1973 kawasaki z1 – top speed

Ever since getting my Z1, I’m pretty obsessed with them.

If you didn’t know, the Z1 was basically the hayabusa of the 70’s.
Pretty sure it was the fastest bike until the early 80’s.
And, it was definitely the preferred pro drag race bike for a long ass time.

Apparently, the bike does 140mph in stock form.
I’ve only done 110 on mine so far.

In 73, they broke a record doing 160mph on a basically stock Z1.
Pretty badass.

Watch these two videos from 1973.
Z1’s with clubman bars at Daytona breaking records.



Below vid…
I found this out there and couldn’t help but post it.
Rednecks get a Z1 running. Laugh my ass off watching this.
I love how the camera man yells at the z1 once they get it fired up. Ha.


I picked up a new seat for my Z1.
It’s basically the stock seat cut with a cafe dip in it.
Brand new seat pan, foam, and cover. All assembled, ready to bolt on. $160.
It’s from Z1parts.

z1-seat-1
z1-seat-2
z1-seat-3

6 responses to “1973 kawasaki z1 – top speed”

  1. Ben says:

    Yea, your Z1 is really growing on me.

    Love this last video, so cool to finally see Ricky’s father.

  2. ed says:

    @ben
    that was mean.
    at least his dad has a Z1 unlike your dads harley electraglide. barf.

    @bob
    damn…. that exhaust is sick as shit.

  3. adam says:

    That yoshimura exhaust is killer.

    Mini king/queen cafe seats are gonna be the new shit. Wish somebody made them for the CB’s.

  4. Scott albers says:

    The rednecks z1 has some nice upgraded mags and dual disc front and disc on the rear from a later Ltd model they don’t realize it’s only running on 3 cylinders. On the pilot jets from idle to about 2500 rpm then it goes off of the main jets were the bike sounds like a it’s running on all four cylinders then they need a longer drive way as there stuck in just first gear

  5. Scott albers says:

    The rednecks bike has some nice upgraded mags dual disc brakes and a rear disc brake all from a later Ltd model.what they don’t realize it’s only running on 3 cylinders as one of the pilot jets is plugged it sounds like it runs on four cylinders above 2500 rpm when it kicks into the main jets that us a far from original z1 it has different front forks also aka.ltd model

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Published - Feb 2, 2010

Aaron – cb360t – summer 2008