Let's look back and remember the muscular Kawasaki ZRX1100/ZRX1200 Part 1

A brief history of Kawasaki's muscle bike from the late '90s, evoking memories of the iconic Eddie Lawson from the '80s.

But what if you threw a retro party and nobody came? In 2019, that would be a silly question. Right now, retro is all the rage, with everyone from BMW to Yamaha donning retro attire over their ultra-modern undergarments.

However, 22 years ago, the idea of intentionally resurrecting the past in a fairly large road-sport motorcycle seemed a bit strange. It was the era of the mighty ZX-11, the GSXR-750 with Ram Air, and the magnificent Ducati 916. Why look back when the present was so bright it required sunglasses?

Ah yes, something was missing from these fantastic plastic rockets. A bit of comfort, perhaps. And city riding convenience, of course. But most critically, these top bikes suffered a bit from their, shall we say, racing image. It didn't quite fit the main target group of affluent middle-aged riders who wanted a powerful and fast bike without shouting about it.

All of this led Kawasaki's management to think: it would be great to have over 100 horsepower in a sport bike, but why not make it appeal to those baby boomers? And while we're at it, make it more insurance-friendly? (In the civilized world, motorcycle insurance depends on many factors such as power, engine displacement, class, owner's age, riding experience, theft popularity, and accident statistics.)

Thus was born the ZRX 1100. Built around a heavily reworked (read: detuned) inline-four water-cooled engine from the ZX-11, it swapped the donor's diagonal aluminum frame and aerodynamically shaped ducts for a traditional steel duplex construction and a square headlight with a small fairing, reminiscent of Eddie Lawson's cult KZ1000R from 1982. Throughout its production, while offered in various color schemes, the most coveted and iconic was always the green with white-blue stripe, unabashedly mimicking Lawson's racing bike and its street version. A replica of a replica, as we noted back then, yet it didn't stop us from naming the ZRX 1100 the best used bike of 2010.

And rightly so. But even if Kawasaki's idea of a replica of a replica wasn't entirely convincing, the execution itself was. In May 1999, we pitted the ZRX 1100 against the Bandit 1200S, which became a truly schizophrenic comparison test—a water-cooled bike masquerading as a true old-school UJM (Universal Japanese Motorcycle) versus an air-cooled UJM dressed lightly as a sportbike. Surprisingly, both contenders performed nearly equally in all respects, but we awarded the victory to the big green machine purely for its looks. Kawasaki built the best classic since classics were classics.

To the layman, one might ask why not leave ZRX1100 as it was and definitely prehistoric compared to the Bandit 1200, but the following year the lizard-like Suzuki got an update. Kawasaki, in turn, had an answer by 2002—ZRX1200. With an increased engine displacement by 112cc, a wider rear wheel, reworked and strengthened swingarm, and various improvements in transmission and suspension, this powerful retro version promised to dispel all doubts about its viability.

The ZRX1200R proved faster than its predecessor in our test, covering the quarter-mile in 10.85 seconds at 201.1 km/h at the finish. Referring to Lawson's original replica, we said then that "the original never rode half as cool as the modern interpretation. It had a very cool package hidden beneath its resonant exterior. And it had one of the greatest motorcycle engines."