1998 Kawasaki GPZ500S

Lets face it the letters GPZ do one of two things to you, you either go all misty eyed and remember the 80’s when Kawasaki produced some of the baddest bikes around. Or you burst out laughing and think are bikes like that still made?

Either way lets get a handle on the situation and set the record straight.

When it was first launched the GPZ500s was like the Fazer of today it

represented a barrel of laughs for the cost of a pint! Of course their were people back then who didn’t like it, but hey you can’t please everyone all of the time. This formula of producing a budget bike that could offer people a taste of real biking without the taste of the bank managers backside in order to get it has done Kawasaki proud. So much so that the 500s is still available buy new today.

OK so whats it like to ride (if you already haven’t tried one)? The answer surprisingly good. Having its roots well and truly stuck in the 80’s doesn’t mean that the bike has suffered, far from it.

Throwing your leg over and seating yourself on its comfy if a little narrow seat you are instantly placed in a dilemma am I riding a retro or sportsbike. And the conclusion I came to was both. All was revealed after pushing that little black go button and slipping it into first with a satisfying ‘clunk’ and pulling away into the wild blue yonder. At low speed around town and filtering through heavy traffic the semi-upright riding position lended itself superbly to the job at hand and proved its commuter reputation to be one well deserved. Out on the open road and things are of a pretty neutral nature and going up the gearbox is a hassle free experience, no sore toes here.

Time to give it some beans and this is where modern bikers have their biggest gripe, it takes a while for the performance to appear and only after around 7500rpm do things become interesting and the bike is kick started forward right to the end of the redline, in true free reving parallel twin style. OK it doesn’t give R1 style willy shrivelling

acceleration but it kicks out a fair amount of grunt when compared to its rivals like its brother the retro ER and Honda’s CB500 and Suzuki’s GS500.

The riding position comes in again here as its so easy to tuck yourself

behind the screen and pretend you’re caning a superbike round brand’s. Many owners like to fit a flip screen to gain more protection from the elements and enable more up-right riding at high speeds and on this particular one (mine own machine) there is one, joy!. With your head down in the bubble of clean, noiseless air you get an extra buzz from the throaty roar of the motad nexxus system, a welcome edition from the standard twin pipe arrangement which made it sound like someone was franticly blowing on an empty peashooter. In the corners it responds competently and gives no major drama’s. However, throw it in too hard and too fast and you’ll be rewarded with a free lesson on how to tie knots in motorcycles. But you have to bear in mind its design hasn’t changed in nearly 20 years, so suspension tweaking isn’t an option.

After riding this 500 for a little over a year now I’ve found no real fault with it. It has performed superbly and done every I asked of it, thus exceeding any expectations I had of it.

So the next time you see or hear the letters GPZ and 500s after it don’t burst out laughing, instead try and blag a ride on one and see what this little 80’s gem has to offer.