T-REX!

Aussie CMM reader Derek Henderson had adream: an ELR replica, but it was not to be.Instead he picked up a 2001 ZRX1200R, puta turbo on it and made it a T-REX! Bliss!

- DEREK HENDERSON

When Eddie Lawson won theAMA championship on that gorgeous KZ1000S1, which led to the birth of the Z1000R replica, that was ‘my period’. It was 1981 and I was 19. I wanted one so badly back then, but it was out of my reach on apprentice wages, then life got in the way. It’s a common story.

Fortunately, Kawasaki knew there was a bunch of die-hard tragics like myself that missed the opportunity in their youth and so released the ZRX in 1997. Undoubtedly, a better bike in every way to the Z1000R of 1982, or even (dare I say), the exotic, rare, and highly valuable Superbike Championship winning KZ1000S1 it replicated, a fact that even a tragic like myself can’t argue. Anyway, circumstances had me waiting for the upgraded ZRX1200R and this particular bike is my 2001 model (with a twist), which I bought new in 2002.

You see, in Australia, we had a different livery of ZRX1200R every year; that’s all that changed from 2000 to 2008! Though it wasn’t until 2008, the last of, that we got the bike in the true Eddie Lawson Replica livery. So this bike has been fitted with that bodywork and my 2008 model ZRX is now red in the GPz livery. That in itself is a long story, but let’s just say, Eddie’s bike had black wheels, gold brake calipers, black frame, silver swingarm, black forks and gold shock reservoirs, as did the 2001 ZRX, but not the 2008. The latter only had the lime green livery right. So the ‘bodywork’ was duly swapped to my 2001. To get the rest right you have to buy the earlier ZRX1100R, which has the black engine covers, just like Eddie’s KZ1000S1. This is how it all started, building myself a modern day Eddie Lawson Replica, replica. Old school look with new-age ability – the best of both worlds.