My stepdaughter Bianca (nobody mention Rickaaaay, it’s not big, it’s not clever and it’s no longer remotely funny) has been staying down with her nan, and visiting us while she is here. She has never been on the back of my Kawasaki so she asked for a little go today.

She got on a spare helmet and a jacket, and looked like this.

Pulling away felt strange because she wouldn’t sit still for long. Also found she had a tendency to try to “help” the bike to lean into corners. She is no lightweight (sorry Bea, it’s true though) and it took a lot to keep the bike upright when she didn’t follow the same plan I was riding too.

We took a short ride, then went home. Her boyfriend CJ ( A DJ from oop North in Sheffield who works as Mad Dog Disco-tek) then had a turn on the back. A bit easier to handle as he is a little lighter.

Then Bianca wanted another go, so we took the Z750 Twin on a little jaunt down the A5 Dual carriageway. I ducked down at 75 ish so she could feel the wind (I wasn’t trying to get her blown off the bike honestly). Unfortunately she managed to cling on, and I had to refund the cash to everyone who’d paid for me to duck.

Both Bianca and CJ enjoyed the feeling of being pillion on the old Kawasaki so it can’t be bad.

Following a week of motorcycle practice on Project Gotham Racing 4 on the Xbox360 I was ready for some fast riding this weekend. I just hoped I wouldn’t crash as often in real life as I did on the Xbox 360 game. Don’t worry, I’m old enough to know the driving depicted in a computer game bears no resemblance to what you do in real life, it was safe fun and anyway those crashes looked painful on the Xbox360 how the avatar rider gets back on so quickly amazes me

So it was Saturday morning, just about, when big fat gay Al arrived on his (bum) Bandit, looking a bit hot after the motorway run up to Milton Keynes. A cool drink and a bit of chat, and some Xbox antics and he was refreshed enough to get on the bike again. I phoned a mate of mine in the area to see if he was coming out to play on his Virago, but he had other stuff to do, so it’s just me and Al.

We left my house and went North to the A5 and towards Towcester. Maybe the PGR4 sessions had some affect, as I pulled between the cars at the roundabout then outdragged them from the lights across to the A5 using the torque of the Z750 twins engine and shifting up gears low in the rev range to keep it pulling.

Then we settled for a steady ride to a fuel stop at Potterspury (sorry to the 2 men and a dog in that town if it’s mis-spelt ) I noticed the petrol station now has mortgage applications available for those filling anything bigger than a Mini. I think they will soon give the option of having your wages paid directly to the petrol companies if it goes up any more.

Anyway enough of the social comment and back to the ride out, we trickled through Towcester and turned left towards Silverstone on the A43. Along the A43 I was poodling at a steady 70 on the Kawasaki and Al was hanging back, then catching up on the Suzuki Bandit to keep himself amused, he is easily amused bless him.

Suddenly a Yellow Lotus passed on the outside, and Al was out there behind it. The driver of the Lotus wasn’t the playful type, and pulled out of the way to let Al pass. The chunky one pulled the Bandit back in in front of me, and shrugged his shoulders.

A few miles down the Dual carriageway, and the vibration from the twin was numbing my fingers. It was just under 5000 rpm to hold around 70 and that seems to be a place where the Z750 B1 engine finds most vibrations. At the first Brackley roundabout, I turned off towards Buckingham and some smaller roads. It turned out to be just right, 50mph speed limits, which meant cruising nicely around the bends for the old twin.

For all its quirks the Z750 twin does ride nicely around the smaller roads, although nowhere near the handling of a modern bike it still inspires enough confidence for Al to comment later on how much I was leaning the bike now compared to my earlier riding when I first got the Kawasaki.

Soon we were through Buckingham, and Al hadn’t held up too many tractors on his Bandit through the country lanes . We hit the A422 back towards Milton Keynes and got behind a line of traffic following an old horsebox. As soon as I had enough clear vision to see ahead of the traffic, I shifted down and opened the throttle past several cars, it felt good that a 30 year old bike could nip through as quick as it did. Next clear line of view, and we were past the horsebox.

There was a flash of red, and a lot of exhaust noise and a Bandit carrying what looked like a herd of buffalo but was only one man really (the effect would have been worse had he worn leathers) came past. After all the overtaking to get to the front he led us into the petrol station for a fill up. I watched as horsebox and all the cars passed by us again as we sat in the garage.

Then it was a quick blast home, and time to fire up the barbecue. A pleasant couple of hours spent talking about bikes, the preceding rideout, and eating too much red meat and it was time for Al to leave. I don’t know how he manged to get back on the Bandit after filling the generous tank on the front of his body, but he did and rode off back to Maidenhead.

So ended another fun day of riding, eating and talking crap. Hope to do it all again soon.

Just a P.S. before I go. I recently finished co-writing an e-book on classic motorcycle restoration. Find out more at a new site http://www.classic-motorcycle-restoration.com , and if you know people interested in motorcycle restoration join as an affiliate, give them your link and make 60% of any sales you make.

It’s a bank holiday weekend in the UK so consequently it’s cloudy, showery and changeable on the weather front. So as I won’t ride in the possibility of rain I decided to do some maintenance on the Z750 twin. Nothing too drastic, some minor lubrication and simple routine stuff was all I had in mind, about ten minutes of fettling in other words.

Firstly I decided to grease the rear swing arm bushes, which Kawasaki made provision for on the Z750 B1 by putting in a grease nipple on the swing arm. I retrieved the grease gun from my company van, and found it empty as I had left it. Located the grease cartridges and changed it. That sounds easy enough as I write it here, but it took 20 minutes to find the grease cartridges and to coax it into the grease gun which didn’t seem to want to screw back together afterwards.

After some persuasion and naughty words (the wife and kids were out so it was ok to use them instead of words like “oh bother” and “deary me”) I was ready to hit the grease nipple with the nozzle. Kawasaki saw fit to give us a grease point, but not to make it accessible. You can see it between the frame and the rear brake line I have ringed it on this blurred picture for you

It even looks accessible until you push the grease gun nozzle in the gap. I tried several different ways, and a lot of the swear words I knew before getting the nozzle on the nipple and pumping grease on the swing arm at the same time as into the nipple. I spent the next ten minutes with a bit of stick and rag cleaning the excess grease off the swing arm to prevent it falling on the tyre while I am riding one day.

With the swing arm having got as much grease as my blood pressure was going to allow before breaking out of several veins in my brain, I set about the simple task of lubricating the chain. Have you ever noticed how the nozzles of cans of spray (such as the chain spray I was about to use) have a habit of going missing?

Having located the chain spray nozzle I realised I was unable to spin the rear wheel to access the entire chain. I had to get the bike higher in order to get the rear wheel off the ground. I found a piece of wood, placed it carefully under the centre stand and heaved the bike up the extra height. The wheel spun freely and I lubricated the chain. It has been said at times I work on the wrong side of safety, decide for yourself now

I noticed the wood had moved as I was about to take the bike back down off the stand, it didn’t fall so it must have been safe like that right? You can comment below if you’d like to

By now the 10 minute routine lube jobs had run into an hour and a half, and I decided I’d had enough for one day. It is after all a holiday so I am going to rest now.

Another weekend, but this time the sun is shining and preparations have already been made for a ride out. Early in the morning my wife got the first text from Emma (the female version of James Toseland ) asking what time we intended to get out on the bikes, as usual we were waiting for Big Gay Al to arrive. Even when he did arrive we needed a fuelling stop before any serious riding could take place, so me and Al headed to the Super Sausage for a late breakfast

When we got back to my house, an impatient Emma had already been around the block several times and was itching to get going. Emmas Yamaha R1 was still warm outside the front of my house and she was in full leathers raring to get out there among all the other bikes, which could be heard on the roads around our part of Milton Keynes, including the A5 dual carriageway which runs along the back of where we live.

We chatted for ten minutes but still had no idea where to go to, and the others tried to palm off the job of route planning to me as soon as we mounted the bikes. As we left the top of my road it was like a “who can ride slowest” competition as they all tried to be behind someone else, mainly me. As the owner of a Z750 I was bound to come off best in this event, and this left Alan on his (bum) Bandit 1200 to take the lead.

Big Gay Al led us along one of the only two roads he knows in MK which took us eventually towards the A509. The two newer machines had left me behind along a stretch of dual carriageway and sat waiting in a layby as I went by, to have to lead them again and devise a route for us to take. I took a back road I’d never been down before which took us to a place I hadn’t been to before but eventually took us back to Newport Pagnall and back to MK’s roundabouts and dual carriageways. So I took the V11 south, cut across to the V10 past Willen Lake which is a nice place to view as you pass at a sensible speed.

The two speed demons were evidently itching to get going at a less sedate speed, but I kept them following around some of Milton Keynes smaller roads. I had a plan to get around to the bottom of the A5D dual carriageway and let them stretch the legs of the Suzuki and Yamaha machines, and neither of them really knew where I was heading until we got there. As we pulled on the A5 slip road I waved them by and settled in for my leisurely ride as I watched them disappear in the distance.

The Z750 twin is happy at about 70, and so am I, it’s fun, smooth and being a naked bike much faster means hanging on against the wind especially with my less than aerodynamic bulk catching the air. A few miles of this speed and I was at the end of the dual carriageway with no sign of Al or Emma, so I headed home. There they were at the side of the road waiting for me. I told them I’d been around twice but they made me out a liar.

A few minutes at home, and Emma went back to her home across the block, and Big Gay Al headed back for the M1 to go back to Maidenhead. I decided to visit an old mate a few miles away, before I went my wife took some pics of me and the bike and even posed on the Z750 herself.

<—-This is the long suffering wife astride the Z750 twin looking every inch the biker chick

And below this is me next to the Z750 before going to see my mates GSX750 F

The following short video is of me leaving home on the Z750

Shall I ?
Shan’t I?
It was one of those weekends as far as getting the Kawasaki out. Saturday had been forecast as showery for the morning, and less so for the afternoon, and Sunday was supposed to be showery all day.

I watched out the window Saturday and no showers all day until the afternoon, should’ve gone out on the Z750. Sunday was showery in the morning then brightened a bit. Cue hairdresser Emma and my long suffering wife pushing for me to get out there for a quick spin on the bike. I relented and got dressed for the occasion.

Emma appeared on her R1 just after her husband on his Suzuki GSX600 and we were ready to go. 2 kicks and the 750 twin burst into a fast idle, slowly off choke and we were off. Along the smaller roads to Towcester through Old Stratford, and all was looking good.

Just onto the A5 about 3 or 4 miles and the heavens opened, and nature threw her bathwater out all over us, and all the other bikers along that stretch of road. We all pulled over, and decided to brave it out and go through Towcester and see how it looked.

How it looked was the complete opposite of sunny warm and dry, and discretion overcame valour as we turned around and headed for home. I got the feeling Emma and Simon weren’t too eager to be hanging around for me and getting caught in another of natures cleansing fits. But bless them they did wait for me, and luckily we didn’t get caught by the rain again.

We covered around 10 miles, got cold and wet, but the old Kawasaki just worked as it should. It’s still got it where it counts. The only problem with it now is having got wet it’ll take ages to clean all the shiny parts again. Oh wait, I’ll do it the way I usually do, and just put the cover back on, no dirt in site now. Life is good.

A little off topic, but a company I affiliate with has announced a new range of Classic motorcycle manuals and literature in their product line up. As they include a lot of Japanese manuals for classic Jap bikes (kawasakis are well catered for) I thought I’d post a little about it, and it’s been quiet here anyway right

So here’s their blurb from their site at www.classic-motorcycles.co.uk/

[quote]NEW classic motorcycle manuals & instruction books.

We are proud to announce our NEW range of classic motorcycle workshop manuals.

Our classic motorcycle manuals have been reproduced from the original factory information, therefore they are very detailed and informative and include many technical photos and illustrations to help guide you. Because they have been reproduced from the original factory publications they are of a very high quality.

Included in the original factory publications are workshop manuals, parts manuals and instruction books for most classic motorcycle models. We have over a thousand manuals to choose from. [end quote]

Click here to go to the site then follow the link to the motorcycle manuals with this picture beside it —->
Take a look around at their other products too, they have high quality tee-shirts I know they are good quality cos I bought one for my dad with the Ariel logo on it.

In the April 2008 issue of Classic Motorcycle Mechanics magazine there is a familiar looking bike in the “Readers Bikes” section.

Yep at long last we have made it into print with a picture of the Z750 twin at the local Wolverton show last year and even got in a link to this blog too woohoo.

And that’s it really. Nothing else has been done with the Kawasaki since the last post, not even started it up. My excuse is that the weather has been crap. I’m sticking with that too, I refuse to ride in this Easter snow flurries and hailstones which the my part of England is experiencing and that’s that.

Did I say that was it, not quite. I also volunteered to help put together a new Z750 twin site with forums and a photo gallery. You can see my handiwork (I set up the site, and modified a web template to suit the theme) at http://www.LonesomeTwin.com as well as find other Z750 twin owners, and read about their bikes too.

A planned ride

After a phone call from Big Fat Gay Al, it was decided we would be going out for a ride on Saturday. My brother Dazza was invited to ride up with Big Al and our neighbour Emma and her husband were also coming along.

I got up to cold damp roads in MK, went and filled the Z750 to the brim with fuel, and went and see some guys I know on the way home. Just 3 short miles, and I was already cold, and the roads had proven to be a little slick. I phoned ahead and warned Al and Dazza, as that kind of riding is for hardened hairy arsed bikers, not me. So we didn’t go anywhere, still the Z750 got a short run out for fuel before it was put away.

Today I decided it was time the poor old Kawasaki’s engine had some fresh oil. It was last changed when I first bought the bike and it has done some work since then, and the oil was only going to be in for the initial start up, and a few miles before it got changed to kind of flush the lubrication system out.

The oil change has been on the agenda for a while, but today I finally got out the washing up bowl (don’t tell the wife) to drain the oil into and got underneath with the spanner and let out the old lubricant. It wasn’t in bad condition really, but it’s gone now to be recycled, and the new oil is in.

I just couldn’t be arsed to change the oil filter though as that meant removing footrests, gear levers, engine side covers and more faffing around. That’s a job for the next Z750 twins next oil change, when it may also get some other new parts, but at least the oil is good for a few more miles of engine protection duties.

The Cafe Run

Following a call from big gay Al telling me he had changed the exhaust on his (bum) Bandit we arranged for him to come up to show me how loud the new zorst was. So late Saturday morning saw my whole neighbourhoods peace shattered as the 1200cc Bandit struggled to drag Al’s ample carcass along.

After a spell of catching up we decided to go up the A5 to the Super Sausage, to give the Z750 twin a little warm up, and limbering up. Following several attempts on the starter, and a few kicks the Z750′s twin cylinders came to life ready for the short run.

I took the lead, as I wanted to be able to hear myself think above the roar of Als new empty exhaust pipe. Yes the Bandits new exhaust is a little on the loud side. Luckily it’s only a short ride to the Super Sausage and mainly through sparsely populated areas with few cemetaries, so the exhaust note of the Suzuki didn’t waken too many corpses along the way.

The Z750 twin was its usual well behaved self, running sweetly there and back, not at all bad for something over 30 years old. I still find the steering a little light with the taper bearings, but a few miles soon settles it down. At least this ride was a bit tamer than the recent outing with the Yamaha R1 ridden by Emma.

On our return to home though I found something even louder than the Bandits empty exhaust, and that was its owners complaints about his cold fingers. I guess its all well and good having expensive if somewhat empty exhaust cans, but some blood pumping into your extremities can make for a much more enjoyable ride.