CLASSICS
WORDS AND PHOTOS:
Rhys Jones
SIX PACK
S
everal readers pointed out that in my
recent column about the development
and early success of six-cylinder bikes,
I overlooked the Kawasaki Z1300. As I had
ridden both the Benelli and Honda CBX1000
sixes, and not the Z1300, I didn’t feel as
competent to talk about the big Kawasaki.
I take the point, however, the Kawasaki was
a ground breaking model and deserves
recognition, so here goes.
The Kawasaki Z1300 and Honda CBX1000
were less of a development of the glorious
six-cylinder Honda race bikes that took
Mike Hailwood to a series of World
Championships in the 1960s, and more of
a continuing battle between Kawasaki and
Honda for top spot in the battle for big-bike
honours that started in the early 1970s.
It began, of course, with the Honda CB750
of 1969. Kawasaki responded three years
later with the Z1 900. If Honda was stung
by the Z1, so were other manufacturers,
and in the 1970s big bore machines like the
Yamaha XS1100 and Suzuki GS1000 began
to appear. Honda, as it often did, produced
a trump card. Drawing on the experience of
the highly advanced race bike of the 1960s,
they produced the six-cylinder CBX1000.
So, if round one went to the Kawasaki Z1,
the factory had to produce something
startling to challenge the CBX in round two.
The result of course was the Z1300.
Kawasaki Z1 900 started the Superbike confrontation in 1973
82 KIWI RIDER