Kawasaki Z550.

It was a sad day when I sold my Kawasaki 2550. The bike had been all things to me for the year that I owned it, Commuter, Road racer, tourer; and I had betrayed it by selling it. I started to fancy the idea of a middleweight Jap when my stable of 3 thoroughbred motorcycles all gave up the ghost at once. I had been the proud owner of a Honda CD175 (tough but ultimately, not indestructible), a Suzuki GT380 (Hardly faster than the Honda on a good day), and the pride of British engineering, a Tiger cub (200 cc of unreliable mini thumper), The Honda's valve timing slipped (Ooops !), with the consequent tangle of metal in the top end. The Suzuki rattled and rattled and rattled until I didn't dare ride it any more and it stood by the side of the road for a week. When asked one afternoon why I didn't ride it any more, I demonstrated the noise to the friend who asked. Thus it was he, standing behind the bike at the time, that was showered with minute pieces of piston and crank ejected with jet engine force from the center pot. The Tiger Cub suffered various problems associated with OBW's (Old British W**krs) and was ultimately sold due to an unfortunate bodge involving, crank, alternator and liberal quantities of Araldite, which I didn't trust any more. (I hasten to add that it was not my bodge.) Thus was a vacuum left in my life to be filled with something fast and reliable. This was 1984 and a brand new Gpz unitrak appealed, but I didn't want to be typecast with the Gpz brigade, (all matching red and black leathers and helmets), and anyway I couldn't afford one. I settled on the idea of owning a Z650, old enough now to be in my price range and still fresh enough to be fast and reliable. I secured my bank loan, put it with the (Ludicrously large) sum I had got for the Tiger cub, and waited .... Prowling like some vast jungle predator over the classified ads in the papers. One week Two weeks ........ Four weeks, Five weeks. Where were all the Z650's ! My heart was set on one. Nothing else would do. The adverts were full of large capacity bikes which I could not afford to buy let alone run, and smallish two strokes of which I had had enough. Then, one day there it was Z650 for sale at £650. I was on the phone in an instant. 'No,no' said the owner. 'It was a misprint', It was really a Z550. I said I would go and have a look anyway. I arrived, it was pretty and well kept, it went well, I bought it. Of course as soon as I had parted with my money, the adverts were full of 650's. People were giving them away .... throwing them at me. But.. I didn't care. I had discovered that the Kawasaki Z550 was probably the finest middleweight four ever made. It was far lighter than the Z650 and its other older brothers which made it a better proposition for chucking into corners and yet it had nearly as much power. Certainly, on the road there was no 650 of any make which could better my 550 on top speed or acceleration. and the Kwak could embarrass a few 750's as well. It had a genuine top speed of 115 Mph. I know this because I was stopped in a radar trap on the All one Saturday morning. 'In a hurry are we sonny' said the officer. 'Errm , No not really' I answered. 'Do you know how fast you were going' Be asked, expecting god knows what answer. 'Actually ' I said before I could stop myself, 'When I'm going that fast I keep my eyes on the road rather than on the instruments'. Whether it was my resounding good sense or his weird sense of humour, I don't know: but he verified my speed, chatted about motor bikes for 20 minutes ... and let me go ! With all due respect to the high speed fanatics amongst the readership, 115 mph was all that I ever really required out of my Z550. To illustrate the point, I recall a ride from Hastings to Brighton through Romney marsh one scintillating summers afternoon. The air was cool, the bugs were few, the sun glowed like a jewel in the sky (etc. etc.) I had a pillion who knew how to pillion and we were just lazily sweeping from bend to bend Vrooom.... whooosh. 'Waagh, What was that' 7 'A CBX1000 came the muffled answer from behind' .'Shall I ...' ? 'Why not', was the murmur in my ear. And we set off in hot pursuit.'The CBX needless to say pulled out somewhat whenever the road was straight, but come the bends and it was astonishing how fast we could catch up. Bend Bend Bend I could see the CBX pilots eyes in his rear view mirror. Straight bit, Flat on the tank, Pillion flat on my back ... 110, 111, 112... Bend.. brake 40 yards behind, 20, 10 .. bend, an ounce more power and I could have overtaken him The miles flew by, all three motorcyclists in one accord with their machines. All good things come to an end and when we hit dual carriageway, with a flick of his wrist, the CBX was gone. The best rides don't need awesome amounts of speed and power. That ride will live on in my memory 'till I cease to be. The Z550 makes prodigious amounts of midrange power for its size in comparison with such as the CB/CBX550 GS/GSX550 and GPz550. In the year that I owned it I replaced a rear tyre , Avon roadrunner for Avon roadrunner, and replaced the piper 4 into 1 pipe with a secondhand GPz system from a breakers. I lubed the chain regularly, put oil and petrol in it and that was it as far as maintenance was concerned. In fact I got so bored with the unfailing reliability that I spent a weekend 'Doing the shims'. That was my downfall ! The top end on these Kawasakis are shim under bucket. After I had ascertained that nothing needed doing to the shims, the whole lot had to go back together again. Replacing Shims under buckets is a skilled job, A skill that I did not at the time have. One of the shims slipped and did not seat properly consequently lifting the valve just that little bit higher than it should go. I was lucky, It just kissed the top of the piston without damaging it, The valve however was doing a fairly decent impression of a banana. 80 pounds and two weeks later I was back on the road. IF IT WORKS ... LEAVE IT ALONE. The bike, regrettably, had to go due to a four wheeled thing that I was learning to control. I got nearly as much as I had paid for her. Kawasakis are good on depreciation. Probably more so now that you cannot buy the like of the solid old fours. Timewarp forward to 1990 and another disillusionment with two stroke reliability. The time had come to buy something that would reliably get me where I wanted to go. (I know.... I own a car, but that's no way to travel !). Memories invaded my mind. A Z550 it had to be. Fortunately, within a fortnight of taking this decision, one cropped up in the local advertiser. It was under £500 ! Even though it had to be an old dog at that price, I resolved to view the beast. Apparently I wad the first of some 30 odd callers. When I got there the cover was pulled back and it was obvious that the vendor was unaware how desirable these motorcycles have become. It sparkled, there was no rust, 23,000 on the clock and no rattles, It was mine. He even threw in an ABUS shackle lock ! I couldn't believe my luck. While driving around to raise the cash I started to have doubts. Could it really be as good as I remembered. After all, my original Z550 was the first 'Big' bike I had ever owned. I had had many different and varied bikes since then. When I picked it up and drove it home all my fears vanished. It felt exactly the same. It felt like my old one. It pulls from 2500 rpm., like a train from 6000 rpm, it does an unfailing 45 50 mpg it is comfortable, it looks good, it handles pretty well when judged against its contemporaries. It starts on the button first time every time (remember to pull the clutch lever in Hah), it is smooth, it has the distinctive Kawasaki howling exhaust note, It is light on tyres and chains, and virtually maintenance free. It is without a doubt, my idea of the best all-rounder ever built in Japan. I'm sorry if this sounds like an advert for a second hand Kawasaki dealer, but there we go. I can't offhand think of a bad thing to say about it. It is not GOOD at anything but it is more than adequate at everything. Catch one if you can. You'll never regret it.