Time Traveler

Time Traveler

Practically free GPz

BIKE BUYING needn't put your bank account into a tail-spin. Just ask Renato Simone, title-holder to this 1985 Kawasaki GPz550, a beautifully preserved example of what was once a CWTen Best Bikes winner. The San Francisco Bay area resident (and cousin to my wife Robin) got the bike for the cost of issuing new DMV paperwork after it had sat unused in a friend's garage for more than a decade.

“Good going,” I commended him. “How’s it run?” “Ah, well,” Renato stammered. “It won’t start.” Turns out the aircooled inline-Four had quit on the original owner, which is why she parked it in the first place.

“The carburetors are probably gummed up,” I reasoned. “Clean ’em up and throw in a new battery.”

Several months later, the bike still hadn’t rolled inch one. “Send me the carbs,” I groused. “I’ll handle it.”

Sure enough, the mixers were a mess. After a couple nights spent scrubbing float bowls and blowing compressed air through clogged passageways, I boxed up the carbs and mailed them back. “Bolt them back on and see what happens,” I said.

But Renato’s busy job as a pilot kept him from delving any further into the GPz’s rehabilitation, so I offered to get the bike running myself. Better than letting it sit for another year, I figured. We arranged to have the bike transported to the CW offices in Newport Beach, and I got to work.

Kawasaki GPz550 $1000

To my surprise, the bike was nearly perfect. A little elbow grease had it shimmering under the fluorescents in the garage, only shortcomings being the aftermarket handgrips and cutdown seat, which had been modified to allow the 5-foot, 2-inch original owner to flat-foot at stoplights. Two tip-overs along the way had done minor damage to the right-front tumsignal and fairing trim. Otherwise, the little GPz (Bluebook value: $1460) was as perfect as a 17-year-old bike could be, down to its original exhaust system. The odometer claimed 5904 miles, and there's no reason to believe otherwise. I checked everything, changing engine oil and brake fluid, torquing bolts and lubing axles along the way. The chain, sprockets and brake pads all had plenty of life left in them. I didn’t want to risk my neck on two-decadeold rubber, though, so I spooned on new Dunlop GT501s.

I then took the bike to our local Kawasaki dealer, Champion Motorcycles in Costa Mesa, for a leakdown test and valve-lash check. Valves shimmed to spec, gas tank de-corroded, smog equipment properly plumbed and leaky petcock and float-bowl gaskets replaced, the monoshock GPz ran good as new. Total bill: $668. Not too bad for a decade of disregard.

I rode it home that night, marveling at the unexpectedly smooth engine, surprisingly powerful triple-disc brakes and neutral-steering bias-ply Dunlops. Good fun. All for very little money.

I’d taken the seat to a local upholstery shop for new foam and a redone cover, but the final outcome looked as if it belonged on a Jet Ski. So, I ordered an original cover and sent the pan to Travelcade. One week and $125 later, good as new! And it’s plenty comfy, too, as Renato’s brother Edward discovered when he cruised the GPz back up the coast to San Francisco. “Nine hours? Didn’t seem like it took me that long,” he told me.

Even the original owner is tickled that the bike is back on the road. Sorry, it’s not for sale. -Matthew Miles