Kawasaki Z1-R
KAWASAKI Z1-R
CYCLE WORLD TEST
A Slick New Standard in Superbikes
Roll up to the gas pump on Kawasaki’s Z1-R and the attendant goes bananas. “Oh, what a bike!” he says as he carefully guides the nozzle. It’s all the ZR rider can do to keep the kid from using his paper towel on the smoked plastic windscreen.
Roll up to the second stoplight and the man in the Dino Spyder goes bananas. “That's nice,” he says. (At the first stoplight. he punches it off the line. One second later he thinks he’s kicked the Dino's gearshift into neutral.) “Is it faster than a Z-1?” he asks. “Yeah, a little.”
Roll up to the local Kawasaki dealership and everybody there goes bananas. “Where’d you get it? When do you get one? What’d they do to it? Can we ride it?
Impact. Goodness yes. Kawasaki Green has gone to War. the King is on Full Alert. With the Zl-R Kawasaki introduces a cafe racer without cafe drawbacks, a production racer in street clothes and a road bike so pretty your wife will help you wax it.
Kawasaki also introduces a subtle problem for testers, buyers and for Kawasaki, but that comes later.
First, the facts.
The model name Zl-R is not subtle. It signifies a Kawasaki KZ1000 with its own bodywork, paint scheme, brakes and engine modifications.
The engine is the easiest. The KZ1000 was of course the old KZ900 plus 112 cc. The ZR gets exactly the same bore, stroke, compression ratio, valves, etc. as fitted to the Z1000. The ZR also gets four 28mm Mikuni carburetors and the exhaust system becomes four equal-length head pipes feeding into an expansion chamber and then out through one large muffler on the right.
These two changes are deceptive. The 28mm carbs were used on the old Z-l. for power. They were replaced with 26mm units on later 900s and on the 1000s because they improved low and mid-range power and gave better fuel economy. The big jobs go on the ZR to increase maximum power (at the expense of the lower half of the rev range and at the expense of miles per gallon.) But the carb and exhaust changes boost claimed power from 83 to 90 bhp.
They also make the ZR a better potential road-racing superbike. Most rules allow changes to—but not replacement of— the stock carbs. So bigger stock carbs are better. And the rules sometimes require replicas of the stock exhaust system. So a good system makes for a better replica. Clutch, primary drive ratio, internal ratios and final drive all remain as they were, both for the ZR and for the 1978 KZ1000. The factory has reworked the gearbox internals.
Suspension has been changed slightly. The forks are revised inside. The rear shocks also, plus the rear springs are now two per side, one pair soft and the other pair firm, as compared with the progressive springs on the KZ1000, with the intent of having a soft ride and control at speed.
The ZR frame is another in a series of gradual improvements. When the 900 became the 1000, the larger engine brought the Stifter steering head gusset used on European Zs. and the frame tubes had thicker walls. The ZR has the Z1000 frame tubes and steering head plus reinforcement plates on the front downtubes at and below the steering head. Kawasaki engineers have street machines they use to learn where the frame needs help. Then they help it. The rear downtubes are a transverse brace/engine mount which looks stronger than before and the needle bearings for the swing arm pivot are larger.
Actual dimensions and geometry are unchanged at least in terms of the numbers. The ZR has an 18-in. front wheel with a 3.50 tire. The Z1000 has a 19-in. wheel and 3.25 tire. The smaller wheel and fatter tire have a smaller radius, so the front of the ZR would be lower except that the engineers reworked the steering head so the triple clamps could slide up and raise the frame. This gives the same 26degree steering head rake as the KZ1000 has.
One change that couldn’t be avoided is a slight loss of steering trail. Trail is that imaginary distance between a point directly below the axle and a line drawn through the steering head to the ground. If the steering head angle is the same and the axle is closer to the ground, there is less trail. This isn’t bad. but it does impose certain limits on handling.
The ZR's brakes could come straight from road racing. The rear is a drilled disc and the front brakes are two drilled discs. As a neat little extra, the front master cylinder is mounted on the left fork slider and behind the fairing, out of sight and harm’s way.
The bodywork is dazzling, any way the word is defined. Sea Foam green metallic paint, with a trim front fender, a sculptured fuel tank blending into the squared seat meeting the streamlined rear section above a plastic fender, all topped by a narrow cockpit fairing with smoked screen and halogen headlight. Wow. Unlike anything Kawasaki has done, not quite a copy of anything anybody else has done, the ZR will win sales and status on looks alone.
Kawasaki is using this model to bring out some other new ideas. The remote brake reservoir is one. A self-canceling turn signal is another. Like the system that first appeared on road Yamahas, the Kawasaki eanceler counts time and distance and shuts oft' the blinker when it reckons the signal’s work is done. As an extra to the extra, there’s also a switch on the bars to let the rider control the automatic control.
ZR handlebars are narrow, with an inch or so of rise and not much bend, just as cafe bars should be. The mirrors appear to have been styled to match the fairing, and are set closer to the centerline than is usual. The fairing contains a fuel gauge and ammeter. Speedometer, tach and the lights for signals, oil pressure, neutral, high beam and brakes are in normal location. The fuel filler cap is flush and is offset to the right of the tank. The tank holds 3.3 gal., down 1.1 from the KZ 1000's capacity. The two-person seat lifts completely oft' the bike for service and is held by a latch which locks at the rear bodv section. There's no storage capacity worth mentioning beneath the seat.
Curb weight came as a surprise. The test ZR weighed nine pounds more than did the test KZ1000 of last year. The ZR has one more brake disc, one less muffler, one less gallon of fuel and more plastic bodvwork bits. Evidently the fairing and brakes and cast wheels add more weight than the other changes subtract.
Another possibility is changes as yet not made public. We took the ZR to our dealer’s shop not to show oft' but to compare. The ZR is so new—the test model was the third in the U.S.. we're told—that even the U.S. officials didn’t have all the facts. While the dealer guys were helping us measure and eyeball the ZR parked next to a KZ1000. they mentioned that the KZ1000 frame has thicker tubing than did the KZ900 frame and that the police KZ1000 has thicker tubing in the swing arm than does the road KZ1000. We can't measure such things without sawing the test bike in half. We suspect certain portions of the frame are thicker and we more strongly suspect that the swing arm is the police unit. The men at Kawasaki cheerfully admit they expect to see super production ZRs on the track. Most racing clubs don't allow substitution of swing arms in production or super production classes, so a super strong unit on this limited-but-production model would be a smart move. We’ll keep asking questions.
The performance figures aren't a puzzle. Be nice if they were. The first question with a bike like this is How Quick? The answer is. Quick . . . but not as quick as the KZ 1000 from last year.
Two reasons. The bigger carbs do take power from the bottom of the rev range. The test ZR had a flash of hesitation just as the throttles were opened. The engine did not pull smoothly until revs rose above 2000, and there was a distinct boost to the boost above 5 thou. The mass-production KZ1000 has neither of these, so the larger Mikunis and/or the tuned-length head pipes are the cause.
The ZR engine thus will not pull strongly off the starting line at low revs. Dropping the clutch with the engine on the pipes brings on more power than the tire will take and the run goes up in smoke while the rear wheel walks around toward the front.
The second factor gets maybe personal. Our best rider is small and lightweight, as are most racers. The ZR has a long wheelbase and short bars and our man couldn’t aid traction by sitting on the back of the seat because he couldn’t get steering control from that far back.
. . . What is this? The ZR turned a best run of 12.4 sec for the quarter mile. That’s quicker than any production bike in memory except the KZ1000, so here we are explaining the poor times. Nuts. Suffice it that we kinda hoped to have a new test record, and that given a different track, a different day, OK, even a lucky run and the ZR could chop that 0.2 sec. off the KZ’s time. Trap speed was up one mph, test weight was also up, so the ZR engine does have more power than the KZ1000 does. Some of this comes through on the road. The hesitation shows up at stops only. The roughness appears only if the careless rider lets the engine speed drop, doesn’t shift or something clumsy. At any rolling speed the ZR is smooth as glass. There cannot be any production bike out there able to stay with this giant in a roll-on contest in any gear.
Top speed is beyond our present ability to measure. We do not have access to a track with enough room for superbikes of this class. A half mile isn’t enough.
The factory test crew says the ZR will do an. honest 130. We’re inclined to believe it. (We also have a new top-speed site in the planning stages. Perhaps in a month or two . . .)
ZR brakes are the low point of the test. The big drilled discs are fine for racing. Braking power is no problem. The KZ 1000 required care in application because there was so much power. The ZR has this in back to a larger degree. The K87 Dunlops on the test bike are fine.
But the combination of massive brake capacity and soft suspension caused the rear wheel to become light under hard braking. The shock damping is light and the rear wheel begins to hop and lock. We finally worked the ZR down to respectable stopping distance, but did it by featherfooting the back wheel and clamping down full hard on the front brakes. Perhaps in racing this whopping rear brake is good. On the highway it’s too much, especially until the ZR owner has some practice time in. Safety research shows too many riders rely on the back brake in an emergency. The ZR will not tolerate a heavy foot.
Front brakes are fine. And the drilled discs look to be the answer to problems many motorcycles have with discs losing power in the wet. Just don’t stomp down on the ZR’s pedal.
Evidently more attention has been paid to ride than handling by the engineers who did the suspension calibrations. The forks work well enough, that is, we were never conscious of bottoming, and the ride was smooth. The rear shocks, though, don’t have much compression damping. The back bottomed on potholes, which makes it easy to forget the comfy ride on good roads. The rear wheel stayed in line on curves, indicating proper calibration there, as well as sufficient stiffness in the arm and frame.
Handling is on a par with the engine. In fact, one could say the handling is like the engine; both work well within certain limits.
The suspension limit, or perhaps characteristic, begins with the smaller front wheel and the fat tire and the reduction in trail mentioned earlier. The ZR has a longish wheelbase and steep rake, is in the Japanese practice. The length is for stability in a straight line, the steepness is so the bike will turn. The European method is a short wheelbase so the bike will turn and more rake, that is, a shallower angle, for stability at speed. Neither is more correct than the other.
What matters is the balance of these> variables. The shorter front wheel and larger tire, do improve the grip of the front. FinôifWé expert wider rims^and tires to be a coming thing. The KZ 1 OQO.hfa^ thV same wheelbasmand rake sewing and that machine is one of the best .handlersaround.
The steep rake and reduced trail of the. ZR mean that the front wheel-is willing to turn, and the front tire w ill bite, w hile, át', the samer time the -bike; doesn'twant.'to lean. A rider'used tonton ring models ánd the usual big sports roadster will'find that, the practiced amount of body-shfft and bar Control doesn’t^produce, the expected mention off the'sfjaight. The ZR runs wider than anticipated! It doesn’t swoopThto-the'
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A little surprising. Your average cafe replica prefers to fajl toward the inside," but then, the ZR isn’t a cafe replica. It’s a super production bikeMo-be. w ith-Hash. Best place to show off the fast stuff is on the fast sections, where crouching behind the fairing. shifting weighty like (fill in name of hero) and areihg through at the speed of light.feels absolutely right.^
Oh: the faming. Nice touch. BMW be-’ gyn this trcnd.'with theRj^CJS 'and those <vho*have foilow&d th'e leader have dorie Jcpd. The factory R&D guys say •►he fairing" adds-,5 mph. The production racers doubf it. Doesn’t much hWtîer ón the road. What counts is.thaf.the fairing looks super, adds the vitaHouch'to an attractive^»ack&■
A fide-r -oí average height.’ say 5'9" or 5'10". sitting at ease with the &m$*and seat, reports'thaí at-50 mph and up ypu can feel a reduction in wind pressure on the chest. The air stream is angled up and hits a fullface helmet at the forehead. The air pressure there doesn’t become a force of consequence until 80 or so. at which velocity it’s natural to crouch down behind the screen and carry on. Side winds become more obtrusive only because the .frontal wind isn’t there any more. If the fairing must be said to hâve a flaw, that flaw' is that it allows the noise of the primary drive to intrude at less than 60 mph. Right, thé same primary drive that was the loudest thing on the KZ1000 is still in there howling, v •
Electrics stow neatly behind side panel.
Air induction is heavily insulated for sound-deadening.
Auxiliary kick starter stows under seat, thusly. Care must be taken in fastening seat to bike or it's likely to come off at an inopportune tune moment
Our pals at the Kawasaki store wondered why the transmission chánges. The original,version gave no trouble, they said. We wondered about the transmission changes because they don’t seem to have made ánv difference. The ZR needs a firm foot for demi shifts, it gives out with an occasional clunk and w hen the mechanism^ is # thoroughly warmed the rider misses neutral-on his wav down more often than not. Just like last year. The clutch may have been beefed without notice. The clutch on the test ZR soldiered on all day while we tried to beat the KZ’s time, whilst the KZ clutch got mighty tired on its way to the production superbike e.t. record.
Kawasaki resisted the temptation to fit the ZR with rearsets. which is fine with us. The pegs may be a bit low, in that the crew’s legs tended to come to rest on the edges of the seat or the tank. Seat padding is, well, maybe a little skimpy. This and the edges took something off the ZR’s appeal as a touring model, which it isn’t supposed to be anyway; *•" V
The fairing was designed to fit the bars, rather than the other way around and the bar height, width and bend were approved by all. There are new grips, softer, praise be. The throttle return spring doesn’t wrestle the hand to a dratv and we even developed a grudging affection for the selfcanceling signals. (You don’t like ’em? Use the convenient swatch.) A gas gauge, isn’t what you’d call needed but there were those here who liked it and all concur it’s no sillier than digital read-outs for the shifter or two-stage signal buzzers. The kick start lever is bolted to the underside of the seat, i.e. for emergencies only, and that surely justifies the ammeter.
The 45 mpg test result is acceptable for the ZR’s performance. Too bad about the stylish and smaller tank, as it requires filling every 120 miles or so. Shrug. They run races in heats, right?
Which bringsus to the conclusion. Kawasaki has planned a massive introduction campaign for this model. Some 800,000 motorcycle owners will be invited to come and inspect the ZR. There will be two examples per dealer.
Kawasaki has created a problem, called supplying the demand.
Our problem? The Zl-R is a KZ1000 modified for performance. The KZ100Q is a better motorcycle for all-round use. Our problem is that we’d probably do the foolish, sporting thing and buy?the ZR.>
KAWASAKI
Z1-R
$3695
Tests performed at Number One Products
