The Kawasaki Zephyr is a range of retro-styled
naked
Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing.
The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Adaptations related to h ...
superbike
A sport bike (sports motorcycle, or sports bike) is a motorcycle designed and optimized for speed, acceleration, braking, and cornering on asphalt concrete race tracks and roads. They are mainly designed for performance at the expense of comfor ...
s made in the 1990s in
Kawasaki's Z series. All models have transverse air-cooled dual overhead camshaft
inline-four engine
A straight-four engine (also called an inline-four) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft.
The vast majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout (with the ...
s. There were a number of Zephyr models, in four engine capacities, .
The ''400'' was produced for the Japan market starting in 1989.
Zephyr styling is roughly based on the old
Kawasaki Z1
The Kawasaki Z1 is a four-cylinder, air-cooled, double-overhead camshaft, carbureted, chain-drive motorcycle introduced in 1972 by Kawasaki. Following the introduction of Honda's CB750 in 1968, the Z1 helped popularize the in-line, across-the- ...
, with twin shock rear suspension, a relatively upright riding position and air-cooled power units. The ''400'', ''550'' and ''750'' engines were developed from the old Z400/500/550/650/750/900 series. The ''1100'' engine is based on the air-cooled DOHC, eight-valve inline-four that traces its roots back through the GPz1100 to the Z1000. It is the only Zephyr built with two spark plugs per cylinder.
The Zephyr started the naked/retro bike boom in the UK and Europe in the early 1990s and for a while moved Kawasaki to the 2nd best selling manufacturer of motorcycles in the UK Market.
The Zephyr Z750 engine reappeared in the late 1990s in the short lived ZR7.
The Zephyr 1100 had a Z1 restyle in its last year of sale including a return to wire wheels. Wire wheels also appeared on the 750. It was replaced in the Kawasaki UK range by the popular Z1100R styled
Kawasaki ZRX1100
The Kawasaki ZRX1100 was a standard motorcycle made by Kawasaki from 1997 to 2000 with an engine loosely based on the ZX-11. It replaced the Zephyr 1100. Since the Zephyr 1100 sold poorly in the US, the ZRX1100 was not initially sold in that m ...
(1997–2005).
The ZRX series of motorcycles had a great impact on the growing market for retro style motorcycles, particularly in the United States. It was modeled after Kawasaki's superbike championship winning KZ1000R-S1 that propelled Eddie Lawson to
Superbike
A sport bike (sports motorcycle, or sports bike) is a motorcycle designed and optimized for speed, acceleration, braking, and cornering on asphalt concrete race tracks and roads. They are mainly designed for performance at the expense of comfor ...
dominance in the early 1980s.
References
Zephyr
In European tradition, a zephyr is a light wind or a west wind, named after Zephyrus, the Greek god or personification of the west wind.
Zephyr may also refer to:
Arts and media
Fiction Fiction media
* ''Zephyr'' (film), a 2010 Turkish ...
Standard motorcycles
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