Retro Rainey

RETRO RAINEY

Tribute to the 60

How sick is this? You could buy two of Burnsie’s $1600 beater ZX-9s, then drop another $800 on incidentals (dude, get yourself a new pipe), and that would just about cover the bill for nuts and bolts on this super-special 2007 ZX-10R.

Yep, some $4000 worth of Poggipolini Ti fasteners holds it together!

What we’ve got here is an act of maximum respect for three-time World Champion Wayne Rainey, who first flashed onto the scene in 1983, a wild, blonde-haired SoCal dirt-tracker who somehow managed to convince Kawasaki he could roadrace. He could, too, rolling to six consecutive wins and the AMA Superbike title that year aboard his half-faired #60 GPz750.

Will Kenefick, owner of Camarillo, California-based customsportbike shop RetroSBK (www.retrosbk.com), says, “I got the idea when I saw Wayne’s bike at the AMA Hall of Fame Museum in Ohio. I’m a big fan of Rainey’s racing: It wasn’t good enough for him just to win a GP; Wayne would try to set fastest lap on the first lap-after qualifying on pole-and then lead every lap thereafter. He wanted to demoralize the competition.”

Rainey’s drive for perfection in his riding was the inspiration for this bike, which consumed 400 hours of builder Kenefick’s time and is valued at $65,000.

Work started when Kenefick completely stripped the frame, painstakingly ground down welds, then polished it in its entirety before sending it off to be chrome powdercoated. A pearl-anthracite coating was next in the second step of the two-part process developed at nearby Applied Coatings in Oxnard. The swingarm was subjected to the same color-coating process after being dissected and having eight vertical ribs welded internally for increased lateral strength and torsional rigidity.

Frame and swingarm reunited, it was time for a little Swedish suspension therapy. An Öhlins shock was fitted, working through a linear-rate link. Fork tubes are stock on the outside; internals were replaced with an Öhlins 20mm piston kit and worked over by Danny Hull, an ex-factory Kawasaki World Superbike technician.

Galespeed forged-aluminum wheels from Japan got things rolling. A Brembo front radial master cylinder pressures stock calipers through Galfer braided lines. Ferodo Axis discs and Galfer pads complete the package. A Brembo thumb-brake kit is used to pinch the rear Galfer wave rotor. Kenefick fitted higher, wider Heli handlebars that give that retro Superbike feel; foot controls are Woodcraft, sans the rear brake pedal.

Stock twin tailpipes were sidelined for a lower-slung single exhaust system comprising various LeoVinci pipe pieces. “After I cut, welded, ground down seams and hand-brush finished the Ti pipe sections, I tried six different mufflers and ended up with this mixed titanium/carbon end-can,” Kenefick explains.

Zero Gravity made the custom windscreen and helped restyle the fairing. Sixty hours went into reshaping the bodywork that was cut into five separate panels before being seamlessly plastic-welded together and backed with fiberglass for strength. Gas tank is in kevlar by a company called FuelCel. Chris Wood of AirTrix is responsible for the paintwork, a special blend of green that contains actual crushed glass!

Of course, a proper moto-tribute to Wayne Rainey should do more than look good. Kenefick’s ZX has already been to the track, and on the street it’s easily one of the best-sorted specials we’ve ever ridden.

“If you can’t ride it and ride it hard, what’s the point?” he says.

Our kind of builder, our kind of bike.

Mark Cernicky

More on the Rainey ZX-10R at www.cycleworld.com