Ahhh! The Kawasaki Z1000… where should we start? Well, with the name of course!
Now, we’re clearly not talking about the legendary Z1000 of old, we’re talking about the big Zed that came forth in the Noughties, which could have been called ‘Z1’ had BMW not stolen and claimed that name for their sports cars, writes Bertie Simmonds.
This Z1000 may not be the legend that its forbear was, but we here at CMM reckon it deserves a good look now. Motor-wise it shared much with the Kawasaki ZX-9R. From that motor it got a bore-out to 953cc, which, after a re-tune, made the whole plot less powerful than the donor sports machine.
With tried and tested dyno figures, the Z1000 made around 120bhp and 63-ft/lbs of torque. Now, that’s plenty – even if it meant you’d be hitting the gear lever a little more often than on the opposition as it seemed to be a bit more peaky than the other machines in its class.
The remainder of this article is available to be read in the June issue of Classic Motorcycle Mechanics, in the shops NOW!
