Max Zed Vroom!

The proof of the pudding is in the eating, right? That’s why we ride a very trick one-owner 1976 Z900 A4 from BuzzWorkz!

- ALAN DOWDS

We’ve all got that one special bike in ourpast, haven’t we? The one we wishedwe’d kept hold of? Maybe it was your first ‘big bike’ after passing your test, or something weird like a big two-stroke or a factory turbo, which you can’t really buy any more. Perhaps it was the first bike you bought ‘brand new’ from the dealership – with that indefinable smell and slick feel all over. I’ve definitely got one or two – including the Suzuki B-King I had as a long-term test bike back in 2008, and which ended up with a full-on supercharger installation, putting out 300bhp…

There are a few lucky guys out there though, who’ve still got their first biking love in the shed. Guys like Cliff Hamilton, who’s owned this 1976 Kawasaki Z900 A4 from new. He bought it back when the mighty Z1’s descendants were the kings of the superbike hill. Compared with the competition – Honda’s SOHC CB750, Suzuki’s GS750 and the Yamaha XS750 – the Z900 had much more power, higher-tech, and slicker styling.

Through the 1980s, this bike served as a drag racer, at ‘run what ya brung’ and Ultimate Streetbike events. Cliff got right into the spirit of the times, maxing out his first credit card on tuning goodies at the bike show, and ending up with a bike that could manage 11.1-second quarter-miles at 130mph, a very decent performance back then.