pictures courtesy of Olieboll @ first Dutch Hardly Rideables Meeting, IJsselstein, April 20, 2003

It may be that you have followed the story of the Big Zed, if not, all that's important is that this bike was for sale on my website and I ended up buying it.

It belonged to a friend of mine, Andy Hall from ( the former ) Tuningshop Moto Technique in Almere, Kawasaki expert par exellence. He is the one who tuned my Z650 and did most of the work on my VMax before he closed his shop. Ever since I entered his shop and saw this bike I wanted one just like that ( which is why I started on the Z650 ).

He built this bike as a rolling ad for his shop and invested heavily in it. It slowly transformed from a old Z1 into the streetlegal dragbike you see in the pictures. There's a specsheet below. Go see it, stop drooling and close your mouth !

ENGINE:

1200 WISECO big-bore, 12.5:1 compression pistons, stock Z1 cilinderblock bored oversized and O-ringed. APE heavy duty cilinder studs. Crankshaft lightened, balanced, welded and fitted with matched shotpeened con-rods. Gasflowed cilinderhead with 36mm in- and 31mm exhaust valves. .425" lift WEB cams and APE shim-under-bucket conversion. EARL'S crankcase breather system with home-made oil catch and return tank. APE gorilla clutch conversion. APE camchain adjuster and race-spec camchain. Modified TMR MIKUNI 36 mm flatslides with bellmouths. HARRIS 4-1 race exhaustsystem. Pro-Bolt and Pogipollini fasteners. Finned aluminium aftermarket startermotorcover. Engine hand polished.

That says it all

It's got 110 bhp on the rearwheel and 109 NM at 3500 revs. It stuffed a couple of GSX-R's at Drachten last year with 10.914@197 km/h on the 400 meter strip.

Well, you can hardly talk about a torquecurve can you ???

Like I said: TORQUE !!! From 3500 revs up to 7000 !!!

Note: this is a calibrated Dynomachine, not a customerfriendly 10 - 15 % uprated one. It's Gert - Jan Laseur's from Almere who won the 1999 Super Twin dragraces on his Hardley Davidson.

FRAME:

KAWASAKI Z1000, braced under tanktubes and swingarmpivots.

FRONT END:

KAWA Z1000 Mk2 forks with HYPERPRO springs and oil, Z650 yokes, MIKRON forkbrace. RENNTEC Superbike bars with aluminium ends and supermotard grips. Z1000 wheel hub with 18" BORRIANI aluminium rims and stainless steel spokes.Tire is AVON SUPER VENOM 110/90x18. Drilled Z1R brake discs, twin 4 pistons HARRISON calipers, AP LOCKHEED race mastercilinder and EARL'S stainless steel brake lines. Chrome clock covers.

REAR END:

Modified and polished SUZUKI KATANA 1100 swingarm, twin ÖHLINS shock absorbers with HYPERPRO springs. Z1000 wheel hub with 18" AKRONT aluminium rim and stainless steel spokes. Tire is 140/80x18 AVON SUPER VENOM. Z1000 brake disc and caluiper, Z1000 mastercilinder and EARL'S stainless steel brake line. DID 630 pitch racespec chain, now with 16 tooth front sprocket ( from GSX 1100 EFE)

BODYWORK:

KAWASAKI Z1000 fueltank modified to accept HARRIS locking aircrafttype filler and fitted with independent breather and stainless steel line. Z900 side panels and tailpiece. Z900 seatbase, recovered by Andy with VW Beetle seatback material. MotoTechnique front mudguard.

ELECTRICS:

Modified Z1000 wiring by Andy, Z900 switchgear and instruments. Electronic rev counter ( from GPz 900R ) built inside original housing. POWERBRONZE twin headlightunit, SUZUKI BANDIT 1200 rearlight. Aluminium mini indicators. DYNA S ignition, ANDREWS coils and HT leads.

ENGINEERING:

Bike was built and all engine - and chassismodifications by ANDY and MARCO at MOTO TECHNIQUE.

I can be given no credit in building or modifying this bike. All I did was buy the bike I wanted for about 5 years and thus keeping it "in the family".

UPDATE 16 November 2003:

Finally found a perfect new seat ( Guilliari look-a-like ) in Germany on the Fighterama show:

Scratches on ducktail, shock and rearaxle and bent licenseplate due to me crashing the Big Zed a couple of weeks ago, no big damage, had to replace the dynocover as it was grinded down so badly it leaked oil. Found a perfect polished item on Ebay.de ! Still waiting for the insuranceman before I can replace the rest of the damage. In this picture you can also see the Raask rearset I also bought on Ebay.de, great site for oldtimerstuff ! 3 Months ago I removed the grabraillugs sticking from under the ducktail, they annoyed me every time I looked at the bike, spoiling her otherwise perfect lines

UPDATE 30-04-04

Found a new headlightshell and - rim and original lampholders on Vehikel ( bike swapmeet in Utrecht ) and put it on the bike today instead of the Powerbronze carbonlook twin headlight. It looks more original this way, which will surprise al lot of people at the trafficlights ;-)