Steve Cooper takes a look at the Kawasaki Z650, now rather overlooked but with a claim to being one of the best middleweight machines ever built.
Most fans of Japanese classics will know the story of the Z1’s development, how Kawasaki was pipped at the post by Honda’s CB750 with its first four, but then came back stronger and harder, acing The Big Aitch’s superbike with a 900 motor and two cams.
That the bike was an unqualified success is well established, but few question what came next in the firm’s development programme. The result was both remarkable and far reaching in its impact.
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You might rightly expect Kawasaki went on to offer big and better versions of the Z1. To a point that’s true, but the design could only be pushed so far and, crucially, the firm needed a more cost-effective engine. The Z1 and its spin offs all used roller bearing cranks for their innate ruggedness, but they were costly to produce, therefore a cheaper-to-build plain bearing crankshaft had to be the order of the day. Some might suggest that this was a cop out and cribbed from numerous Hondas, but the truth was a little different.
The new motor was designed by the same genius who had penned the Z1 and with Ben ‘Mr Z1’ Inamura in the driving seat the end result was pretty much guaranteed. And the genius didn’t stop there either – the new bike was strategically targeted at a section of the market that had been pretty dormant for the thick end of a decade.
The all-new machine was a twin cam, four-cylinder 650 with similar styling to contemporary Kawasaki models but weighing just 465 pounds or 211 kilograms. Better still, it had the speed of a 750 with the poise and elan of a 500. At a stroke Kawasaki had maximised the appeal of a traditional middleweight whilst giving the Z650 the performance of many superbikes.
If we Brits were at first a little reluctant to commit America loved the new model – and much of Europe and Japan were similarly besotted. Kawasaki had played an entire deck of aces; the style of the Big Zeds in a much smaller package. About the only tangible criticism that held up was that the Z650 only had two exhaust pipes, not the four many had expected to see. And yet there was a perfectly sensible rational behind that – less pipes equated to less mass which was one of the bike’s USPs.
In various guises the 650/4 would run from 1976 through to 1983, proving to be a very significant seller. From there the engine would grow to 750cc, powering a raft of models latterly including the famous 750 Turbo along with the GPz 750 sports bike. In the early ’90s the basic design would morph into the 750 Zephyr – first of the modern retros – before finally becoming the ZR7 and ZR7S in 1999 (which would only be dropped in 2004 when the bike couldn’t meet the new emissions standards).
Half a century on the Z650 has to be one of the classic scene’s most overlooked hidden gems and, given the numbers made, a decent USA import can actually look rather attractive.
You can pick up a tidy runner privately for as little as £2500 with a really decent example possibly not all the way to £3500.
What you get for your money is a lithe, good-looking machine, 220 kilos ready to roll and with 64 Japanese horses at your behest. You get all the style and quality of the Z1 genre for a fraction of the cost and a seriously good ride into the bargain. Should you want to unleash your ageing inner hooligan, then the Z650 will dispatch a standing quarter mile in under 14 seconds and this pretender to the throne will still best 110mph should you really want to risk your licence. It will tour, carry a pillion with ease and put a smile on your dial whenever you ride or look at it. Bargain? Oh, most definitely yes!
Original article appeared in Old Bike Mart. To subscribe, click here: https://www.classicmagazines.co.uk/old-bike-mart
