Red Rooster: Playing Chicken with the Kawasaki Kz1000

As vintage big fours go, the Kawasaki Kz1000 is as mythical as they come. It's hailed as one of the granddaddies of the modern superbike; the fastest production motorcycle of its era, with a racing pedigree bar none. This low-slung Kz1000 was a mere shell of its former self, when Rok and Luka of Krakenhead Customs got their hands on it. The 1981 ‘J’ model was found abandoned on a farm, in their native Slovenia. “The farmer was a home-brew winemaker,” says Rok, “and it looked like some of that fermentation had moved over to the bike.” “It was fixed...