kawasaki kz1000 police bikes

Hey, am i the only one that thinks the kz police bikes might be cool to have. Have seen a few for sale lately, not serious enough to get rid of my fj1200 for one... just wondering what the opinion was....

I had a used one back in 98, it was a 92 or 91 I think? paid 1200 at a sealed bid acution? It ran fine, they scratched it up removing the decals and it need some electral work - they cut out all the cop shit. Someone stole the side plates that say "police special" one day when it was parked at work. That sucked but the bike was OK. Sold it for the same I paid for it a year later and think I could have got more. It had to go, I did not have much room for multiple bikes back then. Would have kept it now. It had what I called bullet speed - it would smooth out around 70 MPH or so and just humm along. It wanted to go fast.

Oh yea, and people think your the fuzz.

...my very first street bike was a 1980 KZ1000, got it for a graduation present. Nice bike. The Police interceptor I believe are hopped up a bit. I have a good set of KZ1000 PI shocks....if you ever make the purchase.

From the Atlanta PD a few years ago...


When I researched the book, the motor cops said the Kawi was a good high performance traffic law enforcement vehicle, but it couldn't match the HD for comfort (especially on the freeway). A lot of that went out the window when the R1150RT-P BMW came on the scene. It had a feature most motor officers really liked: ABS. That came later on the HD; it never made it onto the Kawi. Kawasaki did have run-flat tires, which were kind of a cool safety feature. Kawasaki gradually faded from the scene, but you still see a lot of KZ1000P bikes around. Kawi was going to come out with a big V-twin police bike based on the Vulcan, but they killed that, too. I've never owned a KZ1000P, but I always thought it would be kind of cool to do so.

You should consider a 1977 Goose "Special."

hwww.madmaxmovies.com/cars/madmax/Goose/index.html



(www.flickr.com/photos/42027576@N00/2536930383)

Our local PD has auctioned a bunch of them over the years, and I have met several guys that own them. They all seem pretty happy with the bikes, and despite having a bunch of miles on them, the KZPs seem to hold up well.

I have an '02, and several friends that have 'em as well.

Engines are bulletproof. They handle well at low speeds. With stock sprockets they will buzz a lot at freeway speeds. The rims mean that tire profiles will be relatively skinny. We've found that Pirelli Demon Sport tires seem to work well.

Whatever you do, DITCH the OEM run-flats. In addition to being stupefyingly expensive (like $400 each), they are *HORRID*. Zero grip and the profile is almost car-like. If you wish to continue living, you will file-13 these worthless marbles masquerading as tires.

Ergos are actually pretty good. Better than the ST, not quite as good as the full-dresser HD. You can ride a long time without too much strain.

The tanks are just silly small. Reserve comes up at 2.9 gallons, and you'll not be getting better than 40mpg.

The pre-'02-05 models used 630 chains, and the '02-'05s use 530.

The crash bars are highly durable. I have extensively tested them.

Clutches are a 10-minute job, and you don't even have to drain the oil. Flip it over on the left crash bars, pull the clutch cover, replace, zip it back up.

I wanted to get one...but I opted for the civilian model.



It has the same "J" 998cc engine as the police bikes (82-2005?). And when I got it, it only had 14,000 on the odo, try to find a KzP with that!

But as mentioned, you should really go for the Goose "Special" above.

I used to work on the CHP's RT-Ps. Sometimes the officer would hang out and b.s. while I was working. They all really liked the BMW but said that the Kawasaki was the best for abuse, riding over curbs, offroad etc. One of the other mechanics had worked at a Kawasaki dealer and I recall him saying that the KZ100P usually needed a valve job at about 24k miles.

The KZ1000P was detuned by about 10 HP from the KZ1000 in the early 80's...about 2 years or so after the first release due to crashes.
Totally bulletproof, I beat the crap out of a 89 for four years but the first engine didn't count as it spun a compression ring (don't know how though). Ended up with my partners engine after he got run over and that one suffered abuse much better.
Thanks Kawasaki, that kept me from cranking on my K100RS on the weekends since all my stress was already relieved.
BTW the 80's and 90's versions have a nice trait of backfiring nice and loudly if you switch off the kill switch, crank the throttle open and closed, and then switch back on. Scares the crap out of unsuspecting fringe citizens.Easier than getting the ticket book out.

I retired from a PD that used these bikes for years. Those bikes had the ever lovin shit run out of them, and seemed to hold up to all of it. Most were eventually crashed out, but a few are still there, just worn out (I'm talking over 100K). The motorguys I knew loved them because of the absolute abuse they put on them and they still ran fine . Now they primarily ride HD, but a few of the guys wished they still had the KZ because they were such good quality bikes and ran forever.

iw as in atlanta last year and a group of motocops stopped to eat at the pub we were in. all hd's except for a tattered kz. it was either a trainer or a spare, but she still wore full colors. i went out of my way to go outside and admire her. ive got a pic at the house somewhere, ill try and find it to post.

I think I've got a little more on that I think on this page:

http://users.crocker.com/~mwilliams/KZP.htm

After talking with a pile of old time KZP motorcops, I'm convinced that "crashing" that they attributed to the bike was nothing more than thinning the herd of people who were used to riding tractors (Guzzis and HD's) as LEO's who couldn't adapt to the faster time constants. I've got two of them and had the police training from guys who go back to the first year of the C model... they've pretty skeptical that the "crashes" were real and simply guys who couldn't ride a bike with a higher twitch factor closing ranks and trying to sould like experts instead of just riders who couldn't adapt.

I have two and ride regularly with local motor officers. No way can an HD or BMW stay with a KZP in tight urban settings with imperfect surfaces. It would be nice if you could bo more than 110 miles on a tank though, and if they didn't glue the fricking slides to the diaphragms... alcohol-based gas is going to make for some very expensive carb repairs down the road.

Clutches are a 10-minute job, and you don't even have to drain the oil. Flip it over on the left crash bars, pull the clutch cover, replace, zip it back up.
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I have been pulled over by many Kawi PD's, 'bout 75% ticket ratio. They handle good. Sound good...whirrrrrrrr. Props to the PD, most of the time I asked for it. Said cops where poker face but usually cool and skilled riders. Now I want one.<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

Something you might not know - they were built in Lincoln, Nebraska

The KZP was definitely a snappy bike. Excellent road feel. I had to test a HD one time and, of course, something broke after about an hour. I had to take it to the dealer for repair...a 20 minute freeway run. I couldn't figure out why traffic was going so slow on the freeway. Then I looked at the speedo and I'm doing 90. Big twin=smooth on freeway. Hated the HD on the city streets though. Hated the KZP on the freeway if I had to run more than 15 minutes but loved it on city streets. I had a mechanic with a sense of humor and he snuck a clutch kit of some sort in on me and suddenly I'm lofting the front tire on a 600+ lb bike. We always tossed the run flats as quickly as we could.
That said, I have a r1100rt that does both fairly well. Not the same road feel but good enough and is nice on the freeway without a rubber mounted set of bars.

They don't have any kz1000p listed but I saw a mess of them being hauled out of city hall east yesterday. I would not be surprised to see a pallet or two of NOS parts. It's rainy which will keep much of crazy bidding 'get rich by buying at auction' folks away. I don't have the time to go but if your into old kaw, I would not be surprised if you find some steals at this auction.

-Duck

What happened? Why are they no longer in production?

emissions and lack of ABS

I can't think of a more perfect bike for a mid length commute.
Comfortable, Easy to ride, bullet proof
And best of all it's like parting the red sea when you are on one.

However don't do anything stupid on one
The LEO's I know don't so much like "fake" cops

There's lots of "escort" riders riding round Los Angles with jodhpurs and gold half helmets,
they all seem to ride ex kzp motors
Of course the "tell" is the amber or clear lights on each side of the fairing.

Loved mine. Had it for maybe 3 years. Rode all over the place. Handled pretty good for a big old bike with touring ergonomics. Plenty fast if you're not a sport bike guy. Reasonable milage, cheap tires (spitfires IIRC) but disappointing range. Saddle bags were kinda small, so I mounted ammo cans.

Mine was beat, but always ran fine, got me there & back. Was going to go through it completely & paint it two tone red & black... The numbers didn't work. I bought a 98 Concours instead, which is another great story.....

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