Kawasaki Z1000
Ahhh! The Kawasaki Z1000… where should we start? Well, with the name of course! Now, we’re clearly not talking about the legendary Z1000 of old, we’re talking about the big Zed that came forth in the Noughties, which could have been called 'Z1' had BMW not stolen and claimed that name for their sports cars.
This Z1000 may not be the legend that its forbear was, but we here at CMM reckon it deserves a good look now. Motor-wise it shared much with the Kawasaki ZX-9R. From that motor it got a bore-out to 953cc, which, after a re-tune, made the whole plot less powerful than the donor sports machine. With tried and tested dyno figures, the Z1000 made around 120bhp and 63-ft/lbs of torque. Now, that’s plenty – even if it meant you’d be hitting the gear lever a little more often than on the opposition as it seemed to be a bit more peaky than the other machines in its class.
Way back when, during the first year of the ‘new’ Z1000, I was lucky enough to have one, but it didn’t work for me at the time – but maybe now it would. It was a brilliant bike, but back then I did
around 30,000 miles a year on two wheels, many of which were on the M3, M4, M25 and M1… not on back roads. This meant that I needed something with a fairing. When we got to the twisties it was heaven. The bike turned in quick enough, even if sometimes it would wallow in the odd corner or two. Having one for the year meant I managed to try it up against the likes of the Fazer 1000, SV1000 and Hornet 900. For me, the Fazer was the best tourer, the SV had the best motor, but the Zed was the best looking and was a great overall package.
It still looks good today. The reason for the design was that in the run-up to the Noughties, Kawasaki felt they had lost their way. They had a ZX-9R when the opposition was running litre sportsbikes; they had the ‘this-and-that’ ZX-6R/636 when others were running a single bike in the supersport class; and, well, the overall looks of some of their range weren’t all that. At the time senior manager Kaoru Ishikawa felt that their bikes’ image was being diluted rather than being the bold, different and exciting machines of before: bikes like the original Z1, so in came new design chief Shunji Tanaka, formerly of Mazda to work his magic.
Style-wise, the 2003 Z1000 was a departure from other naked motorcycles of the time. The Z1000 used the same tail section that was being used back then on the 2003 ZX6R 636cc sport bike. It also had a 4-2-4 exhaust system, which echoed the original Z1 of back in 1972. The 2003 Z1000 used a backbone frame that supported the engine as a stressed member. The overall product was a very good bike – and a beautiful one. Today, rough ones start at £1500 and nice, low-milers are around £3500 tops.