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Late 1968. Kawasaki is about to strike a blow. For two years, the firm has been working on a project called N600. This bike has to be simply the best: an air-cooled inline-four with double overhead camshaft and…. series produced!
Everything is ready and San Tanegashima (the father of this whole project) has done a great job. The green firm is on the verge of achieving one of the greatest achievements in its history. The launch is scheduled for the following year: 1969.
But fate can sometimes become a nasty surprise: At the Tokyo motor show in 1968, Honda presented a machine that will forever be engraved in motorcycling history: a certain CB 750 FOUR.
Global glory now turns to Honda. Kawasaki just has to digest this cruel twist of fate that played out within a few months…
Honda in the light and Kawa in the shadows … Or rather in the shadows because the green brand enjoys an excellent reputation in terms of performance thanks to its two-strokes and takes advantage of their success to be able to breathe a little. We take out the drawing boards and get back to work.
For three years, everything is taken over and kawasaki wanted to release a machine even better than the CB 750 FOUR and use feedback from customers about the Honda. Clearly, the frustration gradually gave way to a great opportunity not to reproduce the possible errors of its competitor and, at the end of 1971, a prototype was born: the 900 Z.
After doing tests in the U.S.A., Kawasaki thought it was time to make up for lost time and it was in September 1972 that the 900 Z1 was officially launched and the success was there.!
The result ? An extraordinary roadster: 900 cm3 of breath, 252 kgs of frame, 82 fiery horses, an exemplary finish and a devastating look as possible. Owning this machine makes you a biker apart. And, the icing on the cake, it is quite manoeuvrable and easy to take along: The wide, slightly high handlebars coupled with a 19-inch front wheel allows all this little world to be entered into turns in an intuitive way. If you are a little wide in the turn, you will drop the throttle slightly to tighten up and when you want to free yourself, a rotation of the right hand will make a hoarse and deep sound heard which will propel us to more than 200 km / h like a cannonball.
Reliability, balance, power and handling well above the standards of the time. This is what came out of the Kawasaki factories. And if you doubt it, ask the lucky owners of this historic piece: they will tell you the same thing and maybe even more..
More expensive than its competitors, it nevertheless offers a more flattering image to its happy owners. A career that ultimately only lasted five years since it was in 1977 that the model was discontinued.
But these five years will forever mark the great adventure of two-wheelers. In the end, perhaps his best role was to be the best enemy of the CB750. Because if the Honda had been the only one at the top level, it would have been only an exception. But with the kawa at his side to compete for the top spot on the podium, it allowed for the start of another chapter in history fueled by a race to “keep higher”. For a beautiful saga, you need a first at the top and a second barely below; except that in the case of the CB750 and the 900Z1, several decades have still not made it possible to determine the real place of each.
CB750 FOUR and 900Z1, two stars propelled into the firmament of history. But as they climbed into the future, others sank into the past and it was in the shadow of the Japanese lights that the great French and English ladies went..
What you must remember
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Model marketed in
1972
Performances
-
Max speed:
200 km / h
The technical aspect
Kawasaki 900 Z1 1972
- Frame
- Frame: double tubular steel cradle
- Tank: 18 liters
- Seat height: 820 mm
- Length: 2,250 mm
- Width: 820 mm
- Height: 1,175 mm
- Wheelbase: 1490 mm
- Weight in running order: 252 kg
- Train before
- 36mm diameter telescopic fork, deb: 140mm
- single disc 296 mm in diameter
- Front wheel:
3.25
– 19
- Transmission
- 5 reports
- chain
- Rear axle
- two side shock absorbers, deb: 80 mm
- 200 mm diameter drum
- Rear wheel:
4.00
– 18
- Motor
- 4 Cylinders
in line
, 4 stroke - Cooling: air
- MIKUNI 28mm carburettors
- 2ACT
- 2 valves per cylinder
-
903 cc
(66×66 mm) -
82
ch
at 8,500 rpm -
7.50 mkg
at 7,000 rpm - Compression: 8.5: 1
- Crit’air:
Detached pieces
exhaust
motor
fluid
electricity
filtration
braking
chain kit
Competitors
Gallery
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