[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Zeke

That one line about "the smooth steady RPM's purring through the entire power bank" is a laugh and a half. "Bank" might be a typo as I would have said band.

Whatever, the thing was docile until you reached around 5000 RPM. If you didn't know and had the throttle twisted back a whole bunch, you were going to be left in the street tumbling behind your crashing bike. It was the opposite of the statement. The thing came on like water rushing passed a broken dam.

IIRC, the gear ratios kept it in the power band above 5K once you got it up there. It was a very good idea to not reach 5K in 1st unless you were ready for it and up on the tank.

The amazing thing to me (as a non motorcycle guy) is that a 12.6 second 1/4 mile time was fast back then. Lots of cars right from the showroom are faster than that now, and most top motorcycles of today would leave that on Kawasaki in the dust.