Kawasaki S1 on ebay

[eddie21]

I saw this listed on ebay and am having a tough time believing it is on the up and up. They are so rare that if real, this thing could go for a ton of money! I've heard of S1's selling for $60,000 to $80,000! The story that accompanies the ad sounds too good to be true.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1982-Kawasaki-KZ1000S1-superbike-/290983165847?pt=US_motorcycles&hash=item43bff2bf97

[wkmpt]

I saw this listed on ebay and am having a tough time believing it is on the up and up. They are so rare that if real, this thing could go for a ton of money! I've heard of S1's selling for $60,000 to $80,000! The story that accompanies the ad sounds too good to be true.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1982-...item43bff2bf97

Would be cool if the seller had some pictures of the paperwork proving the bike's lineage.

It may yet go for such a substantial sum, it has twenty-four bids in less six hours...

[Lawn Monkey]

Not a Kawasaki S1 its a KZ1000 S1, big difference a Kawasaki S1 is a Triple 250cc two stroke street bike

[Frank Z.]

Love everything about it. I'm priced-out, though.
Are these particular S1's considered "homologated specials"?

[Steve]

Nice story, but you have to wonder.

There is nothing like a "race bike" with an 85 mph speedo.



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[steve murdoch]

I saw this listed on ebay and am having a tough time believing it is on the up and up. They are so rare that if real, this thing could go for a ton of money! I've heard of S1's selling for $60,000 to $80,000! The story that accompanies the ad sounds too good to be true.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1982-...item43bff2bf97

I have never heard the bit about a couple of these being disassembled to be used for spares.
With there only being 30 in existence keep track of them over the years should not have been too difficult. Surprising that the Kawi community would not be aware of this particular bike.
If the bike is legit[hopefully] i would think Kawasaki would be buying this iconic model for their museum.

[Nessism]

Love the photos. Wonderful presentation. Bike looks immaculate. Watching to see how high it goes.

[recycled64]

Not a Kawasaki S1 its a KZ1000 S1, big difference a Kawasaki S1 is a Triple 250cc two stroke street bike

Exactly my train of thought when I first read the thread heading, like 'wait, what?' That thing does belong at the Barber Museum, unless they already have a couple of them

[83GS1100E_Tornado]

WOW! That bike is spectacular, would love to own a piece of history like that!!!

[Steve]

Watching to see how high it goes.

Nine days and a few hours to go, it's already over $31,000.

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[russr33]

Showed the bike to my mechanic who worked on a couple of different S1's back in the day. His comment was that the frame looks to maybe have been replaced by a J model frame. Every one he ever saw had steering stops welded onto each side of neck, which this bike doesn't have. He couldn't be sure that was factory done but both he had worked on had it. He thought with the story of the bike being only raced once that quite possibly it was wrecked and frame replaced?

Would love to hear Jeff Saunders opinions on this.

[eddie21]

Not a Kawasaki S1 its a KZ1000 S1, big difference a Kawasaki S1 is a Triple 250cc two stroke street bike

Ha ha! No kidding there's a big difference! Sorry about that, I think that myself and many other ELR guys abbreviate the big KZ1000 S1 to simply S1. I see that you have an S3 so it must have been misleading to you. Oops!

Meanwhile, the price certainly is climbing. There is a reserve set on it and I expect if you bid $50,000 that reserve still wouldn't be met. A lot of interest in this auction, so many of these bikes either were destroyed on the track or found their way to Japan that to find one in such good shape here in North America is amazing.

[Big T]

Love everything about it. I'm priced-out, though.
Are these particular S1's considered "homologated specials"?

Nope, factory race bikes derived from the modified J model that won the SB title with EL aboard

These are ready to race factory specials, not like the RC-30 where you bought it and installed the factory race kit

[eddie21]

Showed the bike to my mechanic who worked on a couple of different S1's back in the day. His comment was that the frame looks to maybe have been replaced by a J model frame. Every one he ever saw had steering stops welded onto each side of neck, which this bike doesn't have. He couldn't be sure that was factory done but both he had worked on had it. He thought with the story of the bike being only raced once that quite possibly it was wrecked and frame replaced?

Would love to hear Jeff Saunders opinions on this.

I wondered about this too, however, the vin# is JKAKZCR12CA000070, this puts it dead within the range of the KZ1000 S1's that were released. Kawasaki was actually quite good about their record keeping regarding frames in 1982.

[Frank Z.]

Perhaps not the most relevant in this case, but interesting read re: what happened to a lot of superbikes: http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2008/...325gotodie.htm

And, here's a link to a registry indicating #70 is out there... somewhere... http://www.kz1000r.com/index.php/kz1...pecification-s