Each week Insidebikes’ resident wheeler dealer checks out some of the bikes that are catching his eye on the internet auction sites. This week he’s gone green and found an example of one of the 1990s’ most iconic motorcycles, the Kawasaki ZX-7R.
There’s something special about a Kawasaki that’s finished off with a green meanie paint job. The lime green paint is Kawasaki’s official racing colour and adds a high degree of coolness to any Kawasaki, especially the sporty ones.
When the ZX-7R arrived in 1995, the original P1 model wasn’t too much more than a revamped ZXR750L, although the four stroke water cooled engine was reputed to deliver 123bhp, phat stats for the day.
Other manufacturers continued to fiddle with their three quarter litre sports bikes, but for Kawasaki this was their last roll of the dice, although we didn’t know it at the time. The ZX-7R lived on in the Kawasaki range until 2003, in the shadow of the Suzuki GSX-R750 and a new generation of 1000cc sports bikes. If you fancy one of these old school race replicas there’s plenty of them on the used bike market, this means prices are still fairly sensible for an emerging classic that had plenty of world superbike racing credentials and which remains a good looker today.
The offering that we’ve singled out is mix of sweet and sour. The good points are that it’s a late model, with a low mileage of only 21,707 miles and it’s in the right colour too. It’s also mostly standard, which appeals to more potential buyers than a bike that’s been fitted with bad taste extras, of which there’s plenty on the market.
Visually there’s little to grumble about, the only thing that piddles on the parade is the fact the bike carries a Cat D marker, before you get too nervous this doesn’t always mean that it’s been up a tree when a previous owner ran out of talent. Certainly it has had an insurance claim about it at some time, and been declared beyond economical repair. Bikes declared Category D write offs are frequently returned to the road in excellent condition using second hand parts, so it’s always worth making a phone call, talk to seller, they can usually tell you more about the history of the bike.
At £2,595 it’s a lot of bike for the money, it’s also a cool bike in its own right.
What to look for when buying a Kawasaki ZX-7R.
- Frames can suffer heavy damage when crashed. Those beefy upside down forks are seriously strong and can end up remaining straight in front end accident, instead the frame absorbs the bump.
- The ZX-7R first arrived during the parallel import wars, non UK bikes often produce less power than an official UK machine.
- There’s no shortage of used parts creaking on the shelves of bike breakers. Original exhaust downpipes rotted fast, and original shocks will be knackered by now.
- Tokico six pots can cause no end of hassles, a dragging caliper will also shorten the life of the brake disc.
See this example on sale here: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F223177763307
