The Famous Kawasaki GPz900R

In the 1980s was all about power and speed. British motorcycles are pretty much faded from scene having been overtaken by the innovation and design of the Japanese manufacturers.

It was the 1968 Honda CB750 that really broke the mould as far as bikes went, taking the Japanese motorcycle industry away from the light and middleweight market and up into the heavyweight section. The British motorcycle industry, consisting at the time mainly of Triumph and BSA had underestimated the Japanese competitors by assuming that they would never dare take them on in the 500 cc plus market.

By the time the Kawasaki GPz900 came into the market, Honda had built up a huge reputation for power and innovation having already produced the VF750F which not only saw the introduction of its V4 engine and over 85 brake horsepower, it was also one of the first Japanese machines that was capable of doing more than simply travelling in a straight line, i.e. it could handle.

In recent years, Kawasaki have developed a reputation for developing powerful bikes, a reputation that back in the 80s had not yet been formed. It could be suggested that the big change occurred in 1981 with the launch of the GPz1100. Kawasaki were clever here, there was nothing particularly special about it is 1100 cc eight valve engine, but ensure performance terms it completely annihilated the competition and then Kawasaki built on this in 1984 with the introduction of the GPz900R.

Recently I was looking at these two bikes standing in a showroom side-by-side and in the same red colour. The bikes look almost identical, and although the rear tyres are somewhat thinner than you expect on the equivalent machine today, they still looked pretty cool.

Of the two however, it was the GPz900R ever became a true classic, with Kawasaki continuing to make them for 15 years. It saw off the two models it was intended to replace, namely the GPz1000RX and the ZX-10, both of which were discontinued before the GPz900R.

Powered by a liquid cooled four-cylinder 16 valve engine, a the bike achieves a sub 11 second standing quarter at Laguna Seca when the bike was launched, and hid in excess of 150 mph on the track. However, the speed wasn't simply confined to the straights, and despite having what many other manufacturers considered to be an outdated tubular steel spine frame, the GPz900R was one of the first bikes that could combine both power and handling, which was actually part of the original design brief.