Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125814
The Superbike Series, Round Two, Part One:
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by Art Friedman
In I9724:11e word "superb ike " must
be closely tied to the name Kawasaki.
That company opened the year with the
king of the original superbikes, the 750
Mach IV, and now the first units of the
subject of this test; the 903cc Z-l, are
reaching dealer' showrooms.
The key word for the fIrst round of
superbikes was performance, and the
machines that fit in that category,
besides the low-bucks Mach IV' are the
orton Commando,
the Triumph
Trident, the now-extinct BSA Rocket 3,
the lIarley Sponster, the Ducati 750,
and the early Honda 750. The accent of
the machines was on speed: seemed
acceptable only when it didn't hinder
performance. Comfort, economy, ease
of maintenance: even safety and
reliability seemed to take a back seat to
power and performance.
The
American
buying
public,
however, was (aTter a brief infatuation)
quickly
disenchanted with muscle
machines. They felt that there was more
to be _ had. It wa:;, not surprisingly,
Japan that was the first to recognize the
need. The Honda 750 is a classic case of
the sh ift from a superbike to a machine
that could be lived with comfortably.
Since the first model 750, the
machine has become more reliable,
smoother, more refined, and slower.
The slowness is a price that must be
paid for what, in all other ways, is a
better motorcycle. However, it is no
longer a superbike. Other companies
have followed suit. Kawasaki's 500,
their original superbike. has gOllen
considerably beller mannered and
somewhat slower. Suzuki never even
became
in voIved
in
th e
I'm-stronger.than.you:are hassle and
launched their 750 as a full-blown
comfortable louring machine.
This interest in comfort, didn't mean
that the American motorcycling public
wasn't interested in perfonnance. They
just weren't willing to sacrifice very
much to get it.
So the second round of superbikes
was born. Kawasaki has gotten there
first with the 903cc Z-l, bul Honda is
preparing to pump out its own answer
Kawasaki has thrown their 903 in the ring.
Photo by John D. Ulo:K:h
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distribU1Drs of Diff Brake
to the' new market, probably a
six-<:ylinder machine of about 950cc.
Wailing in the wings are other machines
to be evaluated: the 830 Norton, the
Laverda three cylinder 1000, a bigger
Ducali twin, perhaps, and others that
haven't hown· their faces yet. Among
the unseen faces are Yamaha and Suzuki
who may call on their Wankel-engined
bikes to carry them in to this market.
Whatever form these machines tum
up in, they will have to be pretty
incredible to be successful among the
ew Superbikes crowd. They will have
to he ungodly fast and still be safe.
They will have to be extremely civil
without being boring. They will have to
handle extremely weU without being
uncomfortable. They wiU have to be
effortlessly strong and still be reliable.
They're going to have to be awfully
damn good motorcycles.
How does the Kawasaki Z-l measure
up? It is certainly in the ballpark..
Kawasaki claims 82 horsepower from its
903cc engine. While that much BHP out
of that much displacement may sound
like the death of reliability in Detroit, it
doesn't in Tokyo. There are quite a few
engines coming out of Japan that are
putting out around 100 BHP per liter
thal can be expected to approach or
exceed 50,000 miles on their basic
engine. The Honda 750 seems to he a
prime example.
This explains the size. To be strong
and reliable, it had to be big. But
bigness begets bigness. The bigger the
engine is, the bigger the frame has to be,
and
the
bigger
the
supporting
components have to be, the bigger the
engine has to be to move them. From
there, the spiral starls over. So it is big.
The Kawasaki has the biggest engine and
the higbest weight figure to come out of
the Japanese motorcYcle industry since
Honda went into the car business.
Theoretically, though, the machine
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