With apologies to RSBFS readers nearing, at, or possibly over the ripe age of this pristine GPz550 (did I cover everyone?), 40 years old in the sport bike business might as well be 80. And yet in the early 1980s (that’s right – depending on your musical preference it was the same era Ozzy bit…
Up for grabs in it’s second trip around the eBay galaxy is a very pretty 1983 Kawasaki GPz1100. This was the mainstay of the Kawasaki big bore lineup – going toe to to with the likes of the Suzuki GS1100 and Katana – before being soundly replaced by the stunning “next gen” 900 Ninja. As…
With apologies to David Weiss and Don Fagenson, it’s time to walk the dinosaur – the 1985 Kawasaki GPz750. The younger generation reading this – who did not grow up with cassette tapes, never had a mobile that didn’t have a camera, and has never watched ALF (no loss there, really) – probably won’t understand…
Rare (adjective) 1. (of an event, situation, or condition) not occurring very often. 2. (of a thing) not found in large numbers and consequently of interest or value. 3. unusually good or remarkable. Before the flaming starts, I thought I’d hit up the olde Oxford Dictionary and set the ground rules for discussion. Nobody in…
A blast from the past, the GPz was perhaps the ultimate expression of sport bike back when Olivia Newton‑John was getting physical, Rocky had the eye of the tiger, and Tommy Tutone was trying to remember Jenny’s number. This was an era before liquid cooling, before fuel injection, and long before computers had anything to…
In the 1980s all the major Big Four manufacturers were geared up to go racing. This was a massive boon to the consumer; not only did racing improve the overall breed, race-ready bikes showed up in the showrooms as homologation models. And while Honda and Yamaha produced actual race bikes with street concessions (read: RC30…
When Honda launched the Turbo wars with the 1982 CX500T, the rest of the Big Four were not far behind. Before the very brief rise of the factory turbos came crashing down, Honda had produced both the CX500 and CX650 Turbos, Suzuki introduced the stunning XN85 Turbo Katana look-alike, Yamaha phoned in a warmed-over Seca…
Orwellian theory aside, big brother was indeed watching in 1984. In fact, the whole world was watching in 1984, as the last truly competitive “old school” middleweight sport bike strutted its stuff. Today this is better known as a classic – even potentially an antique given its 36-ish years of age – but back then…