Walking around Little Tokyo in LA I spied this well sorted Kawasaki W650. An oft overlooked twin it is a perfect alternative to the modern Bonneville with plenty of references to an old British Twin. As I was ogling its details the aptly bearded owner strolls up with his gal. Donning sparky retro helmets they hop aboard and zoom off; to probably Santa Monica Boulevard.
All bow to the might and power of Team Green: the new roadworthy 1000cc Kawasaki H2 Hyperbike. The latest interstellar rocketship to hit the roads soon.
It’ll be like riding a two-wheeled fighter jet. Gobbling miles, straights, corners and licenses with nary a blink. Experienced riders ONLY!
Cagers will see this Sith-Lord faced missile beaming down on them and watch it vanish to a speck ahead. Race bike technology at the finger and toetips of the velocity attendant to rein-in the 200 bhp available from the supercharged inline four.
The mercurial quicksilver finish appears as a flash under a blue sky. Mirrored visor obligatory.
Dang, I’m spending my lottery ticket winnings like water out of a fire hose…
When I had the venerable Original Ninja my jaunts went further afield. It could zoom the big roads with ease and be a nimble ride on the back roads of Wisconsin. Here I am up by Lake Geneva I nice hour circuit around it through rolling countryside. I always stop in at the Yerkes Observatory; its 40 inch lens being the largest refracting telescope used for research.
Tank mounted baglux with map. Ready for the unknown roads. A very comfortable bike to ride…
Photos taken on Kodak slide film with a trusty Nikon F3.
Kawasaki’s groundbreaking Ninja (aka GPZr, ZZR, ZX) is thirty years old. To celebrate those chaps at K Heavy Industries motorcycle division have given the current top-of-the-line missile the classic firecracker red and gunmetal grey color scheme from the eighty four A1 model 900’s. And it sure looks purdy! I’d be happy to take either of these onto the road…
The older Hammer was produced until 2003 in Japan and the younger Pretender started in 2006; so there was a minor break between these bookend Ninjas.
As a side note the 900 Ninja engine was taken as the cue by John Bloor when developing his early modular triple and four engines for the relaunched Hinckley bikes.
“I feel the need; the need for speed!”
Forty five years ago. I grew up with this most historic event fresh in the conscience of the world and looked on the people who carried out these endeavors as heros. The iconic image of Buzz Aldrin standing in his “magnificent desolation” shows us the simple askew snapshot of a man standing on another planetary body: explorers indeed.
600 million of earths population watched these ghostly images of Commander Neil Armstrong step onto the surface uttering “One small step for(a) man; one giant leap for mankind”.
This was his first photograph taken with a space prepared Hasselblad (which is still on the moon) The lunar lander Eagles leg harshly shadowed in the vacuum-clear sunlight. Black sky starless under the lunar sun.
Let’s look at a motorcycling link to the Apollo program: a modern day take on the white NASA color scheme of the behemoth Saturn V. This a Kawasaki ZX14 by 2XtreemTV with appropriate black striping. I don’t know about the noseward escape tower… Even the leathers hint at the bulky moonsuits. This bike has 350 bhp. Orbit anyone?
Now to get a sense if scale the Vehicle Assembly Building behind this rider is where the Apollo rockets (and later space shuttles) were pieced together before rolling out to the launch pad.
A view of technician working atop the White Room (where the astronauts enter the Command Module). Vast! This represents the scale of this venture perfect. It wasn’t one, or three, but thousands who realized this dream.
We went to the Moon; but what we really saw was the Earth
Me, myself & I: my first two-wheeled transport (motorized) in Chicago back in ’99. Its a ZX600 Kawasaki Ninja. Greener than a jealous frog, faster than a cheetah runnin’ downhill, and more fun than a big bag o’ LEGO…
Smaller sibling to the big bad ZX11, but enough motor for most! Loved that bike..
Throwback Thursday: back in ’97 hitting the road for my return journey from Northumberland to London. My nifty Kawasaki GPZ500R. Loved that bike! Ideal for City zipping as well as weekend spins further afield.
Lou Reed 1942-2013. A true music legend passed yesterday; his music grabbed you by the throat and hammered its beat into you with piercing lyrics that had heft to them. Early work from Andy Warhols Factory with The Velvet Underground was seminal to any budding HiFi owners collection.
Backed by the indomitable John Cale, Sterling Morrison, & Mo Tucker, as well as the sultry backing vocals of Nico; their music puts the Vee in Live. Reed as a solo artist: the poet-musician with knife-edge lyrics went on to create timeless numbers which saw rerelease success two decades on. I was fortunate to see TVU in their original line-up at an unmuddy Glastonbury in ’93.
“New Sensations”, Lou Reed 1984
I took my GPZ out for a ride
The engine felt good between my thighs
The air felt cool, its was 40 degrees outside
I rode to Pennsylvania near the Delaware gap
Sometimes I got lost and had to check the map
I stopped at a roadside diner for a burger and a coke
There were some country folk and some hunters inside
Somebody got themselves married and somebody died
I went to the juke box and played a hillbilly song
They was arguing about football as I waved and went outside
And I headed for the mountains feeling warm inside
I love that GPZ so much, you know that I could kiss her.
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Must be the original Ninja GPZ900. Here’s mine that I owned in the mid-twothousands…
How to haul a pair of dirt bikes seventies style…Mk III Ford Cortina.
The Kawasaki’s are ready for rural green lane shenanigans. Might need some heavier rear shocks there Harry!
Growing up my pa had a yellow Mk 3. Banana yellow at that! I remember the center console eight-track playing a Simon & Garfunkel cartridge.
Versatile Green Kawasaki: out and about in the South Side this travel worthy Kwak appealed to my senses. Its their middleweight parallel twin 650 with a good upright stance ready for the open road. This owner has added suitable panniers and top box for toting ‘stuff’.
Tall windscreen; big lights, twin disc front stoppers, engine guard, knuckle protectors: just needs a tankful and a tariff destination.
Its actually a nice modern iteration of the Triumph 650 Trophy of the early seventies. Or indeed the short lived, but undersung Triumph TR5T. 500cc trailie
The name Versys is a portmanteau of Versatile System: good name! Eight grand and she’s yours! Not bad!
Whereas James Hunt drove with passion and emotional drive, his main contemporary on the Grand Prix circuit, Niki Lauda, was a clinical technician. He ensured all aspects of the race under his control was scrutinized to the n’th degree. The car setup, the track, his physical and mental fitness. His Teutonic attitude gave him three championship successes, which would have been four if it hadn’t been for that fateful season in 1976 and the fiery crash at the ‘Ring as well as our man Hunt snapping at his heels on the points table.
Here is Lauda on a muscular Kawasaki Z1. His need for speed extends to appropriate motorradd selection!
“Is that to protect yer head or to keep yer fag dry?” Quips the great Joe Brown to a rope-wound motorcyclist as he dismounts from a damp ride along the craggy mountain bound Llanberis Pass in North Wales.
The dour response in straight Mancunian: “me fag!”. This is none other than climbing Legend Don Whillans. These are captured scenes from a recently unearthed documentary from 1985 capturing Don’s last climb.
There are some well filmed shots of the road up the ‘Pass’ . Don ever the motorcyclist winds his way along smoothly on a Kawasaki 440 twin.
Coming to a halt in the layby below the imposing open-booked corner of Dinas Gromlech he meets up with his climbing partner of decades before and that day, Brown. His blue Belstaff jacket will have seen many damp miles across Northern England.
Whereas Joe cuts a lithe figure for his, at the time, mid-fifties; Don is a heftier, pot-bellied, mountain of his younger and doughty youth. Back in the day they were a force to be reckoned with putting up the hardest routes, still test pieces to aspiring hard climbers, considering they climbed with rudimentary gear: hemp rope, M&S plimsols and sack loads of working mans bottle.
The climb they were retracing that day was the steep crack system called Cemetery Gates, graded E1 5b (E for extremely severe).
Joe strolled up it in fine style as leader, however Don needed a few tugs of the rope as second to help his 14 stone figure up the crag. He died two months after this was filmed at the age of 52. The Nepali Sherpas called him Tiger; he’s also been known as The Villain. Nevertheless he was the climbers climber.
Here’s what Triumph should be working on next: an entry level moto for the masses. A modular engine that can be used in a commuter, roadster, cafe, trailie, racer and light tourer. It’s a type that has been around forever and in recent guise was developed by the ‘too smart for his own good’ Erik Buell with the beginner Blast.
Honda has a tasty thumper in the GB ‘Tourist Trophy’
Kawasaki’s KX is sublime in green…
And of course there is the highly desirable BSA Goldie… Just look at it! Perfection on two wheels…
So Triumph! We dare you! There’s even an old single from the ex wartime parts bin….
Thump away!
A real gem of a moto was presented on Chris Hunters sublime bikeexif website today. A modernization of the outstanding 30 year old Kawasaki GPz900. The deft mechanics at Sanctuary in Japan have created a perfect superbike from this still tractable engine with appropriate upgrades from suspension, brakes and careful frame strengthening.
I bet the throttle will make this beast go from zero to batshit in the blink of a eye. The Kawasaki color scheme works wonders too: “Out of my way youth! King green is coming’ through!”
Some folk don’t like the fairing lines from this period, but in the context of motorcycling history it was a refreshing design that still holds its line.
And the narrow water cooled powerplant can still chuff along with your ninjas, fireblades, R1’s and gixxers of today. I miss my ’85 900….
Whenever you spy one of these anywhere it can bring out the hooligan in you. 60hp out of 500cc of two stroke power. A scary lash of a powerband to scare the bejeezuz out of anyone who disrespects the throttle. “It’ll be nowt but trouble youth!”.
From the early days if the modern superbike it still holds itself in looks. A good basic bike with timeless lines with the Kawasaki name spread along the green tank.
Some thoughtful soul has added a steering damper to settle down potential tankslappers. Three times the speed of sound? You betcha!
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