50 Years Ago Kawasaki Revealed The Z1

Damn I'm old. Of course I remember its debut.

Let the Good Times Roll! Just ignore the HUGE typo the idiot author made in the secondary headline.

https://www.hotcars.com/50-years-ago-kawasaki-revealed-the-z1/

 

Had a 75, the CB750 slayer.

 

I remember embarrassing several of them at the dragstrip with my '72 H2 750 2 stroker.....it was fun.

 

Still have my ‘76.
Carlsbad raceway was the scene.

 

In '92 my friend's father sold me a fairly ratty '75 Z1. I spent two years learning about carbs, stripping old paint and reapplying new. I went from a 100 to that Z1. I was awestruck at the acceleration, near giddy. I had no idea what I had and sold it for a 200 dollar profit.

I thought it was junk and vividly remember dusting a CBR F2, and a Ninja 600. It was kind of eye opening, yet it still didn't click. That bike is my most regretted sale of all the things I've sold in my life. Damn I wish I had that bike back. :-(

 

bought this in a box and built it for the street.After some woman tried to kill me,I thought Id try racing it...I think those tires were the "new" radials Jim Allen gave me to try at the WERA championship at Roebling Road in '81 I think

 

Love the Lesters on that Z1 Mike W .... and I imagine that 4 into 1 was obnoxious, as it should have been.

 

My first race at Road Atlanta in 1984, was the 6 hour National Endurance, riding the Robert Behn mono-shock prototype Team Wanker KZ1000 powered, 1982 overall National Endurance Championship bike. Never was able to hold it WFO through the Gravity Cavity my first time there, on that bike.

 

Jim Allen, shit that's a name from the past....

I have a tenner that's a Kerker on there....

 

If memory serves,I think it was an early Yosh

 

Hiroshima pipes are the bomb.

 

I was there .

 

This brings to memory a story my dad told me years ago when I was still racing. He bought a new Z1 back then. I was only about 2 years old. He would put me between himself and the gas tank and would do 0-100-0 stop sign to stop sign in the small town we lived in. He said he couldn't scare me....I would just laugh. He said he knew then he was in trouble. Man I'm glad I grew up when I did.

 

I wrenched on those. God, I'm old...

FWIW, the '75 was the year Kawi finally came up with an attractive color scheme. Preceding were all mud browns and baby shit yellow.

 

Lol

I liked the 73 stripes the best and the 75 side cover emblems best.

 

Yep .. also had a 72 H2 with a Denco Motor !

 

Nope those I think were 291s or 391s and for sure bias ply tires

 

well,ol Jim did give me a pair of the then new radials and as I only raced this thing for a year and a half,I just assumed those were them as they look a lot rounder than anything I had on it before them

 

LOL I grew up the same way, sitting on the front of the seat with dad—just 20 years earlier, in the early 50’s, on his AJS Model 18CS, and his Square 4 Ariel. What amazing progress bikes made in those 20 years, from 25 hp singles to a Z-1, wow.
Oh yeah, and riding along in Dad’s hot rods broadsliding around on dirt roads up in the Sierra foothills, urging him to go faster, and more sideways. What Mom didn’t know never hurt her, LOL.

 

In my garage.