1984 Kawasaki GPZ 750 Turbo

(Click on picture to see more pictures of the car)

This is my 1984 Kawasaki GPZ 750 Turbo. This is like my dream bike, its the best turbocharged production motorcycle ever built. It has 112HP stock, that's enough power to do battle with modern superbikes and more power than smaller cars. They say this bike has the power of a 1000 and the handling of a 750. The great thing about this bike is that it is fuel injected and uses ITBs. No more gummed up carbs and no more choking, sorta.  The story of how I got it was that I listed my old buddy the classic black DR650S on Craigslist after I took it on its last run and gave it a good tune up. I knew it was a long shot but I put that I would trade it for a GPZ750 turbo and lo and behold a man from Tucson, Arizona emailed me wanting to trade his GPZ turbo for my DR. So on January 10th 2010 we both set out to meet in Riverside, California. The journey was 400 miles for both of us. I traded all my spare DR650S parts including a frame with a spare engine on it for a 1984 GPZ 750 turbo and a buncha spare parts. It was quite the journey there but both of us were satisfied with what we got, I think I got the better end of the deal I basically traded the lowest tech bike for the highest tech bike =) I did make it sweeter for him with the spare parts, I could have just sold em but I didn't want them around and he'll need them more than me.

The bike is a little rough but its a start, the fork's anti-drive unit was leaking fork oil and the bike was smoking pretty bad.  I replaced the O-Rings sealing the anti-dive unit but it wasn't leaking from there, it was leaking from the anti-dive unit itself.  So I bought a pair of forks on ebay and replaced the faulty anti-dive unit and filled up the fork with fork oil.  The rear shock started leaking so I had to have it rebuilt.  I got it rebuilt at TriValley Moto where Aftershocks moved.  They charge so much now.  They found out the oil line going to the reservoir had a hole in it also.  Then I noticed that the fuel filter is not the stock fuel filter and was causing the fuel link to kink up.  The other fuel lines were cracking and it was even leaking where the hose meets the fuel tap.  I replaced all the fuel lines and used fuel injector hoses, which is the reason the old ones were leaking and I replaced the filter with a factory filter.  I had the rear shock rebuilt at Aftershocks which was station at Tri-Valley Moto in Livermore.  Then I broke one of the Ken Sean ZX mirrors backing out of my backyard driveway, so I wound up replacing them with some nice ZX6R copy mirrors.  The body panels are not the original ones.  It has a red side panels, read rear fender, and a red front fender that looks like it came from a GPZ 1100.  It is also missing the mid fairing and the belly pan.  I have decided to keep it semi-naked and restore the side panels and tail piece to their original red and black graphics.  It also came with a Lockhart Philips red windscreen.  I am going to change it to a smoked one.  I also made a custom bracket for the rear shock's reservoir from a pipe bracket I got at Lowes.  Also the spark plugs got fouled up before I could even get a good ride out of it.  So I wound up replacing the NGK spark plugs with new ones.  I added a Blow Off Valve from a Lancer Evolution 8 to help save the turbo from compressor surge.  You can definitely hear the turbo surge when you close the throttle.  In the future I might install a small intercooler.

After I got the bike running decent I got to riding it.  It starts up great every time because of the fuel injection.  Compared to the Zephyr 550 it is a lot heavier.  The cornering is a little more sluggish than the zephyr but the suspension is stiff as hell. It could be because it's setup for a heavier rider.  There are no dampening adjustments that I have found so far O_o'  I miss the Zephyr shocks they let you control the bound and rebound.  The brakes are also not as good as the Zephyr's.  The power is where its at though.  Once the boost kicks in at 4000+ RPMs it really takes off.  The turbo spools up and it takes you for a ride.  It takes a slight twist of the throttle to accelerate from 60 to 80 effortlessly.

 

STATUS:   I'VE REGISTERED THE ZEPHYR UNDER PLANNED NON-OP.  I WAS GOING TO PUT IT AWAY FOR NOW UNTIL I CAN AFFORD TO INSURE AND REGISTER IT SINCE I GOT THE GPZ TURBO.  STILL RAN GREAT HAD TROUBLE IDLING THOUGH PROBABLY NEEDS A VALVE ADJUSTMENT OR CARB CLEANING.  REMOVED CENTERSTAND BECAUSE ITS RUBBING ON THE CHAIN, FELT LIKE IT WAS TOUCHING THE GROUND OR SOMETHING WHEN TURN ALSO, KINDA SCARY.  GOT SOME STOCK COLOR SIDE PANELS AND INSTALLED THE ORIGINAL BLACK TURBO REAR FENDER.  INSTALLED AUTOMETER BOOST GAUGE BUT REALIZE I NEED TO GET A LIQUID FILLED GAUGE BECAUSE THE VIBRATIONS MAKE THE NEEDLES BOUNCE.  o_O  SEEMS LIKE THE BIKE IS RUNNING RICH, THE PLUGS FOUL EASILY AND ITS ONLY GETTING ABOUT 30 MPG.  IT COULD BE THAT I'M GETTING ON THE THROTTLE TOO MUCH.  GOING TO CHECK FUEL PRESSURE REGULATOR.  THINKING OF GETTING A POWER COMMANDER AND GETTING THE BIKE DYNO TUNED SO I CAN GET THE FUEL SETUP FOR MORE POWER AND EFFICIENCY.

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