There?s a lot to be said for a good old-fashioned muscle bike. And in the 1980s, the Kawasaki GPZ900R was the benchmark. It didn?t have any of the nanny state electronics we?re used to today, but the raucous, liquid-cooled DOHC four punched out 113 solid horses?and propelled the GPZ to 150 mph or more.
No wonder the producers of the original Top Gun movie selected a GPZ to star alongside Tom Cruise, who knows how to handle a bike.

We?ve noticed an uptick in custom GPZs lately, going right back to ICON?s ?Old Ghost? of six years ago. AC Sanctuary have built some brilliant restomods too, but this GPZ900R from Berlin has a completely different vibe. It?s all business?raw and stripped back
It comes from the increasingly prolific German firefighter Chris Scholtka, who runs Motocrew in his spare time. ?I started the build a year and a half ago,? Chris tells us. ?It should have been a low budget bike, but it escalated quickly??
Chris is a Kawasaki fan and his whole family bleeds green. ?I have a 1998 Ninja 600 in original condition, and a KX250F. My dad rides a Ninja 1000SX and a Ninja 900, and my girlfriend a Z550.
?The GPZ900R is a good bike for customization because of the bolt-on rear frame. In Germany, we can?t weld around the main frame?but on a GPZ the rear and main frame are in two separate pieces, so you can build a new rear frame. And the engine is powerful!?

The inline-four on this 1984 machine was in brilliant condition, but the hardware around it wasn?t.
So...