Blood brothers

It's such a close-run thing that Bob Berry can't make up his mind which bike he'd rather have. Kawasaki have emulated their superb Lawson replica of the 1980's so well he decides to sit on the fence. Pictures by Martin Barnwell.

OF the clutch of 'street style' modern superbikes reflecting their predecessors of the early Eighties, perhaps the one that remains most faithful to its roots is Kawasaki's ZRX1100 (now enlarged to 1200cc).
At least that's what Adrian Bennett thought when he splashed out £6200 for the gorgeous green machine in November 1999. The new ZRX is the reborn Z1100R 'Lawson replica' - the bike styled on the US superbike that Eddie Lawson rode to championship wins in 1981 and '82.
Electrical engineer Adrian, 39, bought his own new 1100R in 1984 from Peter Williams Motorcycles in Southampton for £2995 and wanted the ZRX to make up a mouth-watering pair of real and retro rocketships.
"I wanted a newer bike and when the ZRX came out it was obviously the one to have," said Adrian, who belongs to the VJMC and the Classic Kawasaki clubs.
Adrian and his mate Terry Dunn, 43, rode the two Kawasakis up to Rothwell from their Southampton homes on a beautiful sunny Sunday at the end of September. Terry's a Suzuki Bandit and GSX-R400 owner and works as a pest controller - his tales of a 'life of grime' were to keep us in stitches at the post-test inquest!
The Z1100R is the bike Adrian rides most however. "It's just that I have owned it for so long I like to use it more," he said. Over the years it's acquired an 1170cc Wiseco big bore kit, 36mm flat slide Mikuni carbs and box-section swinging arm.
With 39,000 miles on the clock it has never given Adrian any trouble apart from the damage he inflicted upon it when he crashed at the age of 22. "I chipped the top of my kneecap and skinned my shin down to the bone. I was just young and stupid." The bike survived with minor damage to the tank and levers.
He's not been so lucky with the ZRX though. It was taken back to the dealers with corrosion problems and paint bubbling on the tank. "The tank was replaced and they had to treat the pitted radiator surround and swingarm. There was no paint on the clutch cover either.
"Obviously the finish quality is not as good now as it was 18 years ago!"
Adrian has no intention of parting with his 'real' Kawasaki and picks up spares and body parts when he spots them at various events. He's stashed away a complete body kit and a set of wheels for future use if necessary.

Future lies here

THE Z1100R was launched in 1984 along with the re-styled Uni-trak GPz1100A2, the last of their big aircooled fours. The GPz750 turbo and GPz900R had come along and they were lighter, faster and more nimble - the future lied with watercooled engines.
Its predecessor had been the Z1000J and Z1000R and the capacity hike to 1089cc was achieved by simply fitting the GPz's engine into the existing frame. The bigger engine had its shims located under the cam buckets in an effort to eliminate possibility of the cam spitting out a shim at high revs. It had an uprated CDI system using an electronically-operated ignition advance curve, replacing the previous mechanical bob weights and springs. It also had a smaller 18 inch front wheel, replacing the 19 inch item.
In just about every other respect, the bike was the same as the previous Z1000R Kawasaki designed to capitalise on Lawson's race successes. The standard double cradle frame wore 38mm air-assisted forks up front and a needle bearing tubular swingarm (since changed to box section on Adrian's bike).
At the rear were gold sprayed Showa twin shocks with remote reservoirs. Pre-load adjustment was by threaded collars which required two hook wrenches to operate but this was still an easier job than the old style, knuckle-grazing spring adjustment.
Kawasaki have followed the same formula for the new ZRX. A tubular frame looking remarkably similar to the Z1100R's but with a shorter wheelbase - 1450mm instead of 1540. A tubular swingarm once again but supported with an extra truss for rigidity.
As you'd expect, front forks are much beefier 43mm items. With ten different adjustments available up front and five position spring-load (plus four-way damping) on the rear shocks, it all adds up to a bewildering choice of set-ups. Make notes as you play around with it!
Into this they have shoehorned the mighty watercooled ZZR1100 engine, detuned from 120 bhp to 93 bhp for a better spread of power across the rev range. The whole package tips the scales at a fairly lean 489 lb.
Compare that to the Z1100R's 524 lb and 90 bhp and the two bikes' performance potential would not look miles apart - especially with Adrian's more powerful big-bore engine.