The Kawi Z1 tried to dominate the street in the mid-1970s, but guys like me kept putting it back in its place with the CB750
Hondaman - You saying your 736cc CB was faster than the 903cc Z1?
Mine sure isnt.
Actually...this was where the 'Hondaman' moniker got started.
First, (1971) it was with the CB/CL350, making it challenge BSA 650 and Triumphs, pissing them off until 60+ MPH. When my brother took his CB350 to southern Missouri where he lived then and was impressing the local folks with it, word of a "Honda Man" down there who could make the 350 really run was spreading, and it reached me: I went down there to try to meet this guy and was disappointed when I discovered it was me.
When a local rider came to me one day in Macomb and told me he wanted to outrun his buddy's "Z" I asked how much he wanted to spend to do it. He had a K2 like mine, but later production. He didn't have the $$ for a big-bore or cam, so I had to work it stock. I did all the "external" things that are shown in my "Performance I" section of my book, then added Continental tires and a 17-tooth countersprocket, raised his mainjets and installed a K&N air filter, tightened up the spark advancer springs and added 4 degrees total advance, then installed a new Diamond XL chain (new in those days). I charged him a little over $150 (a month's salary in those days!) and he left a little down-mouthed over the cost.
--until the next weekend. Then both he and his 2 other friends with CB750s came to have it done to theirs, too. Three weeks later the guy with the Z1 came, then the guys with the Harleys and the R90 BMWs that these Hondas were mopping up in the surrounding towns, like Blandinsville, Chillicothe, and even Peoria. It spread from that summer (1972) like a wildfire: I went to the Black Hills in August with some friends on our bikes and when I returned the shop was full of 750s, 500s and a couple 550s, and more Z1 bikes. It took me until November to get them all done. While I was gone, my buddy Tom was hanging around the shop when the Z1 riders appeared on that weekend. While they were talking about who was going to work on their bikes, Tom (who rode one of these 750s) butted in and asked, You mean the Honda Man? He's in South Dakota this week". After that, the moniker never went away.
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