musclebike

Bikes we never got in the US. ZRX1200S… Why wouldn’t this bike have come to the US?

I really don’t get the manufacturers sometimes. This bike would have been a natural over here.

Really Clean GS1000 ess…OOPS make that a GS1000G…. Thanks for the Heads up Biker Mike!

Honda CB1300. Not in the US.


I’m going to go with the “bikes that aren’t sold in the US” theme for a few days. Here’s a real beauty from Honda that I’d love to see here but likely never will.

Nice KZ900

A lot of nice subtle mods in this one. Those rearsets are sweet! Really nice rider.

A hopped up Kawasaki ELR on a twisty road!

Pictures like this give me expensive ideas… Oh this is the homepage picture of the very cool http://www.clubcaferacer.com/. It’s all in french but there’s some great pictures there if you don’t happen to speak the language. Check them out.

All original 3 for 1 Musclebike Madness!

I’ve posted all of these before but I came across some really nice new pics so here you go!

Kawasaki Z1RTC

An original unrestored z1900

An original unrestored CBX

A Zephyr pic from Reader Ted Guthrie

Ted Guthrie send in the following:

Really enjoyed the just-out-of-the-crate ZR1100 posting. Attached is a photo of mine. While I didn’t buy the bike new, it was only a couple of years old when I got, was in perfect condition, and only had about 5K on it. I’ve racked up about 30,000 since then, and consider it to be a pretty nice bike. I left it stock, other than the Corbin seat, which you see in the photo, plus have a Plexiscreen type of windshield. Oh, and heated grips, too.
The bike could basically be best described as a “GT”. It is very smooth, wonderfully comfortable, tremendous power and torque, and GREAT brakes. However, it is also very heavy, puts out engine heat like a blast furnace, and is a real handful at speed on twisty roads.
However, at the speeds I ride (slow), the big ZR behaves quite well. It has been dead-ass reliable, and is not even that hard on tires and chains (course once again that’s taking into consideration how pokey I ride it).
Kinda funny what happens when you DO try to ride it fast: The chassis flexes quite easily, and since I’ve never upgraded the suspension, bottoming the forks is (too) easily accomplished by just grabbing a big handful of front brake. Also, it is easy to tell when the tires needs replaced because the bike starts handling really wierd. It gets all squirrelly and won’t hold a line, and the front end resists coming around. Kinda spooky when you’re all hung off and committed to a hard turn, yet the bike keeps going straight.
But, all in all I love the styling, love the “big block” power, and find it a very comfortable and friendly bike indeed. Say, also attached is a little story, which takes into account bikes like “Zeke”. Cheers.
Ted

Kawasaki Zephyr 1100 fresh out of the crate.

These bikes sort of broke my heart when they came out. At the time I couldn’t really afford one as I was in school and Americans never really warmed up to them so they were short lived over here. Someone (I’m guessing over in Japan) has one fresh out of the crate still with the plastic wrap on it. What a great find!

For those unfamiliar with the model here is the Wiki age entry:

The Kawasaki Zephyr is a line of air-cooled inline 4-cylinder-engined motorcycles built by Kawasaki to meet the demand for retro-styled naked motorcycles in Japan and elsewhere in the 1990s. There were a number of Zephyr models available in four engine capacities – 400, 550, 750, and 1100cc.
The 400 was produced for Japan due to the demand for 400cc motorcycles in that market. It was very popular. Many aftermarket parts were produced, with companies like Over Racing producing exhausts, swingarms, fairings and engine modifications.
Zephyr styling is roughly based on the old Z1, with twin shock rear suspension, a relatively upright riding position and air cooled power units. The 400, 550 and 750 engines were developed from the old Z400/500/550/650/750/900 series. The 1100 engine is a re-engineered version of a liquid-cooled powerplant and is the only Zephyr built with two spark plugs per cylinder. The Zephyr offered the customer retro styling coupled with simplicity and reliability. Performance of the line was adequate for normal riding and the engines were tuned for low to mid range power.
The Zephyr started the Naked/Retro bike boom in the UK and Europe in the early 1990s and for a while moved Kawasaki to the 2nd best selling manufacturer of motorcycles in the UK Market.
The Zephyr Z 750 engine reappeared in the late 1990s in the short lived ER7.
The Zephyr 1100 had a Z1 restyle in its last year of sale including a return to wire wheels. Wire wheels also appeared on the 750. It was replaced in the Kawasaki UK range by the popular Z1100R styled ZRX1100(later ZRX1200).
The ZRX series of motorcycles had a great impact on the growing market for retro style motorcycles, particularly in the United States. It was modeled after Kawasaki’s superbike championship winning KZ1000R-S1 that propelled Eddie Lawson to Superbike dominance in the early 1980s and even spawned an international owners association known as the ZRXOA (ZRX Owners Association)