Kawasaki

KAWASAKI

New Bikes '95

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING CLASSIC

KAWASAKI CHOSE ITS ANNUAL OCTOBER GATHERING of dealers to announce three new motorcycles designed to bring smiles not only to the faces of the people who will sell the bikes, but to those of the people who buy and ride them. In a surprising something-for-everyone sweep, Super K announced an all-new GPz1100 based on the ZX-11; an allnew ZX-6R designed to do battle with Honda’s CBR600F3; and the Vulcan 800, designed to steal a bit of cruiser-market thunder. Information gleaned about these bikes is sketchy and very preliminary, so it’s possible that some specifications could be changed before production begins. But we’ll tell you what we know.

Recall the old Ninja 900? If so, you know pretty much what the GPzl 100 looks like. The bike, designated internal-

ly ZX-1100E, uses a double-cradle steel frame that offers 27 degrees of rake and incorporates a detachable right-front downtube for improved engine-service access. The engine behind that front downtube is a retuned version of the ZX-11 engine, reworked, Kawasaki claims, so that it outperforms the ZX-11 at lowand mid-level rpm, trading off the ZX-11’s top-end rush for awesome midrange power.

To retune the overachiever ZX-11 engine, Kawasaki exchanged the 11’s 40mm carbs for 36mm units and used milder cam profiles to move power output down the rpm range. Compression is unchanged-it’s still 11:1—but unlike the ZX-11, this bike does without ram-air intake. As we went to press, power and torque measurements were unavailable.

The engine is hung in the frame by a pair of solid mounts and one rubber mount, the latter to help quell vibration. A flat radiator, instead of the ZX-11’s curved unit, sits in front of the engine, and a 4-into-2 exhaust system reaches out behind it.

Front-brake rotors measure 11.8 inches in diameter. Rubber-wise, 120/60-17 front and 170/60-17 rear radial tires are mounted on cast-aluminum wheels. What we can’t tell, because we don’t know, is the span of the bike’s wheelbase and its claimed dry weight. Neither did Kawasaki offer early details about the bike’s suspension system, except to say that its swingarm is boxed steel. What we do know is that the bike uses a 530 O-ring chain, that it features four-way adjustable clutch and brake levers, and has an instrument panel that incorporates a digital clock. Preliminary indications are that the GPzllOO will be priced about $2000 less than the ZX-11, or about $8000.

Don’t care about reprises of older bikes? Looking, instead, for a new 600 supersport racer? If so, Kawasaki has your number. That number is 6—as in ZX-6R.

This bike, which Kawasaki says is a development of the ZX-7/ZX-9 family, is said to be “radically lighter and narrower than the current ZX-6.” The engine is completely new, designed with compactness being the object of the exercise.

That compactness was arrived at in two ways. Kawasaki’s designers made the engine short, front-to-rear, by narrowing the distance between the crankshaft and transmission input shaft by .6 inch. They also moved the transmission output shaft .3 inch closer to the input shaft. Then they made the crankshaft itself narrower by moving the cam-drive chain from a central position to the right side of the engine, allowing use of five main bearings instead of the six used on the ’94 version of the engine. This also means the crank journals for cylinders two and three are closer together than they are in the ’94 ZX-6 engine, and that leads, Kawasaki claims, to increased crankshaft rigidity. Reducing the number of main bearings also reduces friction loss.

This new 599cc engine is canted forward 28 degrees-13 degrees greater than the ’94 ZX-6’s motor. This allows an intake port downdraft angle of 68 degrees and a much straighter shot into the combustion chamber for the air-fuel mixture. By comparison, the downdraft angle in the old ZX6 engine’s intake was 49 degrees.

Bore/stroke dimensions are revised to 66 x 43.8mm. Last year’s ZX-6 measured 64 x 46.6mm. Sliding in those enlarged bores are slipper pistons, used to reduce reciprocating mass. Kawasaki says this larger bore reduces piston speed and allows use of larger valves. These are larger, by 1mm, than those of the old27mm for the intakes, 23 for the exhausts. Included valve angle of this new engine is 25 degrees, as opposed to the 30-degree included valve angle of the older design. Compression ratio is 11.8:1, and the airbox is fed by twin ram-air scoops. The

clutch feeds power to the bike’s six-speed transmission through nine friction plates and eight steel plates.

Kawasaki has taken pains to make sure the engine is smooth and quiet. The cam-cover gasket is what it calls a full-floating design, which supposedly helps minimize engine vibration, and the engine is partially rubber-mounted. The sprocketand clutch-cover interiors, meanwhile, are rubber-coated to reduce harmonic vibration.

The bike’s frame is made from pressed aluminum sheet, and is said to be similar in configuration to that of the Japanese-market ZX-R400. Rake and trail are 24 degrees and 3.5 inches respectively, and the wheelbase is 55.7 inches. The swingarm is extruded box-section aluminum, and is identical to that used on this year’s version of the standard ZX-6. The bike uses a conventional cartridge fork with 41mm tubes, 12-way rebound damping, 11-way compression damping and threaded preload adjusters. The shock also is multi-adjustable, with 19 compression-damping settings, four rebound settings, a threaded preload adjuster and a top shock mount threaded to allow ride-height adjustments. Brakes use 11.8-inch rotors up front; tires are 120/60-17 front and 160/60-17 rear radiais.

Kawasaki says the bike’s fairing offers an extremely low coefficient of drag and allows 55-degree lean angles.

Care less about lean angles and more about lean-andmean cruising? That’s what the Vulcan 800 is for. This is another all-new engine design that incorporates sohc, four-valve technology into a 55-degree V-Twin. One carb, a 38mm unit that incorporates an accelerater pump, is used. Bore/stroke dimensions are 88 x 66.2mm, for a total of 802cc. Cylinders are aluminum with pressed-in cast-iron wet liners. Cooling, Kawasaski says, is by both liquid and air; that’s why the engine has cooling fins cast into it.

To provide the lumpy exhaust signature American cruiser riders love, both pistons work from the same crankpin, a la Harley-Davidson. To help minimize the vibrations that a single-pin crank develops, the engine uses a gear-driven balance shaft, and the front engine mount is rubber. The remaining pair of mounts are metal-to-metal.

The frame is a steel double-cradle affair that gives a 65inch wheelbase. That extended-look fork uses 41mm tubes, and the single shock offers seven preload adjustment positions. Front tire is an 80/90-21 mounted on a spoked wheel, and the rear tire is a 140/90-16, also on a spoked rim.

Ameri-classic enough for you? How about this: The speedometer is mounted atop the 3.7-gallon fuel tank, just like-well, You-Know-Whoidson. Even better, it is cabledriven from the rear wheel to help maintain the fork’s clean, uncluttered look.

Price and availability? At presstime, these questions have no answers. What does seem certain, however, is that Kawasaki is serious about things-serious about the 600-class wars, both in the showroom and on the track; serious about offering equipment with all-round performance and usability; and serious about challenging for its own share of the growing cruiser market. Should be an interesting year.