#186 of 200 – 1978 Kawasaki KZ1000 Spirit of America

In Japan, Touring by AbhiLeave a Comment

Post Listing Update: This KZ1000 was pulled off of eBay, final sale price unknown.


In 1978, Kawasaki was the only Japanese manufacturer with a facility in the US. Kawi’s president (Dave Mehney) and Marketing Vice President (Dick Terrell) decided to highlight that with an “All-American Ride-away” – a program where Kawi customized 200 of their KZ1000s with an American paint job and then had dealers fly in to ride the bikes between the Kawi plant in Lincoln, Nebraska to St. Louis, Missouri. Then they got to take the bikes back to their respective dealerships. This is example #196 of 200.

These KZ1000s were built in conjunction with Craig Vetter, who designed the front fairing. The bikes also got saddlebags, a luggage rack, engine guards, highway pegs, and the seat from a LTD model. For more information on these limited run, check out these series of pages from a magazine article scanned by a seller of a previous example I featured.

This example (VIN: KZT00A516286) has 28,703 miles and it’s #186 of 200. The seller weirdly says “this is a 1 owner bike and I am the second owner,” which makes minimal sense, but otherwise this is a rare example of an interesting motorcycle.

Find this KZ for sale in Onsted, Michigan with an unmet opening bid of $1,000 here on eBay.