I had a couple of buddies that had Z1R's in the late 70's and early 80's and the one thing I remember about them was that the frames were a little flimsy, especially around the steering head. I remember meeting a guy that had a welder beef up around the steering head under the gas tank .You couldn't even see it but the owner said it totally transformed the bike.I know another guy that bought a KZ1000 in 1978 just before the Z1R Turbo came out and he lusted after it.He got Barr Hodgeson, who use to own a Kawasaki dealership atthe time, to order him the exact same turbo set up for his bike. To make a long story short, this guy use to go into the shop to see if his turbo was in every week and it never was.This was before the internet and nothing happened fast back then. So one day Barr is feeling sorry for this kid and offers to take him for a ride on his Z1R-TC.The guy told me when he got off the back of that bike he was so scared he wanted to cancel the order for the turbo but didn't have the nerve after hounding Barr for so long.He finally got it and never installed it. The last time I saw him five years ago, he still had that turbo sitting in it's original packaging in his basement. I use to laugh my *** off everytime he told the story about that turbo.
