One day I got a call from a guy who said he had a 1994 Yamaha FZR1000. He was moving out of state and really needed to get rid of it. But there was one catch. It had to be gone by that night. He had parked the bike in his shed about two years earlier, and now, though it had a new battery and would crank like mad, it wouldn’t start…
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I guess you could say I am a “Kawasaki Man.” Out of the hundreds of bikes I’ve owned over the last 55 years, a bunch of them have been Kawasakis. I just like Kawasakis and always have. I owned two 2001 model Kawasaki W650s, both of which I kept for several years. I didn’t know much about them when I discovered a low mileage, custom-painted W650 for sale in a nearby town advertised on Craigslist. I got that first W650 in late summer of 2005, and then I picked up a second one just a few months later in St. Louis. I think I paid $3200 for the first one and only $2800 for the second one (it was such a deal I just had to buy it) and neither of them had more than 3000 miles on the clock nor a single scratch.
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I had never owned or even ridden a “power cruiser,” and even though I had owned a couple H-D Sportsters by then. I was really more of a sportbike or “standard” kind of guy. But there was something that appealed to me about that Warrior besides its blacked out looks and the 135 ft lbs of torque churned out from its massive V-Twin. It had sportbike style wheels on it, and dual front discs. It looked like I could actually RIDE the thing. So impulsively, I bought it. I think I paid $5500 which was about half of what it had cost new.
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I was taught by my father at a young age not to go walking through other people’s yards but eventually, my curiosity got the best of me and I rode my bicycle down that driveway to see what was in that garage. There leaning against the wall was a super crusty/rusty little silver single cylinder machine with just the metal framework of a seat left on it. I had no idea of what it was. It didn’t have any badges or emblems on it that I could see. I just knew it was old and it was a motorcycle.
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Back when my oldest girls were young, I also owned a bunch of motorcycles. I was riding pretty much every day myself, and I used to occasionally “ask Santa” to get them motorcycles for Christmas.
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With colder weather finally here, and Thanksgiving upon us, besides being sure our RVs are winterized and our gas fireplaces are functioning, it could be time to think about what bikes we’ve owned over the years that we are most thankful for. One of those for me was my 2001 Suzuki TL1000S.
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While there, I also happened to see a brand new, gleaming fire engine red Kawasaki ZG 1000- the Concours- sitting on the showroom floor right next to the Triumphs. I had been a Kawasaki man since my first G4TR “Trail Boss” I got as a kid and had probably already owned at least 20 more Kawasaki street bikes by then, mostly 3 cylinder two-strokes. And they had a reputation for being fast. The Concours was based on a 1000cc Ninja, which I knew was fast, but the Concours had a shaft drive, which appealed to me for distance riding. It also had a 7+ gallon fuel tank and detachable hard “briefcase” bags that looked like they should be on a BMW airhead, with an optional dealer-installed trunk bag as well. And it was only $8800 brand new. The decision wasn’t difficult. I put the beautiful Hinckley sport tourers right out of my mind, and wrote a check for the Kawa Concours.
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Business was good and life was sweet, and that always meant (for me, at least) that it was time to buy either a new (to me) car or motorcycle. In this case, it was a Craigslist ad in the next town over, Holliston, for a super clean 1984 Honda VT 500 Ascot. I always liked those bikes. They have 50 horsepower V-twins with 6-speed gearboxes and shaft drive, along with a radiator and a 1980s interpretation of flat track styling.
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I’m 66 as I write this, and I got my first real motorcycle on my 13th birthday. I’ve been riding ever since. I’ve owned as many as 20 motorcycles at a time. It’s definitely in my blood. Yet for all the bikes I’ve had the pleasure of owning and riding over the years and miles, one of them stands out as being a favorite to actually ride.
That would be my 2013 Honda CB1100.
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