PRODIGAL SON
The GPZ1000RX arrived as Kawasaki’s ‘difficult second album’ after the legendary GPz900R. So what’s it like to ride today?
I have to say I love doing these tests for CMM and this month’s is a little more special than most as I’ve managed to pry another bike from the collection of Kawasaki nut Doug Perkins for a nice ride.
It’s lovely to have a mate that has a few bikes which we can borrow from time to time to show you – the CMM reader. Without the generosity of people like Doug (and many of you who offer) we wouldn’t be able to showcase some of the very special machines from the 1960s through to the late 1990s and beyond.
Today’s machine is something of a forgotten gem, really. That’s perhaps the best way of describing Kawasaki’s GPZ1000RX and this model is in the rarer luminous polaris blue/galaxy silver scheme as opposed to the more common schemes of firecracker red or pearl cosmic grey, so this is a rare gem at that!
As with most motorcycles of a certain age, this behemoth of a bike takes me back to looking through the window of P W Ranger with my dad, which was a regular occurrence in the mid to late eighties! Isn’t that how most of us got our first glimpse of the latest superbike?
Looking back now, I have always admired the big Kawasakis of the mid 80s on, so this was an opportunity not to be missed. Okay, I have to admit something first before I swing a leg over Doug’s pride and joy: I have ridden this bike a few times before this test, once at a World Superbike round at Donington Park in a classic motorcycle display between the races, which I have to say was awesome, and the crowd seemed to appreciate it too. Before this ride in front of the trusty lens of Gary ’D’ Chapman (never forget the D) we did have an issue with the road test as Doug couldn’t find his log book so he couldn’t tax the bike! Thankfully Julian at Taylor Brothers Motorcycles, Stafford, came to the rescue and loaned us his trade plate so we could get out on the mighty beastie!
Historically the 1000RX never really got out of the shadow of the GPz900R, although personally having ridden both I actually prefer the later RX. I guess it’s all about taste, opinion and what you actually want out of a bigbore sportsbike. But nevertheless the older bike overshadowed its newer sibling at launch and successive models too, until the launch of the ZZ-R1100 (see boxout for more).
At the heart of the new bike was a GPz900R derived motor; bore and stroke have increased to 74mm x 58mm from 72.5mm x 55mm to give the motor its new capacity of 997cc. Another interesting fact is that according to legend the inlet ports were hand-polished by a shadowy set of ’senior technicians’ on the 1000RX! This new engine was rubber mounted and surrounded by an all-new perimeter frame which was heavily braced as opposed to the spine-type frame used on the 900R. The forks were 2mm larger than those used on the 900 too, to help handle the power. Nevertheless, even with all the improvements the RX didn’t get anything like the following of the 900R with the 900 remaining in production and outliving its newer descendants…