I've wanted to buy my old Turbo Zed back for awhile, as its owned by a friend. He started to restore / modify it but hasn't been able to do much with it for a few years. Like me he has other bikes that need work, and there's only so much time and money he can devote to his projects. So today I bought it back, though its now in pieces.
The bike was built in the mid eighties as a road legal drag bike.. I'm told by the original owner that it was one of the fastest such bikes of the time.
Fast forward twenty years, the poor Zed had been left languishing in a damp shed when I saw it, bought it and brought it home. The engine was stripped and found to have bent conrod and other serious problems.
My original plan ten years ago, was to restore it back to its turbocharged glory. But as ever life gets in the way and I sold it on to my friend who had other plans for the old Zed.
The turbo has long gone, as have the lightweight wheels, forks, frame an bodywork! But even so the engine is still something special. It has a Orient Express big block which allows it to be take a set of big pistons, taking the engine from 1000cc up to 1400cc. Oh and it also had homemade Nitrous Oxide injection too... that was super dodgy so it wont be used.
The good news is that the bike comes with a different Z frame, that's been braced and strengthened and modified to take wider modern wheels, its even powder coated. In place of the classic Z1 bodywork, it comes with a mint set of bodywork from a late seventies Z1000 Mk2, along with a swingarm and forks from a later ZXR1200.
I'm still thinking about which way to take the Zed... build it as a road bike, turbo it, or maybe go for broke and build a 'show bike' with lots of high end parts... inspired by the Japanese custom house ''Sanctuary RCM'' Google them they are v impressive bikes.
How it looked when I bought it more than ten years ago..
The bike was built in the mid eighties as a road legal drag bike.. I'm told by the original owner that it was one of the fastest such bikes of the time.
Fast forward twenty years, the poor Zed had been left languishing in a damp shed when I saw it, bought it and brought it home. The engine was stripped and found to have bent conrod and other serious problems.
My original plan ten years ago, was to restore it back to its turbocharged glory. But as ever life gets in the way and I sold it on to my friend who had other plans for the old Zed.
The turbo has long gone, as have the lightweight wheels, forks, frame an bodywork! But even so the engine is still something special. It has a Orient Express big block which allows it to be take a set of big pistons, taking the engine from 1000cc up to 1400cc. Oh and it also had homemade Nitrous Oxide injection too... that was super dodgy so it wont be used.
The good news is that the bike comes with a different Z frame, that's been braced and strengthened and modified to take wider modern wheels, its even powder coated. In place of the classic Z1 bodywork, it comes with a mint set of bodywork from a late seventies Z1000 Mk2, along with a swingarm and forks from a later ZXR1200.
I'm still thinking about which way to take the Zed... build it as a road bike, turbo it, or maybe go for broke and build a 'show bike' with lots of high end parts... inspired by the Japanese custom house ''Sanctuary RCM'' Google them they are v impressive bikes.
How it looked when I bought it more than ten years ago..
