VOLUME 59 ISSUE 49 DECEMBER 6, 2022 P113
in Wisconsin, if not for road
racer Gordon Lunde. Lunde was
picking up a bike at a buddy's
garage, when out of the corner
of his eye something caught his
attention. It was a banged up old
racing machine with a red frame.
Being a longtime road racer Lun-
de was curious and stepped over
piles of old parts to get a closer
look. He couldn't believe what he
saw. Sitting there, presumably
where old bikes go to die, was
Knipp's old racing KZ650.
Lunde knew of the racing heri-
tage of the bike since he'd raced
against Knipp and saw the bike
win numerous races and actually
bought the bike and raced him-
self for a time before selling it.
Turns out Knipp's Kawasaki
had gone through several hands
before ending up in the dark
corner of a garage. Lunde was
probably one of the few people
in the country who knew the
significance of the bike. His plan
was to eventually get around to
restoring it.
Meanwhile Knipp went on to
race AMA Superbike on a Honda
and AMA Formula One with a
Yamaha TZ500 before retiring
from pro racing. Years later he
and friend Brian Gaines were
restoring a 1973 Kawasaki Z1
that was Gaines' first race bike.
They often talked about how cool
it would be to find Knipp's old
Kawasaki and restore it. Gaines
wanted to make it happen, but
had no idea where the bike was
or even if it still survived.
Gaines started putting out
feelers to old WERA racers to
see if anyone knew what became
of the championship-winning
KZ. Fortunately, Gaines made a
connection and was put in touch
with Lunde. Lunde, hearing that
the bike would be heading back
to Knipp, the rider who made the
bike famous, decided to sell the
bike to Gaines.
The great part of the story was
that Gaines now had Knipp's
old race bike, but Knipp had no
idea.
"I talked to him about the pos-
sibility of putting a fairing on my
Z1," Gaines said. "And one day
we were working on my bike and
I told Jim I'd found on old racing
fairing that might work."
So Gaines went out to his
truck and got the nosecone of
the fairing and brought back to
Knipp.
"He got real quiet, looked at
it for a second and said, 'You
RISES AGAIN!
Jim Knipp racing his
Kawasaki KZ650
Superbike in 1981.
