Table of contents
Fred Siemer
Sports & scene
Portrait of Z1-Achim from Berlin
Portrait Z1-Achim: He lives Kawasaki 900 Z1
Lovers of Kawasaki’s first four-cylinder – the Z1
Content of
Because Kawasaki’s first foursome is so popular, many parts are available for purchase, and most of them are good quality reproductions. But you can also leave it.
Gerhard Eirich
07/13/2012
Achim has loved the most beautiful of all Kawas for 33 years, and recently he restored a Z1, built in 1973, like new. So what, everyone is asking. So what, thought Achim when he heard similar stories. Achim knows his way around, he knows exactly what can be done by whom, who is selling used items and who is selling which replica parts. It’s like this: the more popular a motorcycle, the better the infrastructure around it – making a Z1 shine again is easier than keeping a Z 440 ready to drive. Almost at least.
No, Achim is interested in the motorcycle as a cultural asset. Just as restorers do not simply paint over church paintings, so he tries to ensure that the Z is true to the original. Because at some point no one will know what it really was like. So plastic-coated frames are not possible, the pseudo-experts are now purging. Because of: Achim is the freak par excellence, he trumps natural stuff like renouncing plastic coating with wheel hub rim threaded plugs. If you still twitch, you get a key holder rubber on top. Yes, folks, this is the league that is played here.
Almost all Z1s have double discs. Also looked stupid with the empty pliers holder on the right fork leg. Kawasaki had even already cut the thread for the brake disc screw connection in the wheel hub and put in the small plastic plugs that had not rotten until the retrofit. Anyone who restores a Z1 true to the original today dismantles the second brake caliper and washer and then has unprotected threads. It doesn’t matter, dismiss pragmatists, he’ll never need them again anyway. It doesn’t matter, the freak counters, because unsuspecting people might think, given the unprotected thread, that Kawa didn’t take harmful weather conditions into account. In order to prevent such blasphemous thoughts, Achim has built negative molds from latex milk and refills with synthetic resin, which is nowhere else to be found. Now he can countersink wheel hub plugs, which you can hardly see, but which give him a better feeling about his bike.
Siemer
Berlin backyard, yes. But inside, Achim has set up a perfect Z workshop and an enviable warehouse with spare parts.
Just like the Key Holder Rubber. In German: key holder rubber. The very first Z1 had that, for the following reason: The main target group were Americans with a higher income and garage. Our US friends like to leave the key there because they lock the gate. That, in turn, badly affects the springs of the ignition lock, which is why the touchingly attentive Japanese wanted to overcome this contradiction with a piece of rubber. Your key holder rests in an oval hole above the ignition lock and has a slot. The lazy American can put his key in there.
What does this have to do with restoration? All! It is well known that rubber becomes brittle under the influence of light and weather, and at some point every Z1 simply throws away its crumbly key holder. Or it is torn off while cleaning and rolls into the drain. Then the Kawa has a hole in its ignition lock console. An eternal one, because the Key Holder Rubber no longer exists. But it gets worse: the console also houses four indicator lights. They are labeled and all the replica parts use the wrong script. A challenge for real freaks – Achim makes his own console cover and rubber. When other restorers remove the left side cover of an early Z1, with a lot of luck the rare reservoir for the automatic chain lubrication system will become visible. Its sticker with the usual warning notices was of course – as with Achim’s machine – swept away by the overflowing oil. The text is a joke, Achim knows it by heart. Even so, he reproduces the sticker. And everyone else too. Even those who say the chain will only be replaced during the warranty period if an authorized dealer made the change. The guarantee expired 38 years ago.
He makes wiring harnesses himself.He prefers to use this light brown plug, which only Kawasaki has installed, which is no longer available, whose contact pins do not last forever, which you then have to remove, flare, re-tin-plate and then pluck back into the plug in the end, happy that you didn’t go to the electronics store and simply bought something else in three minutes. Hello? Slowly: Achim knows himself that he is crazy. But he does it with a lot of fun and dignity. His goal was to completely penetrate this admired motorcycle, and he is amazed that he can never handle it.
After all, he now knows how to achieve the different paint structures of the housing and cylinder plus head. Create a paint flow here, spray over there several times. He can install valve guides absolutely flush. Warm the head, cool the guide with nitrogen, then plug it in. He made dials, restored switches and instruments in his sleep, was able to recreate all keys with all the original colored heads and the plastic handle of the choke lever and the aluminum trim on the brake cylinder. Achim does this not only for himself, but also for Z. That’s why he’s called Z1-Achim everywhere and that’s why he likes to pass on his knowledge.
But you don’t have to talk to him about the Z. You can also chat about the weather. Before that, he gets up again, takes the key from the key holder and lets the foursome growl briefly. He built it from scratch himself. It was clear, right?
Contact
Achim’s Z experiences are documented on the forum for Kawasaki’s classic Z models that he and his partner founded: www.kawasaki-z-klassiker.de
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