Imagine getting your head around the Z1 with 80bhp and a 130mph top whack in 1973. Jumping off a 50bhp, 110mph BSA Lightning onto a Zed must have been a chastening experience. But it never takes long for people to want more…
The tuning industry is never one to sit back to wait and see which way the wind blows. It dives in, tears things down, grabs opportunities, makes markets, and generally attempts to engender low self-esteem issues among riders who do not fit its wares to their bikes.
Whether it be a 4-1 pipe, a cam, smoothbore carbs, fairing, seat, frame, you name it, the go-faster/look-cooler light engineering/aftermarket complex had it covered. However, not all the goods were any good. Dave Ennis (aka Buzzard), proprietor of tuning shop Buzzworkz, got into Zeds early, as in 1977, and he’s been immersed in them ever since. He is not, as he makes clear, a stickler for originality, but he fully understands what makes a Zed faster, and what component parts must remain in place for a Zed to stay a Zed: “If you want to be a rivet-counter – fair enough – but that’s not for me. We used to rip them apart, and now a lot of us are putting them back to standard in various ways, which is interesting.
“If you’re into Zeds there are certain things you know you shouldn’t mess with. The tank, the tail, the sidepanels, and the clocks – that’s where the Zedness lies,” he says. And that’s where the Zedness is largely revifified in the current Z900, which, unsurprisingly, is shifting units in its many guises. “I think it’s alright,” says Dave. “It ought to have a twin-shock rear end and more power, but it seems to be selling well like it is. And some of the RS versions are sold out. But I really like what Suzuki are doing with their Vintage Parts thing, and that makes money for them, but Kawasaki don’t seem interested, even though there are probably more Kawasakis being restored now than ever.”
We digress. Back to the original. “I was 15 when they came out,” says Dave. “After Fizzies, and 250s, we all bought Zeds when we were 17 or 18. I paid £950 for my Z1B in 1977. There were about a dozen of us in the Hanworth, Twickenham area [outer West London] and we hung out at the Zippy Bar in Twickenham. We were the Zippy Boys.
“It was the fastest thing on the road in those days. The brakes, which you didn’t realise at the time, were positively dangerous.
Even the twin disc set-up wasn’t much better.
But back then it didn’t cross your mind, we just wanted to go faster, and we all got into drag racing quite early on.
“A few of us got big-bore kits; Action Four pistons, 903 to 1015cc (66 to 70
