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Tips,Tweaks, Fixes and Facts: The two-wheeled ownership experience, explained
Staff Rides
Boehm: 2004 Kawasaki ZRX1200R
The original retro Superbike done up in fire engine GPz red is, for me, Just Exactly Perfect etro-styled street bikes are all the rage right now, but the trend isn’t all that new. Back in the 1990s came Honda’s CB1000 Big One and Kawasaki’s ZRX1100, which became the ZRX1200R a few years later. The CB1000 was underpowered and missed the mark on styling (even with those awesome-looking CB900F-based AMA Superbikes to crib from) and failed in the market. But the ZRXs, which offered 100-plus horsepower and earlyGPz/Eddie Lawson Replica styling, sold well and have become bona fide cult classics since being retired in the mid 2000s. I rode a Z-Rex for a full year back in the early 2000s and have lusted after one ever since — until last summer, when I bought a low-mileage — and GPz red — ZRX to replace the red (but boring) CB1000 I’d bought the previous year. Mmmmm… It had brittle, squared-off and misFresh matched tires, a leaky fork leg, a worn Dunlops. chain and original hydraulic fluid, but it was fast and fun and reminded me of the two GPzs I’d owned years before…an ’83 550 monoshocker and a twin-shock ’82 750, both red, both entertaining, and both emotionally inspiring. So into the shop it went (Salt Lake City’s Moto Station) while I was
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AMERICAN MOTORCYCLIST • FEBRUARY 2022
sampling H-D’s new Pan America 1250 adventure bike during last year’s AMA Alps Challenge tour. There it got some serious care, including synthetic Maxima oil, a brand-new DID 520 chain, new fork seals, 15-weight fork oil (and a little more than stock) and, most importantly, a fresh set of dual-compound Dunlop Roadsmart IV tires, which offer more mileage than the already excellent Roadsmart IIIs (which I ran on my CB1000) and tons of dry grip and wet-weather performance. Once back on the road the thing was mostly brilliant, offering lots of smooth power (even at 10,000 feet) and soft but supple (and mostly controllable) chassis behavior, even at big speeds. The Dunlops proved superb, even in colder (and sometimes wet) conditions, and with their dual-compound construction they grip like full-on sport tires when speeds and lean angle get juicy. Could I run these at a track day? I absolutely could. Next up is a full detail (the paint’s a bit hazy and there’s some corrosion left over from the previous owner’s oceanair location) and improved — and slightly firmer — suspension: firmer fork springs and Emulators from Race Tech and some quality aftermarket shocks. Otherwise, my Z-Rex is a fast blast, and a helluva goodlooking one, too.
