While a great many millennial riders have been influenced by today’s YouTube moto vlogs and motorcycle-focused Instagram accounts, previous generations were each inspired by two-wheelers that appeared on the silver screen, such as The Great Escape, On Any Sunday, and Top Gun. And it was this latter film that served as the inspiration for Federal Moto’s newest project: a 1984 Kawasaki GPz1100 appropriately dubbed “Danger Zone.”
The Chicago customs outfit’s first-ever sportbike build, the GPz now packs a 3D-printed flattened superbike-style tail and a headlight nacelle housing a Motogadget Motoscope Pro and two vertically-running LED strips which also serve as the front indicators. Additive manufacturing was also utilized to achieve the covers for the engine’s velocity stacks. There’s also clip-ons, late model CB1100 tank, custom subframe and saddle, petal rotors, Motogadget switchgear and a remote m.lock, taillight that’s something of a modern take on the units off of 1980s Honda CB900F AMA racers, and a custom exhaust with dual reverse-cone mufflers and headers that, along with the 120hp four-banger, have been Cerakoted. And, while it may no longer bare much resemblance to the angular-bodied ‘80s model, Federal’s GPz will still surely inspire that “need for speed” that inspired it.
