What was the first Retro Bike? Such a strong segment in motorcycles had to have begun somewhere, right?. I think most would jump to the conclusion that it was the Triumph Bonneville released in 2001. There was, however, another retro inspired bike that snuck onto the market place a couple of years before that. Maybe to call it a straight retro bike would be wrong, it\u2019s a Neo-Retro, and it\u2019s the Kawasaki ZRX1200R.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What am I on about?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Kawi was first released in 1997 but wasn\u2019t sold in the US market until 1999. Its design was specifically inspired by the street version of Eddie Lawson\u2019s AMA race bike, the KZ1000R. The ZRX1200R was not a straight copy of the 80\u2019s 1000R, but a turn of the millennium version of it. A mix of new and old, Neo-Retro. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In essence, Kawasaki was the first manufacturer to think to themselves; \u201cwhat if we tugged at motorcyclist\u2019s nostalgia?\u201d. You see, since the jet age, design has tried to shoot for the next thing, the future. It wasn\u2019t until recently that companies started to look back. Turns out, like your Dad\u2019s Farrah Fawcett graphic T from 1983, motorcycles reminding us what was popular back then, get consumers excited. This idea went a little over the market\u2019s head at the time, but looking back, I think we can agree that it was the start one of industries top segments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Specs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1999 the ZRX was first released in the US as an 1100cc variant but was quickly replaced in 2001 with the ZRX1200R. The production run of the 1200R was from 2001-2005 in the US, but it was kept alive in the European market until 2007 and was still on sale in Japan until 2016 with added fuel injection an updated gearbox. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was powered by a 1164 cc four-cylinder engine, which screamed out 122 horsepower and 80.7 ft-lb of torque, pushing the bike to at top speed of 147mph. These are segment topping numbers for retro bikes today, and incredible for the time of release. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kawasaki<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>s Retro Present<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Kawi\u2019s retro game has not let up since 1999, with the Z900rs, including the caf\u00e9 version. The Z900RS was at the top of my list for new bikes when I was shopping last spring. I can\u2019t help to think though, that the right choice for me, when shopping for a Kawasaki Retro bike, is to fire up Craigslist, and find a ZRX1200R in Kawi green. You can find a good one for 5K, well worth the occasional carb cleaning. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Jeff Pamer On Retro Bikes What was the first Retro Bike? Such a strong segment in motorcycles had to have begun somewhere, right?. I think most would jump to the conclusion that it was the Triumph Bonneville released in 2001. There was, however, another retro inspired bike that snuck onto the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[7,13,12,11],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inner-motorbike-profile","tag-classic-bikes","tag-inner-motorbike-profile","tag-kawasaki","tag-retro-bikes"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/innermotorbike.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Screen-Shot-2021-01-22-at-9.30.52-AM.png?resize=750%2C489&ssl=1\")
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