Got up early and took the newly plated RZ for a beautiful ride down to Riding Into History…
which had a great turnout…
and this years theme was Japanese bikes. THE Wayne Rainey GPZ 750 met us at the gate.
On my way back, I decided to the long, scenic way home through Old St Augustine and I stumbled on a classic car show!! Sweet!
Much more on all of this on its way shortly. Right now I need a nap.
From a really excellent builder called Motor Rock. Some really creative stuff. Be sure to check em out.
Phil Brown sent me some pics of his finished project. Wow! We’re having some issues with e-mail at the moment so I hope to bring you a few more of this bike in the next few days providing we can sort it out.
One of my all time favorite Japanese bikes nicely upgraded. Thanks to Charlie Stevenson the pics!
Here’s a couple of pics of one of my bikes; 82 550 GPZ, 2009 R6 forks, brakes, front wheel, rearsets, FZR rear wheel. Charlie Stevenson, Clarksville, Indiana.
Thanks much to Mark Gibson for some nice shots of one of my all time favorite bikes. I wish there were more of them around over here so I could get my hands on one!
Thought you might like a shot of my ZEP !? Blue sky,dry roads,full tank of gas,what more could any biker want! I’m an aging biker these days, but your website just keeps on bringing back the good times, fantastic, keep it going! I will send a couple more shots, regards mark.
Sounds like a perfect day! Thanks Much!
..and shame on me.
You know I’ve got a very “confused” (long story) KZ650 sitting in my garage at the moment and looking some at of the bikes Travis has built has me inspired… Time to give the old gal some attention I think. I have a similar 750 top end and assorted mods but i think it’s back to stock for the engine (they were plenty fast really) for simplicity and reliability but something a lot different than stock with the chassis I think.
Here’s what he sent me back at he end of December.
I thought I’d send you these shots of a recently finished project I did for a close friend. Its a 1979 KZ650 that we punched out to a 810cc via Wiseco bigbore 10:1 comp pistons and a KZ750 cylinder. Quite a bit of custom fab was done for the GSXR1000 foot controls to mount as well as the ZX6 swingarm which is about 2″ longer than stock. The seat base is an Airtech designed for a CB750 and it fit right on with minimal cutting There is a 1/8″ alloy under tray that the seat base mounts to and hides all the electrics behind the custom alloy side covers. My buddy proudly served in the 82nd in Desert Storm so the paint scheme was even more fitting. Hope you like it. We’ll do a proper photo shoot this spring after a couple minor bugs are worked out of it.
I really like the seat work. I think the latest “Wrenchmonkee” flat-top style seat is getting a bit over done. This seems to fit the line of the bike better and those rearsets are a godsend since there are no proper aftermarket rearsets for the KZ650. Beats me why not.
Armando Barqueiro sent in some cool bikes with some interesting backgrounds.
He wrote in:
Jose Esteves is a Portuguese born Canadian immigrant (like myself) and an absolute motorcycle loon. He loves both 2 and 4 strokes of all kinds but his favorites are 2-stroke cafe or road racers. He road-raced in Angola and South Africa when he was young and continued when he immigrated to Canada. I met him when he stopped beside me while I was riding my cafe RD400 in ’79 and he was on a Honda 750F done up to the max (I later owned that Honda). We started talking and found out that we were both Portuguese and both loved bikes. We both raced here in Quebec, he on an ex Alan Labrosse TZ250 and I on my 77 RD400 and later my ’81 RD350LC.
About a decade later a bunch of us decided to ride on the ice and Jose built a bunch of mini ice bikes for that purpose. Two of those are the yellow mini bikes. The front one is a Kawasaki 65 chassis with a stroked XL125 Honda engine (154cc). I later bought that bike from Jose. The rear one is an XL500 Honda that he minimized by replacing the wheels with 10″ CT70 wheels and a Z50 gas tank as well as a bunch of other changes.
The RD400 was his first race bike in Canada and it then saw a bunch of conversions as he kept modifying it over the years. This picture was its final version.
He had raced a Kawasaki S3 in South Africa and liked it a lot so he bought two H2’s in sad shape here in Montreal and rebuilt them both, one in stock condition and the other as the cafe in the picture. It has cast wheels from a KZ650, Toomey pipes and a bunch of other stuff I don’t even remember. I rode it once and it was very fast. He’s given me permission to post these photos.Manny ’82 GS1100L/California Sidecar, ’02 GSXR1000, ’86 Fazer, ’92 DR650, ’92 FZR600, ’00 DR400Z, ’00 TTR225
I have an H1 similar to that H2 with the KZ wheels. and that RD is take WAY out there. But those minim ice racers must be a total blast! Thanks for the pics Armando!
Spending as much time as I do poking around the web looking for material I can’t help but notice the giant leaps that have been taking place in regards to “amateur” video creation. Of course many of these are way beyond someone shooting from the hip and just posting it up. Yes, there ARE a lot of very well equipped and highly skilled “non-professional” cinematographers out there doing amazing things. But there is no doubt that the huge leap in functionality and drop in costs of equipment and post processing editing software has led to an explosion of really great content. I’ve seen everything from simple and fun short riding clips to some ongoing and very slick dramatic serials. I probably now spend as much time on youtube and Vimeo looking for entertainment as I do watching television. Probably more actually but I don’t think I’m typical… yet.
Anyway, here’s a great example of what I mean from Liad J.Shulam who wrote in:
G’day,
Me and my mates from Melbourne,Australia have made this movie about my 1980 Z500 , I hope you like it and will feature it in your Blog.
I just wanted to say your Blog Is Great! And that I check every day 🙂Thank you for your time.
My pleasure! Keep em coming!
Seriously? I find it hard to believe that this bike couldn’t compete with the TONS of new Bonnevilles out there… WTF Kawi?
The SE version
The Standard Version
Unlike most folks I kind of like it but is there a place for inline four liter bikes offroad? (And yes this is a continuation of some larger points being debated in the FZR Sailah post comments).
Motorcycle Photo Of The Day 