Update 3.15.2019: Now relisted on eBay with a buy-it-now of $37,900. Good luck to buyers and seller! Links updated. -dc Before Honda and Suzuki engineered machines with turbocharged engines in the early part of the 1980s, Kawasaki pioneered the idea by using forced induction to make their musclebound Z1R a truly brawny street machine. By…
Update 7.26.2019: This bike has SOLD! Congratulations to buyer and seller! -dc By the time the 1978 Kawasaki Z1-R rolled around, the Z1000 platform on which it was based was getting a little dated, though it still enjoyed a solid reputation for being a hard bike to tangle with on a street or track. Others…
There comes a point and time when nearly everything becomes valued – nostalgically if not financially. Such just might be the case with today’s find, a cherry 1982 Kawasaki GPz750. In the early 1980s the GPz was generally a top-dog kind of sport bike. Pitted against Honda’s CB and Suzuki’s GS models, the GPz looked…
In the 1970s the Kawasaki Z1 was the big dog of the sporting world. Long in the tooth as the decade neared to a close (the Z1 platform was introduced way back in 1972), Kawasaki introduced an updated model – the Z1-R. Largely a warmed-over refresh rather than an all new design, the R model…
It’s not that hard to come across clean Kawasaki ZX-7Rs these days, even after many of them were used and abused and thrown away. But this 1993 Kawasaki ZX-7R M1 is a lot more special. It’s not quite an RR, but the M1 is an early homologation special of the ZX-7R, and it wears a…
The seller of this early-run 1985 Kawasaki Ninja 600R recently completed a fastidious restoration of the bike, down to changing the aged rubber charcoal canister strap for an OEM replacement. He also sourced new gaskets for the anti-dive system in the forks, which took some parts hunting, elbow grease and careful planning. The forks got…
Kawasaki built the ZX7 line for what seems like the last third of the last millennium, ending its run with a reputation for being smooth, comfortable and reliable, but behind its 750cc-class competitors as a track bike. The reputation gained by the later bikes belies the roots laid by the 1991 Kawasaki ZX-7RK. An out-of-the-box…
Before he ripped his way to four 500cc Grand Prix World Championships, Eddie Lawson had become a hero to legions of American kids on the back of his lime green and electric blue AMA Superbike Kawasaki KZ1000Rs. The series was huge at the time, with riders pulling down proper pro athlete salaries, and the street…