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Is this the infamous "New York Steak"?

ancientdad

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The Z1 story is one I never paid much attention to over the years. I found a reference to the NY Steak project, as Kawasaki apparently called it, on Reddit this afternoon and wondered if this poster was telling the truth. I can't find any pictures to verify his story, but there are many accounts out there about Kawasaki's plan to release a 750 four cylinder probably along the same timeline as Honda but they were beaten to the punch so they decided to up the engine size. (I later outran many of them with my first CBX, the most memorable of which was on I-4 on my way back from Bike Week one year against a Z1-R with a female passenger on my bike - 3 times in a row, the guy apparently didn't get the most out of his bike)

Here's the picture I found on Reddit.

5GxRw0A.jpg


The story seems to be backed up by a business called Paintworkz, who shows the bike on this page (7th bike down from the top)

http://www.paintworkz.com/customersZ1photos.html

And here are some links to stories about the project that eventually led to the first Z1, but none with any pictures that validate it being painted like a first year CB750

https://www.motorcyclistonline.com/kawasaki-z1-new-york-steak-cooks-corner/

https://bikereview.com.au/history-kawasaki-legend-z1-900-new-york-steak/

and the Reddit post that led me down this rabbit hole

https://www.reddit.com/r/HondaCB/comments/10en8q5/my_favourite_honda_cb/
 
Very interesting!

I, too, have heard the stories of Honda beating Kawasaki to the punch (could be similar sources) but never seen anything such as your post to back it up. Thanks.
 
Yes that is a common stated story especially on the SOHC forum which is 75% die hard CB750 SOHC enthusiasts over there. I believe it to be correct and would make sense that if your beaten to the punch, why would you build the same sized cc of bike and come to market. That ship had sailed for Kawasaki. Both Suzuki and Kawasaki beat Honda to the punch with both larger bore and DOHC larger motors. It took Honda until 1979 to switch to the DOHC larger bore machines.

I also firmly believe with no substantiated back up that Honda still being a smaller company with limited resources back then, hung onto both the CB750 SOHC and the CB450/500 DOHC models long past their due date. They were developing the GL1000 Goldwing in early 1972/3 along with Honda automotive and their resources were stretched to the limit. The Goldwing was a milestone bike for Honda too, released in 1975 as the GL1000 and has been the longest lived Honda model to date. The Kawasaki KZ1000 was the only faster production bike that year, as the early Goldwings didn't know where they fit into the motorcycle world.

Riders quickly realized how comfortable and adaptable they were, so by 1980 they began morphing from the standard nake wing to the super slab tupperware cruisers. The Interstate and in 1982 the addition of the Aspencade model. Craig Vetter and other had paved the way on the early GL1000 models with tons of aftermarket pieces available, that Honda finally took notice of and built their own adaptations.
 
"The Goldwing was a milestone bike for Honda too, released in 1975 as the GL1000 and has been the longest lived Honda model to date. "

Doesn't that accolade belong to the Cub/Super Cub? August 1958 to present.;)
 
Forgot all about that one:lol: !! Not sure if it is still available in Canada now, yet your correct it is certainly the largest number of units produced of any model from Honda and long running.

Good catch.

I just checked and no cub or super cub in Canada since 2019. Yet over 100 million units sold worldwide since 1958.
 
The Kawasaki KZ1000 was the only faster production bike that year, as the early Goldwings didn't know where they fit into the motorcycle world.

I street-raced a few Z1s and KZ900s back when I had my first Gold Wing and if I got a fair, even start (first gear punch rolling start) I could stay right with the 900 up to 100 mph. The GW wasn't slow for its size (horsepower figures weren't released for it back then but working at my last Honda shop in '75 I learned from inside sources it was rated at 96 crankshaft hp) but with a fragile transmission (long shafts flexed too much) you couldn't get too vigorous with it. For a time I had a 4.10 gear set in the final drive gear (rear end) and a Kerker 4-1 on it and I'd have taken on any 1000 of the day with it so equipped. Unfortunately the aftermarket gear set was not reliable under high stress situations and it shed a tooth and a half during a 3rd gear powershift one day less than 100 miles into use, so it went back to the 3.50 gear it came with. The only thing I didn't do with it was put a set of 400F or 550F bars on it and I should have, the stock tall bars were just too high for the riding I did with it.
 
. . . I just checked and no cub or super cub in Canada since 2019. . .

Not wishing to take this too far off topic, but do you have any idea whether the lack of import might be due to weather (and it can't be too much colder than UK:biggrin:) or better transport systems that negate the use of 'commuter' bikes?
 
Not wishing to take this too far off topic, but do you have any idea whether the lack of import might be due to weather (and it can't be too much colder than UK:biggrin:) or better transport systems that negate the use of 'commuter' bikes?

I have no idea per se. Yet Canada is such a large country that possibly in large cities it may make sense to have as a commuter, yet Honda has the Grom? for that and they seem to be popular in cities and get modified a lot. We are a small population of 35M, so it just may not be a bike that is viable for Honda anymore in this country.

I prefer the larger bikes to ride too, as with 80 KPH back roads that are really 90-100 KPH in reality. The smaller CB350/450 bikes even though midsized are sketchy to ride without a tail gaiter on your fender if your doing the speed limit.
 
I street-raced a few Z1s and KZ900s back when I had my first Gold Wing and if I got a fair, even start (first gear punch rolling start) I could stay right with the 900 up to 100 mph. The GW wasn't slow for its size (horsepower figures weren't released for it back then but working at my last Honda shop in '75 I learned from inside sources it was rated at 96 crankshaft hp) but with a fragile transmission (long shafts flexed too much) you couldn't get too vigorous with it. For a time I had a 4.10 gear set in the final drive gear (rear end) and a Kerker 4-1 on it and I'd have taken on any 1000 of the day with it so equipped. Unfortunately the aftermarket gear set was not reliable under high stress situations and it shed a tooth and a half during a 3rd gear powershift one day less than 100 miles into use, so it went back to the 3.50 gear it came with. The only thing I didn't do with it was put a set of 400F or 550F bars on it and I should have, the stock tall bars were just too high for the riding I did with it.


I restored a 1976 Bicentennial Edition GL1000 about 8 years ago and it was really fast as you noted once on the roll. If you pinned it rolling along at 40 MPH it just flew and the seat of the pants feel was great. The early 1975-77 models had hotter cams with more lift and duration and a higher red line at 8500 RPM. In 1978 Honda revised the tuning for a more sedate touring style motor and lowered the red line. Totally different motor feel with more lower end and mid range power, so not the same pull on the top end anymore.




P1040378.jpg P1040366.jpg P1040373.jpg P1040381.jpg P1040385.jpg
 
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I've just been reading the 25th anniversary edition book (that came with a new Goldwing in 1995), it's where we get a lot of the history for the GL1000 and later Goldwings.

There was a lot of discussion at Honda about introducing a new big bike that was not faster than the competition in the same engine size. The book spins it as an insistence that it just needed better roll-on midrange power, even from the start. (IIRC it could run mid-12's in the 1/4 mile (impressive enough) and then got slower but with more midrange torque a few years later.) I think this might be spin, as they didn't really see it as the ultimate tourer until they saw what Vetter and owners were doing with it. I think they had a lot invested in it and decided to just introduce it anyway... on the other hand it was sort of like the water-cooled GX500/GL500, which was not a world beater in ANY performance metric... but they designed and sold it anyway. So it may have been a case of Honda creating a new market, like: "nobody makes a big water-cooled bike, let's see what happens".

Apparently Vetter secretly was involved in the design of the early Honda fairings. After his death, it came out that he had original molds for multiple big-name Japanese manufacturers stashed away. Not sure if the Goldwing is included in that.

And oh yeah, beautiful GL, Flyin900!
 
Interesting info from a book that would be limited mostly to GW owners unless passed on to the next buyer (and many kept their owner's manuals and toolkits, though I never did - I even gave my CL450K4 warranty card to the guy who bought it because it was still under the 6 month, 6000 mil;e coverage of the day). I always thought the early GWs got a bad rap for being slow, in large part I believe just because of their looks and engine design. I enjoyed both of mine and the only reason I ever got rid of both of them was the transmission shafts/gears were just not up to the kind of riding I liked to do then (well, still do actually). It is said the later engines had beefier transmissions and could be thrashed harder without destroying gear teeth, but by that point they were far more designed to have touring parts attached from the factory so stripping them down wouldn't look the same. And then Honda made the shaft-driven V4 line so I had a VF1100S, which did all I liked to do and handled the hammering with ease.
 
. . . I even gave my CL450K4 warranty card to the guy who bought it because it was still under the 6 month, 6000 mile coverage of the day). . .

Dang, I wish more would do that.

Very frustrating as an enthusiast to purchase a glamour bike or car from a second or third owner only to find the service book and often the owner's manual have been 'souvenired' by the original owner.:angry:
 
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