I wasn't particularly shopping for a Z1R. In 1980 I had a car for sale or swap for bike. Somebody came by with a mint 1979 Z1R barely a year old and the deal was done. So I guess you could say I came by this bike by default.
The Z1R that I owned was identical to the one in the second picture in this thread and presented it self very well. The Ice Blue colour along with the Bikini Fairing and stock 4 into 1 made for a very attractive package of which I personally think is one of the nicest looking bikes that Kawasaki has ever produced. Prior to me owning this bike I had, had a succession of SOHC 754/4's and a few other smaller Honda's. The quality of finish on the Z1R was far superior to the Honda's of the same vintage. The tool kit was very good quality with chrome wrench's and I also recall the kick starter lever being stashed under the seat. ( correct me if I'm wrong on this next bit) The motor in this bike was one of the last 1015cc engines that Kawasaki produced and after the 1015 engine they went to the 999 engine. I seem to recall the Z1R having 90 BHP and to what I recall from riding it, it seemed like a lot more but then again compared to a 65 BHP SOHC 750/4! It would pull hard from 120 MPH to it's top speed of 135 MPH ( the numbers I saw on my speedo ) At 135 MPH it was squirly to say the least and not some thing I did a lot of times on this bike.
The reasons I call this bike a POS are as follows.
The brakes were very poor.
The suspension was very poor
The front forks would flex
The general over all handling was not good, the whole bike squirmed under hard braking.
Any thing less than smooth road surface in a bend upset the bike.
Ground clearance was not brilliant on the left and was compromised on the right by the 4 into 1 exhaust.
The above things to me is what makes a bike great (as in good suspension and brakes etc ) and Kawasaki missed every one of them with this bike. It looked good but it ended there. I recall coming home from the YD ( Yorkshire Dragoon Pub ) one night on the Z!R. left the pub on to what was then a quiet country road. We would blast through a couple of easy bends, down under the railway bridge, then through a few tight twisties before the road opened up to a straight stretch before the roundabout. It was easy to hit 100MPH before the roundabout. This particular night when I started to brake for the roundabout the back of the bike started to squirm, you could feel that squirm flex right through the bike from back to front. When the front end started to weave I would just let the brakes go then the bike would roll straight and then start braking again. There was more than one occasion when this happened, trust me, not fun.
This bike was the 4 Stroke equivalent of the earlier H1 and H2.
A memorable bike but none the less, a dangerous bike.
* Last updated by: redboot on 12/7/2016 @ 9:09 PM *
Current rides
2015 300 Ninja
1994 ZX9R Ninja
2008 ZX14 Ninja
1974 Triumph Trident
2006 Ducati 999R