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/126055
; • s III • E u:> r-- By Lane Campbell ~ • Gino finds less ground clearance than he bargained for . .Underseat expose. Enough in st ructio n decals for a private aircraft, tools, battery, and an airbox that lost its head. . . Dia ls and flash ing light department - altar to the Neon God. . Rear disc had good feel and a bad squeal. Works bitch'n when hot. oor 0 1' G ino , approaching the KZ 75 0 with m emo ries of H2s and Zis and t h in gs th at go shriek in the night. Ho wever , ge tting on Kawas a ki ' s big com rnu ter bi ke wi th my own me m ories o f a lo ng-go ne po wer-p u lsatin g T ri umph mixed w ith visio ns of a fut ure Class C d irt trac k effort, I'm afra id m y preconcepti o ns of the beast fared little better. On fi rst impre ssions , reali ty cr u nched any great ex pectat io ns rather quickly. The engi ne has fair to d ece nt mid-ran ge, b ut p ower just fades away as the need le climbs toward r edline; an d the e ngi n e begins to so u nd like it's read y to burst asu nde r. The p ower curve is a natural co n seq uence of a big engine wi th a near-te rminal c ase of as th ma; t iny carbs co m bi ned with huge, heavy (b u t quiet) ch am bered mufflers. The f~l/sound of the e ngine stems from the use of co n tra- ro tati ng ba'ance sh afts th at turn th e tradition al vertical t wi n throb into a hi gher-frequen cy buzz reminiscent o f a slightly o ff-feed inI ine fo u r. Whil e t h is m a kes fo r an externally pl easa nt ride, the in te rnal stresses pl ac ed on the cra n kcase web bing between th e balan ce shaft and th e m ain bearing b ores is horrendous. No structure . m ade of al u m in u m can remain perfe ctly rigid under th is kind of cyclic in t ernal pounding, hence t he 7500 RPM redline an d gen eral reluctance to re v freely, eve n th ough th e beast has a beautiful DOHC head. Almost a was te, sinc e push rods w ould h ave sufficed for the speeds at which this engine is co m fo r tab le ; tI:!us saving h ei gh t and weight. Wh at p rice to be tr endy? . Is there t he heart of an AM A dirt-tracker lurking in th ere ? Not li kely wi th the production parts. They'd have to throwaway th e balance shaft, then they'd need a new cran k, new case s, special head . .. Kenn y Roberts, interv iewed at Alb uq uerq ue, said that knowing what it had taken Yamaha to de vel op their 750 t win , he doubted that Kawasaki would be m o t ivated to sp end all that m oney on what would, essentiall y , be a whole new engine. . So getting back to b asics, the KZ750 is really just what the mass-rnarke teers intended i t to be: a big 01' co m fy co m m u te r-b ike that's a t ad cheaper than a four cylinder and handles better. Ye s, t h o ugh it suffers from a couple of co rrec t ab le faul ts , th e KZ 7 50 does handle far bette" than any previous big Kaw. The super-soft springing and the overall height of the bike made it seem a bit wallowy around ci t y street co rners ; but on open country road, running 40-80 ' mph, doing your best to wear out the edges of the tires before the middle, the machine definitely finds a horne; Fifth gear, fourth gear, som e ti m es third, keeping up an easy, ste ady , fast cru isin g ave rage, right-left-changeup com ers, sometimes banked, sometimes off-camber, me eting ca ttleguar d s and potholes an d so m etim es dirt on the ro ad, the KZ7 50 j us t seemed to shrug off any and all ro ad conditions, It is a n ex cellent motorcy cl e for just co ve ri ng lots o f ground in o ff-be at, out-of-the-way plac es. T en hours in th e sad d le, having go ne just under 500 miles wi th out sigh t o f a freeway , tired but mildly co nte n t , I'd co m e t o respect the KZ 750 for what it is, rather than what it could have been. The b ikes th at Gino a nd I remember are probably go ne for all t ime. The KZ 750 was built to cop e with a legal /regulatory environment that is almost sickeningin its im p lica ti o n s. Consider that the bike has plenty ad eq uat e cornering clearance but carries the hinged footpegs deliberately low enough to drag, in order to discourage aggressive riding. It 's a strategy that comes from having to field too many product-liability lawsuits: design a product that handles well, then set it up to discourage people from pressing it to its limits, so it will possess ex tra safety margin. That's the kind of thinking that's had to develop to deal with the laws of latter-day America. Kawasaki really deserves credit for ,m a kin g the necessary compromises come off as well as they have in the KZ750. The next move is up to the special-builders and tuners with the kind o f limitless enthusiasm that the system hasn't managed to kill, even yet. O'l ~ ~ 0 C'l ;>. ..... ~ """"') • • 41