No doubt I’m just about to upset some people by saying that the original Kawasaki Z900 - affectionally known as the Z1 - is the bike that in 1972 started the genre known today as the superbike. Purists will scoff and point to the Honda GB7S0 as THE first superbike, and they make a good case. However, given that the Kawasaki was also being developed with a 750cc engine, and upon learning of Honda’s plans to also fit their bike with a 750cc engine, Kawasaki upped the capacity of the Z1 to 900cc, in a stroke began the quest for ever increasing amounts of power and one-upmanship in the class that still goes on today. If you’re going to have a retro bike in your garage, it’s hard to think of a better one than one which pays tribute to the original ‘Up Yours’ superbike.
Clearly, there is precisely zero comparison between the original and today’s Z900RS. The original had 80bhp, weighed 246kg, was air-cooled, used
