjust the points, carbs...) and can still give a nice kick when I open the throttle at 90mph, and then there's the way the bike just sits there looking so damn butch and primeval, like it's doing 100mph standing still.
Thomas Clark