Is this an actual 1972 Z1 test mule or just a silly little paint job

While drooling over videos and articles about my dream motorcycle (the Z1 ofc) I remember reading a lot of mentions of Kawsaki painting the test mules in Honda colors and even slapping "HONDA" on them to avoid being noticed by Honda but a few months ago I found this

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I came across this from this video




Is this an actual test mule that survived or a silly little paint job because I think it's ridiculous that honda people won't notice this on the street and go nuts 

Also this image seems to be from here and the only image of this prototype to ever exists so I'm a bit paranoid that it's just a paint job

www.paintworkz.com/customersZ1photos.html

It's the real deal. It looks like it was taken in the same series as this one, featured in Dave Sheehan's excellent book "The Kawasaki Z1 Story  The Death and Rebirth of the 900 Super 4"   

I believe that bike is owned by Greg Walker.  He is one of the finest Z1 restorers in the world.

hardrockminer wrote:

I believe that bike is owned by Greg Walker.  He is one of the finest Z1 restorers in the world.

 

That is indeed Greg Walker's V-bike. The pic is from Mid-Ohio maybe 10 yrs. ago, at the swap meet vendor sites we shared back then with with old time KZR member Roy-b-boy-b.  Our swap sites were next to Jeff Saunders swap site, end of row FF, when he still owned Z1 Enterprises and set up at Mid-Ohio most years.  One of the finest, most polished & well-stocked vendors there has ever been at Mid-Ohio.

Greg's a genuinely nice guy & pleasure to talk to.  He's a walking Z1 encyclopedia..  His V-bike was fascinating to look over closely while he gave an audio tour of the highlights and, the the subtle and not-so-subtle differences between his V-bike test mule and early production Z1's.

Pretty sure we have additional pics of the V-bike taken taken at our site that year.  Can't look this moment but will post when found.

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

Interesting stuff presented here, I thank you for it.  I wanted to add a pic I have found of a 750 4 cylinder from 1970 in what appears to be a test bed for the 4 cylinder 4 stroke machines,  Any way here you go.

I found some more examples on my old PC :


from April 1971


at Daytona? (Honda badges)


very early proto


















 

gd4now wrote:

Interesting stuff presented here, I thank you for it.  I wanted to add a pic I have found of a 750 4 cylinder from 1970 in what appears to be a test bed for the 4 cylinder 4 stroke machines,  Any way here you go.

The engine kind of looks like the MV Agusta 750 s 

Some pics of my prototype, pre-production bikes and parts details collection.


 

Kawasaki was the first of the big four who made a batch of 1000 new re-production cyl. heads for the Z1, KZ900 and KZ1000.

 

Be careful, bike porn pics for junkies. I took some un-boxing pics of a new re-produktion cyl. head at Z-Fever.de.  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

gd4now wrote:

Interesting stuff presented here, I thank you for it.  I wanted to add a pic I have found of a 750 4 cylinder from 1970 in what appears to be a test bed for the 4 cylinder 4 stroke machines,  Any way here you go.

I think that bike is a styrofoam mockup, not a real machine.  Slmjim can confirm.

The shape of the tank in the very early model look a lot like the Z1-R
I read somewhere that the designer for the later curvy tank took inspiration from the Bonneville