New Guy in the Mountains

Jared, your Z13 looks amazing - truly a great find :woohoo:

Kawboy had asked to see my other bikes, so here goes.

My '78 GL100 that's my only rider right now:



I jokingly call it a "buffet racer". This has been a phenomenal machine for me, bought it for $200, put under $2k in the rebuild, and I've packed almost 30,000 miles on it in just a couple years. It just goes and goes and goes.

I restored this '85 BMW K100RS as well. Unfortunately, an inattentive driver took it from me. I escaped with minor injuries, but the bike was a total loss.



I briefly had a '72 H2, but sold it for an exorbitant profit before I got it running. Could've made more if I had finished it, but the heat pump at the house died, so I unloaded the bike. Would've been cool, but they really don't suit my riding style anyway.



Also briefly had a pair of Suzuki RE5s until I figured out it would be cheaper to buy a running bike than to bring either one of these back. Traded them on a little Nissan pickup that I've wanted for awhile last week.

The last rebuild I did was on this '78 XL350. I pulled it out of a muddy field here in town for $60 and took it home. Found out that someone had put the motor back together wrong and broken exhaust valves. I spent under $200 on a new piston, cylinder head, and gaskets, and got it running again. I actually really liked this one, but wound up selling it for a handsome profit.



And finally, the CBX. I had wanted one of these for a long time, but just flat out couldn't afford one. After the wreck of the K100RS, I had an insurance check for aout $5k and no other outstanding financial needs at the time. I found this bike through a Facebook post. To make a long story short, the owner used to work at a Honda dealer in the early 80s. He wanted one,but never bought one until 1985, when Honda told dealers that they had a stock of new-in-crate CBXs in a warehouse. He took this brand new 1982 CBX out of the crate himself in 1985, and rode it pretty regularly until circa 2000. At that point, it was parked while his pilot career took off (*rimshot*) and he never got it running again. He decided to sell it to fund the purchase of a new Goldwing. I probably paid too much for a non-running bike, but it's in pretty good cosmetic condition (not as good as the KZ though), and it does run on starting fluid. I've got the carbs pulled off now for a rebuild now.



The current plan is to build it sorta naked, and leave the big fairing off, but keep the matching side cases.

I tend to flip bikes pretty often, but the GL1000, CBX, and KZ1300 are permanent residents.

I may have the airbox part you are missing. You can PM me. Might help if you ID the part from the Kawasaki drawings for me. I have a box of air box plastics.

Hi Jared from the KIWI contingent
had a sit in a spitfire in England whilst it was running once while living in England never got up in it but was quite an amazing experience, and was outside Bucking ham Palace when they had a anniversary fly over of the second world war planes, made you wonder at how it was for the people below during that time , so loud.
anyways have a few bikes and wanna be bikes rattling around my place also, love it when i see another along my lines of thought.
i darent ask how much you paid for the KZ least it sends me into a week of heavy drinking, it always amazes me what you North Americans keep finding and the price you get them for, obviously no one on that continent has figured out they are heading into the realm of becoming somewhat collectable.
my best wishes to you on start up, as Stan (me thinks) pointed out the start up of something that hasn't been going for awhile for me holds high anticipation and excitement
Dion

I was at an AirVenture EAA airshow in Oshkosh Wisconsin about 15 years ago and it was the last day of the 2 week show. As a special attraction for that show, they had arranged for a fly by of the Warbirds. 1500 planes left from 30 odd neighboring airports and assembled into 2 full WW2 squadrons and then flew over Oshkosh. The sound of those warbirds was incredible. I'll never forget it for as long as I live. It's probably the most memorable experience of my life.

I just thought this was something worth sharing with a new member who has a fond love for the old warbirds. I had dreams of building a Velocity XL (an experimental aircraft) but life just has a way of interfering. So be it.