I recently joined the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club as the old Kawasaki Z750 definitely fits this category being both vintage and Japanese. I also found out that one of the guys where I work (Hi Graham) is also a member and lives not too far away. Additionally I discovered that the local area meeting of the VJMC is held at the Flying Horse Pub in Clophill just along from my new work colleague and by happy coincidence he attends regularly on the last Monday of the month.

After chatting about bikes (Graham owns two stunning Yamaha RD’s one 400cc, and one 250 cc model as well as other vintage bikes in various states of repair) we arranged to meet up and ride on to the meeting at Clophill. So Monday night I got ready and went across to Bedfordshire to meet up, and see the Yamahas, before going on to the meeting proper in Clophill. The Kawasaki fired up with a couple of kicks on the starter and after warming up a little I was off.

The journey to my new colleagues place was great in the autumn air, if a little cool around the legs (note to self jeans are not for cold weather riding). After admiring each others bikes, he started his Yamaha XJ1300 ( ok and I’m going to follow this?? ).A short trip and we were first to arrive at the Running Horse in Clophill.

Shortly after we’d picked up some cokes the first of the club members arrived on a Yamaha RD 500 LC, a great looking bike in red and black which brought back memories from my younger days of admiring the RD LC’s of all sizes. I hope I got this right now, but I think this was Stan who co-ordinates the meets of the herts Beds And Bucks area of the VJMC .

Shortly afterwards some more bikes turned up, including a Kawasaki GPz 750 in black, another bike I would have liked to own earlier in my life. After meeting and greeting the other members and talking bikes for a couple of hours it was time to leave, and I fired up the Z750 on the electric foot. I followed Grahams XJ1300 out of the car park, and round the roundabout on to the A6.

The modern lighting of the Yamaha lit the road in front, as long as I stayed with it, which was easy as long as Graham held back a little with the throttle. It was after he turned off to go home and I was relying on the 70’s lighting technology of the Kawasaki Z750 to pick my way round the unlit lanes of darkest Bedfordshire that I realised how inadequate the headlight really was. High beam helped a little, but even that didn’t help with the bulb which blew in the speedo, which meant judging speeds past Gatso’s most heinous invention (speed cameras) meant an intelligent guess related to the rev counter reading.

So I was having a lot of fun trying to follow the twists in the poor light, concentrating hard, and judging speeds to avoid painful fines when the first drops appeared on the visor of my crash helmet. The moon disappeared and the drops became more frequent. By the time I got home my top half was still nice and warm and dry thanks to my proper motorcycling jacket, but my jeans had done little to prevent water or rain penetrating to my legs. I HATE RAIN.

All in all though a good fun ride and meet up, and as usual these days the Kawasaki Z750 twin took it all in its stride, never missed a beat even in the rain and got me there and back with little fuss. Gotta love that Kawasaki for that.

Today we went to a local classic vehicle show at the Wolverton Museum Of Rural Life. The Z750 was entered as an exhibit for the show, as most people say I’m always making an exhibition of myself anyway. In its current (and probably future) state it’s never going to win any prizes but it did attract some attention.

My dad also entered his BSA Star Twin for the show, and that draws a little more attention especially from the purists finding all the bits which aren’t right. The bike was ridden 60 miles to the show and home again, which many of the exhibits weren’t so that’s a good reason for not having a perfect bike isn’t it?

In addition to the usual good looking British machinery were some great looking classic Japanese bikes which are becoming more of a feature at classic bike events now.

This Honda was for sale

Hondas seem to be best represented at this show though

another one too

My daughter loved grandads BSA though and posed with Nan for the picture below

A great fun day out, and then my dad tried the Z750 for size, but says he’ll stick with the Brit iron he’s used to, probably too much for the old feller to handle a?

Again The Z750 Gets An Outing

Twice in one week the weather has been good enough for me to get out the trusty steed which is the Kawasaki Z750 Twin. This time we pressganged one of my neighbours to join in for an afternoon jaunt on his Honda CBR 600.

The day started when Big Fat Gay Al arrived on his 1200 Suzuki (BUM) Bandit to go to breakfast at the Super Sausage Cafe a few miles from my humble abode. I fired up the Twin and we had a short but fun ride along the A5 to the cafe where we enjoyed a brunch of sausage egg bacon and chips mmmmmm.

We rode back to my place, having spoken to some friendly bikers at the cafe, and phoned my neighbours wife to see if he could come out to play. She said he could so we awaited his arrival.

Then we went for a nice steady ride from Milton Keynes to Buckingham and back to the bottom end of Milton keynes. I was hoping the old classic Z750 twin wouldn’t hold the other two up too much on their more modern machinery, and made use of the torque to ensure some fast acceleration off bends and roundabouts. The consensus was that the old Kawasaki is still no slouch on acceleration, but its limitations would be seen later.

After a nice long gentle ride with some fun roundabout shennanigans we headed for the A5 Dual carriageway so the boys on their newer machines could open up a little. So it wasn’t very far along when they both pulled alongside on the Bandit and CBR and then shot off leaving me and the Z750 behind. The bike made a valiant effort above the legal speed limit but with no protection from the wind my ample figure was causing a lot of drag, and I was losing the battle to hold on. So I backed out and the nice guys waited for me a couple of miles up in a layby.

Then we headed home, and all in all a varied and fun ride out had been enjoyed by all, from old classic Kawasaki Z750 twin rider (me) through CBR600 and up to Al and his 1200 (bum) bandit. I should just add though that I let the two boys go on the dual carriageway so they didn’t get too upset if I beat them on a 30 year old bike. Me and the Z750 twin’s torquey engine coulda whipped them really you know?

At last An Update

Big Fat Gay Al persuaded me a mid week ride was in order, so on Wednesday night (the night before this was written) we decided to go out on the Z750’s for a while, and check out a local biker club and then ride out a while longer.

Al got caught at work, then in traffic so we were delayed in getting out. We decided to visit the welcoming motorcycle club I had seen on the net and introduce ourselves. All I can say is don’t believe all you read online. As outsiders we were made to feel like outsiders, so we left for the open road.

After a short ride I smelt the odour of burning plastic, amd thought we had better stop to check it out, especially as my Kawasaki isn’t used often in darkness with the lights on. I feared I had a burning wire somewhere, or that Al did. I pulled over in a side road and waited for it to dawn on Big Gay Al that I had stopped following.

He eventually came back, we checked the bikes and found nothing to worry us so we continued with our journey, but heading towards home again as time was getting on. I took us around a route which gave us ample chance to power off some of Milton Keynes well known roundabouts which was quite fun for a while. As we got almost home I took another detour out onto a long stretch of dual carriageway to open the old Kawasaki Z750 twins up a little.

I am concerned that my mirrors may experience “burn in” as the distant dot that is Al’s headlamp was always there, but never got bigger as he failed to keep up at the 70 mph legal speed limit I was maintaining for the duration of the ride. Then it was a left hander and off through a small village and back home.

One interesting side effect of the speedier part of the run was the numbing sensation in my legs as the cooler night air rushed in through my polyester slacks. Still it was an enjoyable night run for the z750 twin and for me when my legs returned to life.

UK Tax Classic Vehicle Tax Cuttoff Petition

There is a petition you can sign online to bring forward the classic tax cutoff date by ten years
Quote:

Most Classic vehicles are used for fair-weather low-mileage “fun and rally” purposes rather than everyday transport. Originally the Road Tax exemption was supposed to be after the vehicle was 25 years old, but this idea was quietly scrapped about 10 years ago. I’d like to see the cutoff date now moved forward 10 years.

Sign the classic vehicle tax cutoff petition here
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ClassicRoadTax/

Today was a quiet day on the work front, so I took a holiday and spent the morning cleaning grime from the Z750. The poor old twin has never had a deep clean since I owned it, and from the looks of things a long time before. So today was all of its birthdays at once.

I started by coating it in a liquid degreaser spray, and letting it soak into all the Z750’s greasy and oily marks. The Z750 twin engine and wheels in particular had a lot of tough grime on them. After the degreaser had chance to soften the crap I hit the bike with a pressure washer.

Soon the engine was looking a lot cleaner around the weepiest joints, and I hit the wheel hubs and rims as between the spokes of the rear wheel was a lot of hard to shift greasy grime. The hubs of both the wheels now look all metallic and clean again.

I cleaned the worst of the grime from the frame too, and then set the spray to a wider softer spread and cleaned the paintwork. After it dried I hit the chrome and all the paintwork with a great polish my wife got from QVC, and now the old Kawasaki Z750 Twin is all gleaming again ready for my next adventure.

Short Fun Trip

Today was a beautiful warm sunny day here in Milton Keynes, so after doing some boring chores, and Big Fat Gay Al arrived on his bandit we decided to ride out on the bikes. Al had forgotten the keys to his Z750 twin so it was going to be a slow and steady one waiting for his 1200 Bandit to catch up to my Z750, but that was a sacrifice I would have to make.

We were going to go to Kimbolton to watch some Go-Kart racing but decided it was further than we wanted to go today, so settled on looking for the venue for my Tuesday morning work meeting just outside Leighton Buzzard.

I uncovered the Kawasaki Z750 and pushed it out of the drive and got my gear on. Second stab of the kickstart and the twin cylinders fired into life. Then we set off to fill up the fuel tanks on our way out. After the fuel stop it was straight onto the fast A5 Dual carriageway Southwards. Soon we were cruising along at the legal speed limit (honestly) and enjoying the leisurely riding.

At the end of the first part of Dual carriageway we went over a roundabout, and a quick flip of the Z750 twins throttle at the other side and Al was left behind playing tomato sauce (catchup) on the 1200 Suzuki. I rolled off the throttle and waited for him to catch up to me again. The trip I had guessed at about 6 or 7 miles was double that, but we found what we were looking for without incident, along roads going from 30 to 70 mph. A short stop and chat and we returned homewards.

This was when I realised Dazza was right, Big Fat Gay Al could make anything he wasn’t riding seem fast. As we approched a section of Dual carriageway I pulled to the right to take the outside (knowing it’s there I always prepare for it by hanging back a little then accelerating to pass as the lane widens into two). As I did this expecting Al to go with it, I was suddenly passing him sitting at 50 behind all the horse boxes and other slower traffic.

Then as he realised who had just passed him he was out in the overtaking lane and catching up as quickly as his bike could pull his bulky frame.

Took some back routes coming back and this produced some fun accelaration off of Milton Keynes notorious roundabouts, and cue more waiting for Al to catch up each time. All too soon though we were home and the ride was over. Still it was great to play some more on the Z750 twin which has proven to be a perfect machine to get back into riding a bike again. Next thing is another oil change, and maybe larger front sprocket.

Incidentally I had no more gear selection problems after Fridays one off glitch, curious, but prolly just old and worn parts syndrome (much like myself).

F1 Grand Prix Ride

It’s been a few weeks since I rode the Z750 twin anywhere mainly due to the crap British weather, which has been rain, more rain, and even more rain. That changed on Friday 6th July because my brothers girlfriend obtained some tickets to the Friday practice of the British Formula 1 Grand Prix at Silverstone. As I live just a few miles away, my bro decided to meet here, and ride on his ZZR1100 to the Silverstone circuit. That meant I’d be riding my Z750 whatever the weather on that day.

Luckily it wasn’t raining as we set off for Silverstone, but before long we hit some traffic at the end of Towcester leading to the A43 dual carriageway to Silverstone. Cue impatience from Dazza (my bro) and then my first experience of serious traffic filtering. If you have read this blog through you’ll know the Z750 twin is my first bike in many years, so I’m not used to filtering through traffic, or I wasn’t.

Soon I was following Dazza on the wrong side of the road to beat the queue. Then onto the dual carriageway, and a clear run to another roundabout with a double queue. I caught up with Dazza again at a set of lights, and showed him and his ZZR just how a Kawasaki should go (OK he had Sarah his long term partner on board, and didn’t open the 1100 up but I still left him behind and that surely counts).

More traffic filtering followed as we entered the Silverstone circuit lead in roads, still trying to keep up with the aparrently suicidal weaves and dodges of Dazza, but failing miserably I decided I should just try to keep an eye on where he went. I caught up again as we entered the car parks (or should I say he slowed and waited for me then ).

After parking, eating and finding our freebie seats we were in time to see the first practice session of the formula 1 cars
Morning Practise Silverstone F1 Grand Prix 2007

The formula 1 cars were fast, louder than we expected, and quite close to where we were seated in a covered grandstand at Luffield B. The “but” was that you only get to see a short section of track from your seats, so most of the action is happening elsewhere for most of the lap. Still worth going to see though especially with complimentary tickets.

After watching a GP2 practice session we had a walk around, and returned to some other seats (we had roaming tickets within the grandstand) for the afternoon formula 1 practice. It was even louder and faster than the morning session.

Afternoon Practice Silverstone F1 Grand Prix 2007

After the second session we went for another walk, some more overpriced food and waited for the crowds to leave before setting off for home. Good call by Dazza meant little traffic, but we were pointed out to some poorly signposted backroads to get home.

As we took a right turn, the Z750 gearbox locked in a false neutral, and I stalled the engine trying to get it to drive again. Then it just as suddenly unlocked and worked flawlessly all the way home. Eventually we came out in Buckingham about 8 miles from my home, but in a lot of traffic. More filtering traffic ensued. Eventually I managed to sneak through between a rather inconsiderate bus driver and a roundabout, and leave Dazza behind for a while.

Apart from the gear selection thing, all went well again, and I had a great day riding and watching in Silverstone.

A Breakthrough In Pillion Passenger

It finally happened again. My wife rode pillion on the Z750. After weeks of excuses she needed to collect a small parcel from the post office, so she asked me to take her in the company van to save her petrol. As the company van tax is so ridiculously high (?60 a month out of your wages to use a van I ask you) thanks to mr.Blairs government I opted out of private use, so that was a no.

Instead I offered to fire up the Kawasaki Z750 and take her on that. After some thought she said ok. We both got our helmets and jackets on, and I started the twin cylinder engine for the short trip. My wife got on behind me and we set off. After half a mile she let up on her grip and I could breathe again, and my face soon lost the blue shade it had gained.

She picked up the parcel, put it in her rucksack and we returned home, this time she loosened her grip a little more, and blood even began to flow back to my feet making the return journey even more comfortable. Doctors say my ribs should heel soon, and my lungs will eventually re-inflate to their correct shape, so all’s well that ends well.

Coalville Kawasaki Z750 Twin Meet Up

The Lonesome Twin Forum members have been arranging a meet up for months, and after several people dropped out had to find a cheaper venue. They ended up at The Vic Bikers Pub in Caolville.

Although the others were camping for the weekend, Big Gay Al and I decided to do a day trip to meet the guys from the Z750 Twin related Lonesome Twin forum. Watching the weather for the week, it looked bad for Saturday and I was in two minds as I have no wet weather gear. Finally my wife and Big gay Al convinced me to go see the other Z750 twins and their owners.

We set off around 9 am and took the A5 North with Al in need of fuel for his Kawasaki twin. I “accidentally” went past the first fuel station and then found it was another 15 or so miles before Al could refuel. All was ok, as I even managed to con him into paying for my fuel too (cheers Al).

Having fuelled both bikes to the top we were on our way on the lovely A5 which has a mixture of all kinds of riding for the Z750 twins to handle. Fast single carriageways with plenty of corners and roundabouts, into dual carriageways and then through 30mph limit towns and everything in between. The two Kawasakis took it all in their usual forgiving way. We’d covered 50 miles in what seemed no time at all, and with no problems.

Then we took a wrong turn. It was all Al’s fault but as usual he denies it, typical. We went 10 miles in the wrong direction (enjoyable though it was on the Z750’s) and we stopped in a layby and turned around to go ask in a nearby town. Also spoke to Andy from the forum on the phone to tell him we were lost.
“where are you?” Asks Andy (ever on the ball a?)
” if we knew where we were we wouldn’t be f**king lost” I reply stating the obvious.

Luckily a guy in the next village took pity on us poor Southerners and led us back to the right road. Soon we were once again motoring along on our way to Coalville. Suddenly a vision in Black waving frantically flashed by in the opposite direction. Then in a thrice what could only be described as a black blur came blasting past us. The apparition made it clear we were to follow, so being the cowards we are faced with something which looked like it had just come from the pits of hell we obliged.

Good old Andy led us to our destination, where we met up with several other Z750 Twin owners with a variety of models from B1/B2’s to CSR’s and LTD’s all powered by Kawasaki 750 twin engines in the frames. The weather was warm and sunny, the company good, and I know I had a good time there for a couple of hours.

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment if you like Kawasakis Z750 Twin machines.

Just Arrived

Andy and Al Talk Bullsh*t

My Bike Behind Andys CSR

All the Z750s together

Andys CSR

Phils Z750

Brians CSR

Als Z750 B1

My Z750 B1 Twin In The Vic Carpark at Coalville

All too soon it was time to go, and me and Big Gay Al headed for home. Back along the A5 astride the Z750 twins my hip and back started to give me trouble, so after 40 or so miles we stopped for a rest. I made the excuse Big gay Al may want a fag break but he had no fags so that didn’t cut it. We stopped a few miles later for Al to get fags and for me to stretch my legs (they’re short but stretching them doesn’t do much good even then). While we were resting we got talking to a couple of local bikers out for a few hours, one of them had owned a Z750 himself years ago, and was talking fondly of the old Z’s.

We made one further stop for food at The Super Sausage cafe near Towcester a great little cafe for the whole family just off the side of the A5. From there to my house is only around 4 miles, so after feeding our faces we were home. Total 130 trouble free miles of fun riding, and meeting new friends along the way.