Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

I have an old revs mag with a story and pics of him and the bike in it.Early 80's I think.

coupe060 wrote:I have an old revs mag with a story and pics of him and the bike in it.Early 80's I think.

Memmories, somewhere I have pics of me on this bike taken at his parents home ( down Woollongong way). A weapon to ride.
W.G was o/s at the time. He was the agent for EBC brake pads, which I needed for my ZIR - II.

Was that 160bhp verified or just a speculative number?

that power with those tyres = very good hand control.top read

Of course the bike on display at the NMRM at Bathurst is not the original bike but a faithfully created replica that Wayne had built some years later. The original bike went back to the factory at Moriwaki.

http://www.ma.org.au/index.php?id=610

yzr750 wrote:......Was that 160bhp verified or just a speculative number?......

why would they speculate about 160bhp ? It was dinkum, even the Syndicate kawasaki that AJ rode in the early 80's delivered around 164hp at the countershaft sprocket.......you can get this sort of figure from an old 2-valve Z motor if you throw enough time and money into it......and replace bits after *every* race.....

the GSX1100 Katana that Steve Martin rode at this years Island Classic, put out *over* 180hp at the back wheel.

Gosling1 wrote:

yzr750 wrote:......Was that 160bhp verified or just a speculative number?......

why would they speculate about 160bhp ?

Well from where I was sitting it didn't seem anywhere near 160 bhp.
I followed that bike(with Gardiner onboard) up the hill at Oulton park, which is a pure horsepower part of the track, and my bike was quicker, yet it only had 130bhp?

and you are ? .......

Gosling1 wrote:and you are ? .......

Just an old fart that raced in that era. Even tho' I was in the same races as those guys doesn't mean I was racing them . The likes of Gardiner where on a whole different level.
Incidentally I don't want an argument here, from what I have read you seem to know your stuff, I'm just saying that having been on track with it 160 bhp seems to me a bit optimistic. The works Hondas at the same point on the track where pulling a good couple of bike lengths on me, and I have it on good authority that they where putting out about 145bhp at the wheel.

would have been good to be in the same race as WG when he was making his way in the UK.....

that story mentions 160hp at the start, then mentions 150hp a couple of sentences later...... - so maybe they were not sure themselves about the actual output. May well have been optimistic, without a dyno chart its all so much speculation anyway about actual outputs.....

I would be happy to see 120hp from my own 1100 kawasaki, which is about 35 more than it has at the moment ..

Gosling1 wrote:would have been good to be in the same race as WG when he was making his way in the UK.....

that story mentions 160hp at the start, then mentions 150hp a couple of sentences later...... - so maybe they were not sure themselves about the actual output. May well have been optimistic, without a dyno chart its all so much speculation anyway about actual outputs.....

I would be happy to see 120hp from my own 1100 kawasaki, which is about 35 more than it has at the moment ..

You could tell as soon as he took to the track he was a special rider, had a few chats with him at the time as well and he seemed like a decent bloke.
I saw a quite a lot of bikes of that era on the dyno, (engines really because it was not a rolling road dyno).
From the top of my head here's what I remember
Rg500 mk5 110bhp
my own cb1100r 106bhp
my own tz750 130bhp
most tz350's where between 65-70 bhp
the best tz250's where making 60bhp and very fragile with it.
I didn't see them but i was told that the P&M Kawasakis http://teamjamracing.com/PM.aspx which where second tier competitive at the time where putting out about 125 bhp.
Knowing all that is what makes me doubt even 150 bhp, but as you say, without hard numbers we'll never know.

yzr750 wrote: my own tz750 130bhp
most tz350's where between 65-70 bhp
.

Oh to say " my own TZ 750 " no matter how many ponies

There is a TZ 350 in the UK , and been here , making a reported 84 bhp Regular ICGP winning bike .

Better get Mr yzr750 down to share the Island Classic hey Gos ??

the kid wrote:

yzr750 wrote: my own tz750 130bhp
most tz350's where between 65-70 bhp
.

Oh to say " my own TZ 750 " no matter how many ponies

There is a TZ 350 in the UK , and been here , making a reported 84 bhp Regular ICGP winning bike .

Better get Mr yzr750 down to share the Island Classic hey Gos ??

I don't have the 750 any more, wish I did tho. sold it in the late 80's for bugger all
I think the biggest limiting factor back in the day for the two strokes was the ignition systems, they have that sorted now.

the ignition systems aren't to crash hot these days either, its hard to get a reliable one thats what iahev found on my tz350!

Don't you just have a problem with ignition systems in general Steve?