The Kawasaki Gpz305 was a twin cylinder

air-cooled Air-cooled engines rely on the circulation of air directly over heat dissipation fins or hot areas of the engine to cool them in order to keep the engine within operating temperatures. In all combustion engines, a great percentage of the heat ge ...

SOHC An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion cha ...

four-stroke A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directio ...

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

, produced in 1983 to 1994 by Kawasaki in Japan. The model evolved from the earlier ER250 model and used an overbored version of the 249 cc engine first produced in 1979. Kawasaki gave this model the "Gpz" nomenclature to add to its expanding air-cooled sports bike range, and was marketed as a sports machine. It originally had chain final drive but in 1983 it had a new Kevlar belt final drive first seen on Kawasaki's American styled cruisers. It was available with a 250 cc engine as the Kawasaki Scorpion, but came in a different colour scheme. In ''

Cycle World ''Cycle World'' is a motorcycling magazine in the United States. It was founded in 1962 by Joe Parkhurst, who was inducted to the Motorcycle Hall of Fame as "the person responsible for bringing a new era of objective journalism" to the US. ''Cyc ...

''s "Ten Best Bikes of 1983", the Gpz305 won best "Under 460 cc Street" motorcycle, because it was the "best of the lightweight roadsters", combining small bike advantages of low weight and low cost with the fun of a sport bike. In their review, ''Cycle World'' praised the bike's quick handling in comparison with heavier, more powerful motorcycles, saying that the while displacement bikes have a much greater engine power advantage, they typically have wheelbases, giving the wheelbase Gpz305 an advantage in the ease that it leans into a turn. They also said that while large engines have the advantage of having a wide power band and do not need frequent shifting during casual riding, the Gpz305's lack of power below 7,000 rpm forces the rider to shift frequently to get the most out of the bike, making it more fun to ride. The review said the Gpz305's air-fuel ratio was excessively lean in order to meet

EPA The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

emissions requirements, which meant the bike took of riding to warm up enough to run smoothly without using the choke, and that the bike benefited greatly from re-jetting the carburetor, without losing fuel economy in the process.

Notes

Gpz305 Sport bikes Standard motorcycles Motorcycles powered by straight-twin engines {{motorcycle-stub