TOPIC:

Anybody own a descendant of a KZ?
Assuming that there is such a thing, do any of you folks think you own one?
Which Kaws might qualify? ZRX, Z 900?
What say you?
Bill

The only real descendants engine wise would be the last of the air cooled 1100's such as the GPZ 1100 A or the Spectre/LTD as these are a direct development of the original Z1 engine design with many parts interchangable..
All the later stuff , 1000RX, ZRX etc have absolutely no real developmental connection to the Z1 and are a totally different design which bears no similarity apart from being a 4 cylinder from the same manufacturer.

Hi Zed1015,
I realize that most of Kawasaki engineering went other directions after the GPZ series. I suppose I have one of the last of the line with my 83 1100 Spectre. IIRC the liquid cooled Ninja 900 was the next step forward for Kawasaki.
That agreed to, I'm looking toward the bikes that Kawasaki produced since the KZ series that were generally acknowledged to be pushing the performance limits for their vintages.
Bill

You mean like these .

KZQ wrote: Anybody own a descendant of a KZ?
Assuming that there is such a thing...

Isn't the 1999-2003 ZR7 an evolution of the kz650 engine? That's my impression anyway

wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawasaki_ZR-7

Yes, ZR7. And the 1000P carried on for a lot of years.

I don't own one but I think the new H2 is a descendant of the Z1/KZ. Still a transverse 1000 cc 4 cylinder engine.

Probably the last non-KZ air-cooled Big Kaw available in the USA was the ZR1100 Zephyr. also, there were the ZR750 & ZR550 Zephyrs. and the ZR7/ZR7S models mentioned above. The later KZ1000P models are kind of an anachronism as the 1000P Police was pretty much unchanged through the entire model run from 1982 -2005.

Zephyr 1100s. not mine.




KZ650 w ZR7 muffler system.


ZR-7S. air-cooled w oil cooler.

....

I have a 94 ZR750 Zephyr, not very high on my favorite list by no means, old 650's and Ltd 750's walk all over this thing handling and performance wise.

Les Holt

I thought they had upgraded chassis and suspension?
Steve

Kawasaki Zephyr 750 is definitely descendant of KZ. I own Zephyr 750 C1 for 12 years and 90000km and still in love with this motorcycle.

The serial numbers on the Zephyr 750s and ZR-7s engines all start with KZ750xxxxxxxxxx.
They were all continuation and refinements of the original '78 KZ750 which in turn was a bored out improvement of the'76 KZ650.

The Zephyr was brought out as a "retro" in the '90s, and the ZR-7(with more refinement's) was pressed in the 2000's as a stop gap measure countering the liquid cooled Suzuki SV650, until Kawasaki developed the proper answer; the Versys 650.