zephyr 1100

My two cents. I owned one until I lost it in a fire. I read somewhere that they only brought over 1300 of those bikes to the states and most of which had ca emissions. With my bike it was a pita when it got really humid the gas would spew from the carbs. I loved that bike though and am going to have find another one to replace it. The only good thing that came about was that it brought me back to my old kz1000.
the bike after I put a v&h pipe gave out about 96 hp and that was because it was cali emissions i hear that the 48 state model had a bigger cam in it.
Thing I didn't like was the fact it had a weak second gear. I rode it a little on the exuberant side though.:evil:

Very very cool. I love 1100 Zephs. There's one on fleaBay right now...cheap...but who knows what the reserve is. It'll probably go cheap ... naturally ... since it's Christmas; and of course everybody has lots of extra dough at Christmas. It comes with an extra motor, and the guy mentions that the second gear is smoked.

Anyway, cool bike! Wish I had one. But weren't they only available in the US for one year???:huh:

Hey JT. How 'bout posting the pic you have of the Zephyr sitting in a field of Bluebonnets! I've always loved that shot.
VERY sweet ZR man. I'm envious. So how is everything in Harris County?
Jim

Actually the Zephyrs 400, 750, and 1100 are still made today in Japan for the home market. They just don't export them.

The Zephyr ZR1100 engine is not the same family as the KZ900, KZ1000, and KZ1100. The bottom end came actually from the early '90s ZX1100, yes, from a water cooled engine. Cylinder and heads of course are finned. It also uses two spark plugs per cylinders.

You may say that that, for the sake of making a big air cooled retro bike, Kawasaki actually back engineered a liquid cooled engine to a air cooling. I do not believe would fit a KZ frame at all.

The ZR1100 was too close in price to the all mighty liquid cooled ZX1100 to succeed in the market

Post edited by: hugo, at: 2007/12/13 07:35

Didn't realize that the Zephyr engine was developed from the water cooled 4 cyl. Ninja engine family rather than the old 900/100/1100 air cooled KZ's. But, just curious. The Ninja motors all had their cam drives at the end of the block with equal cylinder spacing rather than the old air cooled's center cam drive with extra crank bearing. Doesn't the Zephyr take it's cam drive off the middle of the crank like all the old KZ's? If so, it seems like a lot off re tooling at the factory engine assembly line to get the water cooled lower end to fit the retro cylinder block and head of the Zephyr. Can anyone confirm this?

Stephen
Merry Christmas!

Doesn't the Zephyr take it's cam drive off the middle of the crank like all the old KZ's?

Yes it does.

ZR1100 cylinder block, head and covers:



Post edited by: rstnick, at: 2007/12/24 21:03

So, does this mean that the Zephyr 1100 is a plain berring crank shaft?

I just checked kawasaki.com parts diagrams and indeed, the 93-95 ZR1100 has a plain bearing crank.

I thought the ZR1100 was only imported to the US for a couple of years, so I have no clue why it lists 93-95, maybe it was imported for three years??

Well, I did not know that the big Zeph had a plain berring crank shaft; but I am relatively certain that the United States only got the big 1100 Zeph for one year: 1993. Nomenclature: ZR1100 A-2 (no A-1, but hey, it's probably a "New York Steak" thing:pinch: ) Get it? A-1? Steak? Project New York Steak? :blink:

Geez, sometimes I kill myself...

Now I could be wrong but I know the zrx is based on the zx11 but the zep I was told was based on the voyager 1200 motor. This from a guy who builds engines for a living. I asked him about building a zr vs. kz and he told me there wasn't much you could do with that platform. Of course those are the most beautiful naked sportbike in my mind and most who would ride wouldn't care about that fact. But... everyone I know that has one is missing second gear. Everyone. They have a terrible transmission and the emissions garbage really is a pita. I had problems with it as did a few of my buddys that told me the same thing. Nonetheless my favorite modern naked sportbike of all time. Only one bike stands out above that and we won't compare classic to modern so I will leave it at that. You can buy this bike in mexico new still just like the vw bugs. I saw a magazine of all the bikes they have for sale in mexico and when I saw this I flipped and thought about taking a trip down there to buy one.

saxjonz wrote:

You can buy this bike in mexico new still just like the vw bugs. I saw a magazine of all the bikes they have for sale in mexico and when I saw this I flipped and thought about taking a trip down there to buy one.

So, we'd all like to see this magazine...reference, or maybe a scan of the cover?

The Zepher was a nice platform for racers, but Kawasaki made a serious marketing blunder and way over priced it and it did not sell.

They did all of the tricks that the racers were doing on the old Zs, dual pluc cylinder head, etc. Too bad it was mis marketed, you would probably see that platform still being raced in NHRA pro stock today.

Jay