Eddie Ray Lawson.

 

 Eddie Ray Lawson was raised on the dusty dirt tracks of California in the mid-1970s and began road racing

in the late-70s, at first of 250 Grand Prix bikes, then later on Superbikes.

 

Lawson seemed destine for greatness from the very beginning, In his first AMA Superbike finish he won at

Talladega in 1980. In only his second full year of Superbike racing, 1981, Lawson won the title in a close

battle with rivals Freddie Spencer and Wes Cooley. Lawson became known as "Steady Eddie" for his

consistent performances during the course of a season.

 

 
Lawson came back to win his second AMA Superbike title by the slim margin of nine points over Honda's

Mike Baldwin. The 1982 season was to be his final full year of racing in America. In 1983 he left to compete

in the 500cc World Championship Grands Prix where he brought home four World Championships.

 

Eddie Lawson will go down in history as one the greatest motorcycle road racers of all time.

Lawson won the 500cc World Championship four times during the 1980s. When he retired from GP racing

in the early 1990s, he ranked third on the all-time 500cc Grand Prix wins list with 31 victories.

 

In addition to his international accomplishments, Lawson was equally successful on the domestic front.

The Californian won the AMA Superbike Series twice (1981 and 1982) and the AMA 250 Grand Prix Series in

1980 and 1981. When inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999, Lawson was the only rider to ever

win the AMA Superbike and 250GP titles during his career. Lawson also won the Daytona 200, the first time

during the prime of his racing career in 1986, then again in 1993 when he returned to the event after

retiring from full-time motorcycle racing.

 

Lawson was born in Upland, California, on March 11, 1958. He grew up around motorcycles. Both his father

and grandfather raced. Some of Lawson’s earliest memories are of going out to the desert races with his

father. Lawson started riding an 80cc Yamaha when was 7 years old, having to hold the nearly full-sized

bike up on his tiptoes when he came to a stop. By the time he was 12, Lawson was racing the local Southern

California dirt track circuit.

 

"We rode mainly at tracks like Corona and Ascot. I didn’t do very well for the first couple of years,

" admitted Lawson. "I just sort of rode around cautiously trying to not fall off my little 90cc Kawasaki Green

Streak."

It didn’t take Lawson long to get over his timidity. He quickly became one of the fastest young amateurs

in Southern California during the early 1970s heyday of dirt track competition.

Besides dirt track racing, Lawson also began to hit the local road races after his grandfather bought him a

50cc Italjet. He later graduated to a Yamaha RD350. This road racing experience would later prove to be

very valuable for Lawson.

By 1978, Lawson obtained his AMA expert license. He was riding Shell Thuett Yamahas, which were very fast

for Yamaha dirt trackers, but were no match for the Harley-Davidsons that dominated dirt track racing.

Lawson did manage to do decently on TT tracks. Hisbest finish of his rookie expert season was fifth in the

TT national at Santa Fe Speedway near Chicago.

 

By 1979, it was becoming clear that Lawson was fighting an uphill battle on the dirt tracks,

while just the opposite was happening at the road races. At 20, Lawson was already considered one of the

top road racers in West Coast club racing. In 1979, he proved that he was a force to be reckoned with

when he finished second to a young Freddie Spencer in the AMA 250 Grand Prix national at Sears

Point Raceway in Sonoma, California. Lawson finished the season as the second-ranked rider behind 

Spencer in the AMA 250 GP series.

While doing a made-for-television Superbikes event late in 1979, Lawson was invited to a Superbike

tryout at Willow Springs Raceway by Kawasaki. Lawson set fast time in the tryout and was offered the ride.

"It was really pretty fun to ride those old 1000cc Superbikes," Lawson recalls. "They were pretty heavy

and had a lot of power and with the wide handlebars you could actually ride them a lot like a flat tracker,

power-sliding out of the corners and everything."

It did not take long for Lawson to get used to racing Superbikes. Lawson won his first Superbike national

at Talladega, Alabama, in April of 1980. That season saw some epic battles between Lawson,

Freddie Spencer and Wes Cooley. The season ended with Cooley winning the title in a controversial manner,

with protests and counter-protests being filed between the Kawasaki and Suzuki Superbike teams.

Cooley had to wait two months after the season to finally be awarded the championship. The same season,

Lawson dominated the AMA 250 Grand Prix Series.

The Superbike controversy at the end of 1980 just made Lawson more determined.

He came back in 1981 and won the title after another great year of battling Honda and its top rider,

Freddie Spencer. The Lawson/Spencer rivalry would go down as one of the best in the history of Superbike

racing. During this period, AMA Superbike racing really came into prominence and

started to replace the Formula One class in importance. Lawson again won the 250GP title in ’81.

Lawson’s ’80 and ’81 hampionships marked the only times that Kawasaki would win the AMA 250

Grand Prix titles.

Lawson's last full season of racing in the U.S. was 1982. Again, Lawson and Kawasaki held off a serious

challenge from Honda, that year with Mike Baldwin, who finished second in the series.

The Kawasaki KZ1000 had been raced in the AMA Superbike class since the first race in March of 1976,

but hadn't won until the fifth race of the 1977 season. Reg Pridmore set the precedent for the domination

of the class by Japanese bikes. Pridmore would go on to win the championship that year and also in '78.

 Until 1980, Kawasaki was content to let others, such as the Vetter and Racecrafters teams,

race their bikes for them. Now they recruited a young rider named Eddie Lawson for a factory backed

Superbike team. Another racer of great promise, Wayne Rainey, would later join the effort.

Rob Muzzy would build and tune the bikes that Eddie Lawson rode to the championship in 1981.

To commemorate the win, Kawasaki built "the most striking, most performance-ready street-legal

Superbike ever. The brand-new 1982 Kawasaki KZ1000R Eddie Lawson Replica.

(Quote from the KZ1000R brochure.)

Based on the standard KZ1000J model, the R1 had the fuel tank, rear-set footpegs, oil cooler and wheels

from the GPZ1100. A GPZ style fairing and lower handlebar were added along with a Kerker KR-series

four-into-one header. Revised steering geometry

and suspension improved the handling. The motor was unchanged. Motorcyclist Magazine got an ET of

11.56 from their test bike in1982.

That may seem slow in comparison to today's 10 second 600's and ZX12's running mid-9's, but it was

quite respectable at the time.

If you had the urge to go even faster on an '82 Kawasaki, you could purchase the KZ1000S1.

This was no replica--this was the real deal. For a mere £8000 a ready-to-race Superbike could be in your

driveway.
At the crankshaft, the motor put out 136 horsepower compared to the 79 of the R1. Eddie Lawson's race

bike was said to have 149 horsepower. Harnessing all this power was a braced swing arm and huge

brakes attached to the Dymag magnesium rims.

  

 

The power may have been harnessed, but it certainly wasn't tamed. These motorcycles were being ridden

much faster and harder than their designers intended. The frames would twist and flex from the

horsepower and cornering loads. It was common for the riders to be seen sliding the bikes around the

turns. Rob Muzzy was quoted as saying," those bikes were like dirt-tracking on the pavement.

You really had to muscle them around."

 

 

This era was a turning point for Kawasaki, whose racing efforts in the 1970's had limited success.

No longer would this be the case. To this day the green bikes are a force to be reckoned with,

having a heritage of power and reliability.

Article By Kent Kunitsugu.

The Original article was By Kent Kunitsugu, published in the October,1999 issue of Sport Rider.

The biggest improvement was a change in steering geometry and riding position. The rake angle was extended to 29 degrees from the J-model's 27.5-degree spec, with an accompanying increase in trail from 3.89 to 4.50 inches. Generous scalloping to the standard saddle dropped the seat height by half an inch, and the footpegs were set four inches farther back and an inch higher. Suspension was altered, with a revalved (read: stiffer rebound and compression damping) fork and twin gas-charged, piggyback Showa shocks handling the road-hugging chores. A Kerker 4-into-1 exhaust replaced the standard 4-into-2 pipe, with other subtle changes such as a four-row oil cooler, wider rear rim (wow, a 2.50 incher!), an "Eddie Lawson bend" handlebar, some decent Dunlop rubber replacing the usual rim protectors of that era, and various GPz componentry (brake system, fairing, gas tank, etc.) completing the picture. Maybe the most surprising change, however, was the lack of weight. The KZ1000R scaled in a full 41.5 pounds lighter than the J-model.

Of course, it should be kept in mind that this is early '80s technology we're dealing with, so the KZ1000R's performance-while excellent for its time-isn't nearly up to today's standards. The added rake and trail give the R's chassis good stability in the fast stuff, and the steering is fairly neutral all the way down to max lean. But there's a pretty big slab of metal in the engine bay and keeping the motor high to stop the cases from grinding means a fairly tall center of gravity. The suspension on the bike we rode was pretty worn out (22,000 miles were already logged on the odometer) so handling was rather loose and not representative of the actual item. Keep the KZ1000R's year of manufacture in perspective, though, and you find it to be a fun sporting mount with an exclusivity that can't be matched by any Japanese sportbike of that era.

This article was originally published in the October, 1999 issue of Sport Rider.

Original article by the Auto Editors of Consumer Guide.

The 1982 Kawasaki KZ1000R motorcycle was developed in response to the increasing success of a motorcycle racer named Eddie Lawson, who in the early 1980s turned out some impressive lap times with his 250-cc Kawasaki competition bike.

With the creation of the competition Superbike class, Mr. Lawson switched to larger street-based machines, and often put them in the winner's circle.

The 1982 Kawasaki KZ1000R was widely known as the Eddie Lawson Replica, after a top bike racer.

 

To commemorate these feats, Kawasaki released the 1982 Kawasaki KZ1000R motorcycle, otherwise known as the Eddie Lawson Replica, or ELR for short.

Based on the standard KZ1000, it sported the same 1015-cc double-overhead-cam inline four, but with a special four-into-one Kerker exhaust header as standard equipment (Kerker enjoying second billing on the fuel tank).

Painted "Kawasaki racing green," the ELR was also fitted with a small bikini fairing that probably did little to protect the rider, but added a competition look -- as did the blacked-out engine.

Stiffer front suspension and special "piggyback" reservoir rear shocks aided road holding, while triple disc brakes brought the whole affair to a halt.

Relatively few KZ1000Rs were built, making them rare when new and even more rare today. But Kawasaki later revived the spirit of the 1982 Kawasaki KZ1000R motorcycle by releasing an updated replica (making it a replica of a replica) called the ZRX1100.

Go on to the next page for more pictures of the 1982 Kawasaki KZ1000R motorcycle.
The 1982 Kawasaki KZ1000R was a fine example of an early-1980s Japanese superbike. "Kerker" on its fuel tank recognized the bike's standard four-into-one Kerker exhaust header.

The Kawasaki KZ1000R wore the company's distinctive green racing colors.

The KZ1000R's instrument panel was familiar to Kawasaki fans.

Kawasaki's 1015-cc double-overhead-cam four revved happily to 9000 rpm.

Suspension of the KZ1000R included gold-painted "piggyback" reservoir rear shocks.

A decal on the tank reminded riders of Kawasaki's racing victories.

For more great motorcycle articles and pictures, check out:

• Classic Motorcycles
• How Motorcycles Work
• Other Classic Motorcycles

 

Original article intact even though bike pictured is actually a 83 kz1000r2,

kind of funny really!