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/126659
By David Edwards Photos by Bill Petro and Edwards Webster's is wrong. On page 508 of their New World Dictionary are listed some 20 different explanations for the word "fast," and nowhere to be found is the definition "21. Kawasaki ZX750 Turbo." Obviously the bespectacled wordsmiths in charge of such things at Webster's haven't had a chance to throw a leg over Kawasaki's newest guided missile. That's probably a good thing, though, because once they got a taste of the bike's turbo-boosted, arm-stretching acceleration, they'd have to add definitions to all kinds of listings - words like "awesome," "mind-boggling" and "farrtastic." Kawasaki is the last of the big four Japanese companies to toss its helmet into the boost-bike ring. Kawasaki watched as Honda brought out the technical tour de force CX500 (now 650), Yamaha introduced the spacey Turbo Seca and Suzuki made available the new-wave XN85. Wonderful bikes all, but less than resounding successes in the dealer's showroom. It seems that while everyone thought the turbo bikes were great ideas, not too many people wanted to plunk down their money for complex motorcycles that offered no real performance gain over normally aspirated lOOOcc bikes and were handicapped by turbo lag. Kawasaki's solution to the prob......... 20 . Iem was twofold. Although first designed three years ago as a 650, the Turbo's displacement was bumped to 73&c, making it the largest-displacement production turbo bike. Upping the displacement helps by increasing oH-boost performance and by masking turbo lag. Next, the moun-' ting posi tion of the turbo mechanism itself helps minimize lag. Instead of mounting the turbocharger behind the engine as other manufacturers have done, Kawasaki juggled things around and -put the Hitachi-built unit in front of the engine, just below case level. The mounting position allows the exhaust-driven turbocharger to receive gasses from the engine sooner and, in theory, reduces turbo lag. Theories are fine, but real-world performance is what makes or breaks. a motorcycle. The Kawasaki Turbo definitely makes it. Kawasaki claims a top speed of 146 miles an hour and a quarter:mile time of 10.7 seconds for the Turbo and even our pre-production test bike with more than 5000 hard miles registered on the odometer felt like it could come fairly close to those figures. Those fi~ures, by the way, not only make the Kawasaki the fastest production turbo .bike, but -.::-:_ ... _. _*. . . 1• make it just about the fastest thing -two- or four-wheeled - on the road. Even more impressive, though, is how fast the Kawasaki Turbo feels. Some new bikes - we're thinking especially of the Honda Interceptor - are fast in a deceptive kind of way. They get up to speed so smoothly and easily that they're almost civilized. None of that behavior for the Kawasaki; it's about as subtle as a slap alongside the jowls with a sockful of loose nickels. When the Turbo starts making power, you know about it. All the while accompanied by a jetfighter-like howl from the turbocharger, the Kawasaki simply launches away from a stop. Although a little tricky to get underway quickly because of a high first gear, the Turbo's front wheel is soon enough pawing for air. A shift to second lofts the front end again, and after that it's just a matter of upshifting and watching the speedometer and tach winding rapidly towards their limits. A guaranteed pulse-quickening, adrenalin-. pumping rush every time.. A ~rip on the freeway with the Turbo is an exercise in frustration. At a socially acceptable cruising speed, the bike is just under its boost range. Pick the speed up a little and the first of the LCD wedges on the above-tach boost guage light up, begging to be joined by more of its kind. A quick check in the mirrors and it's fullboost city, followed very soon by a roll-off of the throttle when you realize what a 100-mile-an-hour ticket would do to your wallet. A few miles down the road, though, caution gives way to enthusiasm and the whole delightful process repeats itself. RoIling on the throttle in fifth gear froro cruising speeds, some turbo lag is evident as the bike takes a moment to gather itself before rocketing ahead., It's never much of a problem, but for those thrill seekers who want a more immediate punch of power, a downshift to fourth helps considerably. Having such an awesome motor and wrapping it in plain-Jane sUrroundings just wouldn't do, so Kawasaki started with their GPz750 - certainly no wallflower - and buil from there. J The frames of both bikes are basically the same, although the TurbO benefits from a slightly longer steering head and a beefier frame backbone, presumably for added rigidity, The Turbo also gets different suspension pieces. Up front, fork travel has been decreased eigtu-tenths of an inch so the tire doesn't smash into the turbocharger when the suspension is fully compressed. And because the Turbo weighs more than the GPz and will more than likely see harder duty, the fork action is just a shade stiffer. The Turbo's fork-mounted anti-dive system also has been recalibrated for harder use, although, like most anti-dive systems we've tried, it didn't really stop the forks from plummeting during hard braking. Like the standard-issue GPz, the Turbo uses Kawasaki's single-shock Uni-Trak system to handle the rear suspension chores. The Turbo is upgraded with revised aHoy links that provide a more progressive springing rate. The rear suspension is also firmed up to cope with the Turbo's high-performance station in life.