BIG READ
Forty years ago, the Kawasaki GPz900R set the template for generations of superbikes, and with it started motorcycling’s most famous performance bike dynasty of all time… the Ninja
This year marks the 40th anniversary of not just one of the most significant bikes of modern times, but with it a motorcycling moniker that stands for performance more than any other. We’re talking about the creation of the first Ninja: the 1984 GPz900R.
Launched at Laguna Seca in late 1983, the all-new machine wasn’t the most powerful or sophisticated bike out there, or even in Kawasaki’s range. With peak power of 113bhp the GPz9’s 903cc four was five horses down on the 1089cc unit of the air-cooled GPz1100, and less complex than its Z750 Turbo.
However, the GPz9’s liquid-cooled, 16-valve four was a world first which set the template for all superbikes to follow; its compact, integrated, fully faired design was another first which prompted Kawasaki to describe it as ‘having the performance of an 1100 and the agility of a 750’, and another corporate boast as the first superbike capable of 150mph set a benchmark that took years to beat, once it was proved in independent testing. And that was just the start.
‘Who can catch a Kawasaki?’
At the press launch in California, Kawasaki hired leading US drag racer Jay ‘Pee Wee’ Gleason to demo the newcomer’s standing-quarter ability. He promptly set a time of 10.55 seconds – a full two seconds faster than its Z1 predecessor.
Nor was the new Ninja aone-trick, straightline pony. Around Laguna Seca’s sweeping, high-speed turns, the 900 would easily stay with and invariably out-braked and out-turned both the 1100 and Turbo it was launched alongside.
While the following May, dealer-entered 900s blitzed the 751-1500cc Production TT with Geoff Johnson winning ahead of Howard Selby. ‘Who can catch a Kawasaki?’ was a popular advertising slogan of the time. ‘Nobody’, was the answer.
By August 1, the GPz900 was the hottest litre-class bike around with red Kawasakis lined up outside dealers awaiting their B-plate release. Repeated magazine group tests all declared the same winner and that the superbike had been reinvented, something underlined when the new Ninja also became MCN’s 1984 Machine of the Year.
So, when Top Gun became the summer blockbuster two years later, what bike other than the Ninja would its motorcycle-mad star, Tom Cruise, ride?
Dawn of a dynasty
Although nominally updated by the larger, more powerful GPZ1000RX in 1986 and 137bhp ZX-10 two years after that, the GPz900R remained better than and outlived both, staying in the UK range until 1993.
That success also sparked a whole new dynasty – particularly in the U
