1984 'B' Kawasaki Z1100R1
Packed up racing in 1987, desperate for a bike a few months later, rang around, this was the only bike available. Sod it, never heard of Lawson Replica but cant be that bad. Didn't particularly like it when I first saw it, bought It anyway, cheap enough. The oil light came on whilst riding it away and the the headlight went out. Great start, bought some oil and followed my mate home on side lights. This wasn't the kind of shop you could return things to. Didn't smoke but seemed heavy on oil, number one plug black rest ok, so strip down job. No 1 cylinder had been seized, the bike had only done 11,000 miles. Honed out barrel new set pistons and rings whopped it back together and used it for 8 years. Now done 52,000 miles and only had a camchain. Has been thrashed to death almost every time I've ridden it. Did a forgotten era race meeting on it in the 90's. ran it standard without taking any bits off..didn't do to well although did lead for half a lap. The exhaust was on the deck most of time and this unnerved me a bit. This bike lived outside all of the time I was using it and its only relatively recent that It's got garage space. Re-sprayed and given a new seat cover about 5 years ago. £75 for original seat cover ages ago god knows what they are now if you can get them. It had numerous exhaust systems the best being a Harris race system. This Laser 2 is not bad though. Forks rebuilt 2 years ago with new bushes etc a bit expensive but worth it. The only down-side was it's appetite for Chains and tyres. One tyre (Continental) only lasted for six full tanks of petrol. It does about 35mpg. Will never have a Continental again. Put a scott oiler on it and that sorted out the chain life. Oil fell out of original shocks, replaced them with Ohlins, not noticed any difference over standard ones when they were good. To conclude:- Past it now but brilliant in its day, it used to be difficult for anything to pass it, 400/600's should Whizz by it now ( but i'm a bit sneaky and don't let em..hehe ).
Now if I had a favorite this would be it..! but of course I don't so it's not. Well it might be.
As you can see from the blurred effect I 'filled' up whilst taking this photo.
