Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Impression: 1983 Kawasaki KZI000R2 Green Hornet repll-racer By Da vid Edwards If it's unfair to judge a book by its cover, then perhaps it's equally unjust to assess a motorcycle by the color of its gas tank. With its screaming green paint, cut-down seat, mini fairing and co llector exhaust, Kawasaki 's KZIOO OR Superbike Repl ica is JUSt a bo ut the meanest looking produc- 28 tion street bike this side of an AMA road race starting g rid. T ape up the lights, slap on some decals and you 're rea dy to go o ut an d mix it up with Fast Fred die and company, right? Well, not quite. Scra tch below the surface to its str jking paint a nd you 'll uncover basically a warmed-up Ka wasaki street bi ke. The differences are primarily cosmetic. Up front, a G Pzstyle quarter fairing slices through the wind. Under the rider, a scoopedout, racing- style scat, mild rearsets a n d low-rise handleba rs allow a canted-forward riding position. Goldaccented wheels are shod with tubeless Dunlop K-300 tires that rest menaci n gly on the asphalt. A dark gray Kerker four-into-one ex ha ust system, sma ll frame-mounted oil cooler and gold-painted, remote-reservoir sh ocks complete the face lift . Not that th e facad e isn 't effective. Wherever we went on the Replica, from hamburger joints to racetrack parking lots to college campuses, the Kawasaki never failed to draw more than a fair amount of comments. Resplendid in its lime-green coat and cloaked in th e pleasing grunt of its exhaust system, th e R is definitely an atten tion getter, Unfortunately, while the re pli-racer is good at catching the admiring g lances of enth usiasts and the opposit e sex , it also warrants the less than tol erable cons idera tion of the local constabulary. Transgressing the speed limit on this bike will have yo u collecting tickets quicker th an you can say, " Bu t officer, I was just keeping up with th e flow o f traffic." And a t approximately $4,500 a copy (Kawasa ki sets no su ggested retail p ric e for th e R, a llowin g dealers to charge wh atever th e traffi c will bear ) and with a production run of just 1250, th e owner of one ofthese Super-, bike clones is gu ar anteed a degree of excl usiv ity usually o n ly reserved for those who have sporty European flash bikes in their possession . Even if it is just a gussied-up street bike, th e R's bloodl in es are firml y pl anted in the slick-tired, 160-mph world of AMA Su perbike raci n g. After fa ct or y rid er Eddi e L aw s on ' s cha m p io nsh ip-wi n n ing 1981 sea son, Kawasak i decid ed to build a limited production stree t-goi ng lookalike for thei r '82 model year - kind of a ro llin g com memo ra tive - and ch ristened it the Eddi e La wson Repl ica . Law so n won th e tit le agai n last year, bu t has si nce left Team G reen for th e yellower pastu res o f the Yama ha camp. Sti ll wa nt ing to cele bra te th eir hardfoug h t victory, Ka wasak i bro u gh t back a sligh tly-cha nged replica for 1983. Edd ie' s name wa s -qui erl v dropped from th e gas ta n k decal a nd " Su perbike Replica " stenci led in its pl ace. The Replica vhas. ~Allfited .fH)m other ch an ges as well. Gone are last year's sepa ra te spee do me ter and tach units, repla ced by a single, oblong, pod-like housing that fits neatl y inside th e small fairing. The swingarm has been lengthened sligh tly to increase wheelbase. The black, 99&c, fourcylin de r, transversel y-m ounted engin e, which traces its or igins back to th e 19i3 industry-stunning ZI, has been updated again , in th e interes ts of pumping a few more ponies out of the venerable powerplant. Last yea r' s Rvhad th e standard J-model engin e and caught some flak because of it. The current issu e gets updated valve angles and different camshafts to bring it more in line with GPz specs . Lastly, th e shocks have gained four-way adjustable rebound damping. Last year's shocks received a literary roasting by th e press corps. This year 's models, adjustability and all, are no t much better. After an initial ride ona rain-grooved, ex pansionstripped freeway, the shocks had us scrambling for a nearby thesa urus, looking up synonyms for the word " stiff." We found 12 such words, and they all apply to th e rear dampers on the I000R. We backed off th e pre-lo ad and played around with different settings. but still th e ride quality on an ythi ng but mirror-smooth roads is best-described as jarring. Even wh en our heaviest test rider inadvertently slammed th e bike across some deep dips in th e pavement, the sh ocks wouldn't bottom. And most unforgivable of all , in th e twisties, which are supposed to be th is bike's stomping ground. we were sometimes forced to slow down a notch or two when the pavement got a little rough. Hardly the kind of behavior expected of a Superbike, street legal or not. In its defense, let us state that Kawasaki never intended the R to be a freeway flyer or an around-town commuter. They built the bike for the dedicated sport rider who doesn't mind making a few sacrifices to get a motorcycle that is special. We can 't help thinking though, that this bik e - a flags hip - deserves better. As it stands now. th e rear shock stiffness is one of the few flaws in a motorcycle that ot herwise provides truly memorable motorcycling experiences. T he ri ding position is ideal. Situated in the comfortable mean somewhere between a cafe crouch and th e more common sit-up-and-beg stance, th e rider is poised over the bike for best control. Surprisingly, th e boyracer seat, which at first glance looks a litt le skimpy on padding, offers a fair degree of support. And paradoxically for this race-inspired motorcycle, the pa ssenger 's portion of th e saddle is quite co m fo rta ble. Filled with decent shocks an d a tank bag, th e R wouldn ' t mak e a half-bad two up da y-tourer . As it sta nds now, th e harsh dampers intrude o n th e pl easure. After an all-day 300-mile backroad tour, o ur favorite passenger had o n ly one com me nt. " Ca ll me wh en you get a Gold Wing to test ," she said as she walked slo wly away. The engi ne is a n ice blend of power and civ ility . It ma y su rre n der a co upl e of ticks of th e sto p wa tch a nd a few miles per hour on top speed to its 1I00cc competitors, but it is definitel y a stro ng -ru n n ing unit. The ni ce th in g is th e way th e power is . deliv ered . It 's a lways there, with n o flat spots , no ro ug h running. Passing cars is just a mailer o f o pen ing the throttle: do wn shift in g in a ll bu t dire eme rge ncies simp ly isn' t necessa ry. With 10 years of manufacturing beh ind it , th e fam ili ar litre eng ine is p robabl y the most bulletproof un its com ing o u t of th e Orient toda y. One of o u r mor e ham-foot ed test riders mis sed a co u ple of full -throttle power .

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