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 how cutting edge this bike was in the day. The older generation, who cut teeth on RDs and H2s realize that this was likely the last gasp of a particular era of sport bikes. And the numbers show that this was never rare then, and is still not in that collectible category today. But time wages its inexorable battle with elements, abuse and damage, dwindling the supply of good examples of everything, making even a very mass-produced Japanese sport bike rare by circumstance.
1985 Kawasaki GPz750 for sale on eBay
The 1985 model of the GPz was completely evolutionary, with DNA stretching back to the KZ models of the late 1970s, and even some hints of the great Z1. Bodywork grew from the original bikini fairing in 1982 to the larger main fairing with lowers as seen on this 1985 model. The inline four cylinder displaced an actual 738cc, was air cooled and breathed through two valve heads. Power was a modest 87 HP at the crank, utilizing a 5-speed transmission and chain final drive to propel the 530-ish pound (wet) GPz to a mid-12 second quarter mile time. But the GPz was no drag bike; this was a do it all, drag your knee on Sunday, commute to work on Monday motor scooter.
From the seller:
1985 Kawasaki GPZ 750 (ZX750A3)
USED item, near mint condition.Clean title. 5,200 Miles.
Extremely low miles. All shown on pictures. Runs and drives great.Around $1,000 spent on the carbs: fully disassembled, powder coated, reassembled, and synchronized.
Front and rear master cylinders rebuilt. The three calipers also rebuilt with new brake pads (EBC).
The GPz existed from 1982 – 1985. But by the time the 1985 model bowed, the revolutionary GPz900R Ninja obliterated the category of bigger bore sport bikes. This made the GPz750 outdated as it sat on the showroom floor. It became a victim of the very performance arms race it helped to create. Resale prices dropped, and most GPz examples were used, abused and sold, with rinse and repeat the order of the day. The bikes were reliable and robust, and held up well mechanically to these antics. But cosmetically the black chrome look did not hold up well to neglect, meaning that an old GPz usually looks like an old GPz.
Today’s example is a 5,200 mile specimen that looks amazing. We are talking about a 37 year old sport bike here, potentially older than many of our readers. That condition is what makes this bike worthy of the “rare” moniker, as despite the numbers of bikes produced by Kawasaki Heavy Industries during this time period, few remain in this sort of shape. So if you lived through this era and are mired in some serious nostalgia, this might just be the bike for you. New in showrooms the GPz750 was listed for approximately $5,600. This beauty is being listed for slightly more in a Buy It Now format, with the seller open to offers. Check out all of the details here, then grab that Swatch watch, jump into the DeLorean and head back to the future! You’ll be walking on sunshine. Thank you for your support!
MI
That is a very nice unmolested example, nice to see with the original pipes. Need to find a set of those for my 900.
That the issue w/ a lot of ’80s sport bikes, especially the ones w/ the “black chrome” exhausts
I don’t know if I really love this bike because of the bike, or the fact that it might as well have cost 56 million when it was first sold. I was 17 years old and there’s no way I could have bought one. The price on it was 3699.00. Not 5699.
I worked at a dealership in the mid-80’s. Of the GPz line, the 750 was the best balance between horsepower and handling. It was amazing how many brand new exhausts we had in the rafters, as everyone wanted a Kerker or a Bassani before they took delivery.
This looks better than the fuel injected 1984 GPZ1000 i had back in the day. Of course mine was 6years old already when it reached me. I was fond of mine and still revel at how effective the crude brakes actually were. I’d say, better than my 500 interceptor.
I really love this paint scheme with these wheels. I have not seen this variation before. Quite handsome. Ponch and John surely approve.
Came out the same year as the first GSXR750. That was their biggest problem.
I know this will get buried in the comments but I have to say that was one of the most well written posts I have seen on this site (and I used to write some of them!). Excellent job Mike.
That being said, to many people, this will always be thought of as the bike from Top Gun, the bike that made purely dedicated sportbikes cool. I never got the chance to ride one of these, my introduction to sportbikes was the 1st gen ZX10, good god what a beast that bike was. Sadly finding an unmolested one of those is rarer than rocking horse poo.
Everybody with rudimentary knowledge about this era and Top Gun knows that it was the 900R in the movie. And that model was released in 1984, a year before the domestic market Gixxer.
I had an ’84 GPz 750 that I put 110,000 miles on, by which time the engine was getting pretty soggy. This wasn’t helped by the fram filters I used, which everybody thought were good at the time before being revealed as the worst pieces of junk you could use. I sold it to a buddy’s neighbor, who had just done a restoration on a GPz750 when it promptly got totalled by a car. So he had essentially a brand new engine with no bike, and I had a clean and straight bike that needed an engine. I recall him saying “I’ll take it” before I finished saying “$300” when he asked how much I wanted. This is a good all around bike.
Also, I don’t think the fairing lowers are OEM. There are a couple of pictures with them on, and the rest are off. I think the bike looks better without them. And somehow Rob Muzzy and Wayne Rainey took the 83 version to the Superbike championship that year, in spite of a horde of Honda VF750 Interceptors with Honda backing.
Very good looking bike. I have 3 of them in case anyone is interested and a parts bike with good engine. During the summer I ride one daily. Very reliable, easy to work on and well engineered for its day. Handles great and lots of power. I grew up riding a Norton 750 so this bike was a quantum leap compared to the Nortons. If interested contact me at cwj901@shaw.ca