Kawasaki Z650

The Kawasaki Z650, sold in North America as the KZ650, was a 652 cc four-cylinder standard motorcycle built by Kawasaki from 1976 until 1983. It was a middleweight version of the 900 cc Z900 of the time and is cited as an example of the Universal Japanese Motorcycle. Its air-cooled, four-stroke, double-overhead-camshaft engine sat across the frame with two valves per cylinder and a five-speed gearbox, and it used a plain-bearing crankshaft with a HyVo chain primary drive rather than the Z1's gear drive. Ben Inamura led the project and designed the engine. Six US-specification machines were air-shipped from the Akashi works to the UK distributor in late 1976 for press tests ahead of the London Motorcycle Show. Over seven years it gained a rear disc brake, electronic ignition, larger carburettors and a self-adjusting cam chain tensioner, before the GPZ models surpassed it after 1983.