1973 Superbike Shootout

[OldF7Guy_imp]

I know some of you have seen this but I thought it was an interesting read since most of us remember these bikes. Its also interesting to see how far we have come along and how the CB11 compares against what were once the king of the hills. I remember the Kaw 2 smoke triples well but always though of the mighty Z1 as the king of kings. Anyway, its fun reading during a long winter.

http://www.kawtriple.com/mraxl/articles/1973 Superbikes/superbikes1.htm

 

[CB4ME_imp]

I know some of you have seen this but I thought it was an interesting read since most of us remember these bikes. Its also interesting to see how far we have come along and how the CB11 compares against what were once the king of the hills. I remember the Kaw 2 smoke triples well but always though of the mighty Z1 as the king of kings. Anyway, its fun reading during a long winter.

http://www.kawtriple.com/mraxl/articles/1973 Superbikes/superbikes1.htm

Nice Find. Thanks for sharing.

 

[the Ferret]

What a great read. Thanks for posting that.

Amazing how good that makes the CB 1100 look.

 

[davidsargee_imp]

Awesome read! Thanks OldF7Guy! :beerchug:

I remember reading this article when it came out, over and over. I was a teenager then, and was riding my trusty Yamaha 175, but I was about to move up, and was struggling to decide, and save money, for a big bike.

"The Mach IV is the quickest, most intense; most single-purpose street machine ever built for general consumption, a streaming, purple-eyed monster that does everything with a shriek and whose only God is performance. Lay at its feet the hottest production vehicle you can name—two wheeled or four—and the Mach IV will chuckle, snort, and eat it alive. Its limitations are exactly as you would suspect: the engine makes a lot of racket, it doesn’t have much of a reputation for gas economy, and you have to know what you are doing to live with it in comfort." Cycle World Magazine, 1973

My best friend was riding a Kawi H2-750 at this time, I rode that bike regularly, and it was everything the magazine said. That bike foamed at the mouth, and was like a rabid bull, but soooo much fun! You absolutely had to know how to handle it, or it would dump you, it wheelied without so much as a thought, up to and including third gear.

My above mentioned friend moved on to a '73 model Z1, and I bought the H-2. So I have fond memories of both of these bikes.

Eventually, my friend's Z-1 got an American TurboPak turbocharging kit, a fiberglass mono body, (remember those?), and with a slick and wheelie bar recorded a 9.8 second et with a terminal speed of 148mph at Hallsville drag strip in East Texas. That was smoking in 1976.

My trusty H2 sported ported and polished heads by Denco, as well as Denco expansion chambers, big Mikuni carbs, velocity stacks, a slick and wheelie bar and turned in 11.3 et @119mph.

Ahh, those were the days.

I think that one reason I appreciate my CB1100 is because it dovetails nicely with those Kawi Z-1s in most every way, and is more refined. But they truly do a lot of things very well, and the performance is a little better. In 1973 our CB's would have been king of the hill!

 

[the Ferret]

Yep, but in todays 415 pound, 180 horsepower, 9 second quarter mile times its a pussy cat lol.

I don't think anyone could have envisioned how far motorcycles would go, how light, how fast, how reliable. Simply amazing. I mean how far can we go from here?

I love at the end of the story where every mfg came and picked up their basket of parts and hauled them off but the Honda guys put the 750 back together in 2 hours, started it up and rode it home. That was great!

I was also surprised how far the mighty CB 750 had fallen in such a short time. Earth shattering in 1969. Also ran in 1973. Yet Honda continued with this same motor for another 5 years before bringing out a slightly better dohc model in 1979.

 

[Pauley]

Great article, thanks for sharing. I love reading this kind of stuff.

 

[davidsargee_imp]

Yep, but in todays 415 pound, 180 horsepower, 9 second quarter mile times its a pussy cat lol.

I don't think anyone could have envisioned how far motorcycles would go, how light, how fast, how reliable. Simply amazing. I mean how far can we go from here?

I love at the end of the story where every mfg came and picked up their basket of parts and hauled them off but the Honda guys put the 750 back together in 2 hours, started it up and rode it home. That was great!

I was also surprised how far the mighty CB 750 had fallen in such a short time. Earth shattering in 1969. Also ran in 1973. Yet Honda continued with this same motor for another 5 years before bringing out a slightly better dohc model in 1979.

Back then we would have never dreamed that showroom stock superbikes would ever perform as they do now, not in a million years. However, I really believe that we may have seen the apex in performance, these new bikes are just too fast now, at least for the street. We ran our heavily modded bikes at the strip back then, (and on the occasional back road), but even then, the stock versions of a "superbike" were more than adequate for street use. I lost 3 friends to stupidity at triple digit speeds on the highways in the 70s and 80s.

I always saw the CB750 a lot the same way as I see the CB1100 now, there were faster bikes even when it first came out, (Kawi H1 500, Triumph Trident, etc.), but the CB750 was the most polished, most refined bike of it's day, it did all of the other things better than even the Kawi H2 750. It was easier to ride than the H1 or H2 by a long shot, and offered pretty good performance. I don't think the CB750 ever broke into the 12 second quarter mile, at least not stock, but that was the trade off for the refined character of the bike.

I felt that the Z-1 is the bike that relegated the CB750 to an also ran, in fact, when they finally chose to alter the CB it was with alterations that already existed in the Z-1, (dohc, etc.).

BTW, does anyone else see the resemblance of the CB1100 motor to that of the Z-1? Or is it just me?

Cheers :beerchug:

 

[the Ferret]

See post 10 for a direct comparison.

Another older couple and a younger one

Ive often said the CB 1100 reminds me more of my 77 KZ 1000 than any other motorcycle, the 14 EX model even more so with its spoke wheels and 4 into 2 exhaust. Funny thing is I put Lester Mags on my KZ 1000 which look amazingly similar to the mag wheels on the CB 1100.

Heres another discussion

Compared to the classics .....

 

[davidsargee_imp]

Awesome,

And congrats on the marriage, you are a blessed man. Mine won't get near the bike.

One of my good buddies had a red KZ-1000 just like yours, awesome bike.

Honda nailed our demographic with the CB1100, didn't they?

BTW, when I was riding the H2, my car was a 71 GTO, :beerchug:.

 

[the Ferret]

My wife loves riding. This last year has been hard as she was not able to ride. She had a hip replacement 4 1/2 weeks ago with her goal to be able to get back on the bike again. Yesterday we went out the the garage and she was able to climb onto the ST for the first time this year. She said shes not where she wants to be yet, but she is encouraged that she will be able to ride next year.

 

[OldF7Guy_imp]

Yep, but in todays 415 pound, 180 horsepower, 9 second quarter mile times its a pussy cat lol.

I don't think anyone could have envisioned how far motorcycles would go, how light, how fast, how reliable. Simply amazing. I mean how far can we go from here?

I love at the end of the story where every mfg came and picked up their basket of parts and hauled them off but the Honda guys put the 750 back together in 2 hours, started it up and rode it home. That was great!

I was also surprised how far the mighty CB 750 had fallen in such a short time. Earth shattering in 1969. Also ran in 1973. Yet Honda continued with this same motor for another 5 years before bringing out a slightly better dohc model in 1979.

I have always felt Honda would err on the side or reliability instead of all out performance. Seems like they have always been like this or at least in my mind anyway. Kawasaki always seem to push performance more to the limit.

 

[davidsargee_imp]

My wife loves riding. This last year has been hard as she was not able to ride. She had a hip replacement 4 1/2 weeks ago with her goal to be able to get back on the bike again. Yesterday we went out the the garage and she was able to climb onto the ST for the first time this year. She said shes not where she wants to be yet, but she is encouraged that she will be able to ride next year.

Sounds like a trooper! I bet she will be.

 

[davidsargee_imp]

Yep, but in todays 415 pound, 180 horsepower, 9 second quarter mile times its a pussy cat lol.

I don't think anyone could have envisioned how far motorcycles would go, how light, how fast, how reliable. Simply amazing. I mean how far can we go from here?

I love at the end of the story where every mfg came and picked up their basket of parts and hauled them off but the Honda guys put the 750 back together in 2 hours, started it up and rode it home. That was great!

I was also surprised how far the mighty CB 750 had fallen in such a short time. Earth shattering in 1969. Also ran in 1973. Yet Honda continued with this same motor for another 5 years before bringing out a slightly better dohc model in 1979.

I have always felt Honda would err on the side or reliability instead of all out performance. Seems like they have always been like this or at least in my mind anyway. Kawasaki always seem to push performance more to the limit.

I agree, I have always been a fan of Kawasaki, I've owned Kawis and Hondas. But the Honda's always seem to be a little more "solid" than the Kawis. Kawasaki stakes their name and brand on performance, at all costs.

It was really evident in those early bikes, the H1 and H2 were absolute terrors in their time, but you had to be a good rider to enjoy the performance, or you could end up in a wheelchair. Even the mighty Z-1, which was a great all around bike, had it's flaw. The rear shocks, as mentioned in the article, would heat up and cause lots of problems.

The Z-1 was infamous for a speed wobble that occurred at around 120 mph, I experienced one, it was not any fun, probably was the scariest moment of my motorcycling career.

 

[the Ferret]

Ive been on the receiving end of a couple speed wobbles. Some get so violent they rip the bars from your hands. Got to say going thru one is not as bad as having to come back thru one, but neither way is a fun way to spend an afternoon, and everyone make you question riding in the first place.

 

[davidsargee_imp]

Ive been on the receiving end of a couple speed wobbles. Some get so violent they rip the bars from your hands. Got to say going thru one is not as bad as having to come back thru one, but neither way is a fun way to spend an afternoon, and everyone make you question riding in the first place.

Yes it does, there is a highway close to where I grew up, that was practically abandoned when a freeway came thru about 30 years ago. Just north of town there is a stretch that is straight as an arrow for about 5 miles, we used to "test" some of our mods on that stretch of road. There was never any traffic, and if you were as dumb as we were back then, you could really find out what your bike/car would do.

My buddie had just installed a 4 into 1 exhaust on his Z-1, and urged me to check it out, (we were always riding each other's bikes). The Z-1 and I were travelling at around 120 when the wobble began. I had never before experienced a speed wobble and I did absolutely the wrong thing, I let off the gas, and the wobble got worse. I coasted until the wobble finally stopped, at which time I realized I was going to have to change my drawers . It was a while before I got up to that kind of speed again, and never on the Z-1.

 

[GoldOxide_imp]

Yep, but in todays 415 pound, 180 horsepower, 9 second quarter mile times its a pussy cat lol.

I don't think anyone could have envisioned how far motorcycles would go, how light, how fast, how reliable. Simply amazing. I mean how far can we go from here?

I love at the end of the story where every mfg came and picked up their basket of parts and hauled them off but the Honda guys put the 750 back together in 2 hours, started it up and rode it home. That was great!

I was also surprised how far the mighty CB 750 had fallen in such a short time. Earth shattering in 1969. Also ran in 1973. Yet Honda continued with this same motor for another 5 years before bringing out a slightly better dohc model in 1979.

Bike tech-innovation decelerated quite a bit throughout the late 80's and much of the 90's. By '85 most sport production big bore did sub-10.9 second quarters and weighed in at 600 lbs before gas and rider. After the same time cars caught up and passed by in terms of innovation. Hairs can almost be split: Carbs vs. fuel injection, old-school frames vs. lightweight frames, no emission restriction vs. emission restriction. I am wondering if the 1 or so second differential is lost mostly in the "noise" of innovation. Sure, more power is typically faster, but throughout history that has always been the case. A naturally aspirated fossil burning engine has a theoretical limit of performance for a given displacement. The next quantum generation will have to do with electric propulsion and the profile algorithms. Conversely, the power will remain maybe the same, but range will be improved with fossil burning models. Arguably, the CB1100 has pretty good economy for its engine displacement. My '84 CB750 was a pig on gas - in comparison.

 

[GoldOxide_imp]

Yep, but in todays 415 pound, 180 horsepower, 9 second quarter mile times its a pussy cat lol.

I don't think anyone could have envisioned how far motorcycles would go, how light, how fast, how reliable. Simply amazing. I mean how far can we go from here?

I love at the end of the story where every mfg came and picked up their basket of parts and hauled them off but the Honda guys put the 750 back together in 2 hours, started it up and rode it home. That was great!

I was also surprised how far the mighty CB 750 had fallen in such a short time. Earth shattering in 1969. Also ran in 1973. Yet Honda continued with this same motor for another 5 years before bringing out a slightly better dohc model in 1979.

So to take the statement out-of-context, there is this far ...