Craig Vetter felt he had the answer with his Kawasaki KZ1000 Mk II based Mystery Ship. Unfortunately for Vetter it was an answer to a question apparently no one asked.

In the late 1970s Vetter had sold his iconic motorcycle fairing company and had sponsored Reg Pridmore in 1978, Pridmore’s final AMA Superbike Championship season. It was the Vetter Kawasaki Superbike that gave Vetter the inspiration to create the Mystery Ship in 1980. The Mystery Ship was stripped down to cut weight. It featured laid down Mulholland Force 1 shocks, a gusseted frame and magnesium wheels from Dymag. The heart of this particular Mystery Ship was “Stage 4” engine developed by Fujio Yoshimura that developed a reported 135 hp at 10,000 rpm (you could also order lesser powered Stage I, II or III engines making 101, 108 and 116 hp respectively).

There were to be a maximum of 200 Mystery Ships built, but only 10 were ever built. The bike was $10,000 (the equivalent to over $32,000 in today’s dollars), this at a time when you could easily buy a 1000cc sportbike for under $3000. Plus Vetter launched the machine just as a major recession was hitting. And to most sportbike buyers the response to the “Flash Gordon” styling of the bike was mixed at best. Look at the angle of that fairing and wonder if you might actually experience lift-off at anything approaching triple-digit speed.

Craig Vetter suffered a hang glider accident during the bike’s launch, which ultimately put kibosh on the project.

The 1980 ad for the bike read “At the planning stage, a substantial deposit is required and there is a waiting list in effect.”

To my mind Vetter’s Mystery Ship was motorcycling’s embodiment of the “Me Generation” of the 1970s – a bike that catered to a rider who wanted a super-expensive, exclusive machine to show off conspicuous consumption.

Fujio Yoshimura and Craig Vetter stand proudly behind one of Vetter’s Kawasaki KZ1000-based motorcycle’s dubbed the Mystery Ship. Yoshimura supply the power to Vetter “far-out” vision of a futuristic sport bike. Reportedly only 10 of the Mystery Ships were ever built.