Saturday, 21 November 2015

My Canadian Bike




 I like adventure bikes. In Greece it's what I ride because roads are sometimes treacherous but always interesting. But at home I have an antique for my ride. It's a bike I dreamed about when I was much younger and finally acquired it later in life.

In 1979 Kawasaki engineers produced a bike they'd been working on for several years. It was to be their first foray into 6 cylinder motorcycles. Honda stole some of their thunder with the introduction of the CBX the previous year. The 1978 CBX 1000 was a sport bike with an air cooled 6 cylinder engine that produced over 100 hp and it received rave reviews.

The 1970s were a time of a major energy crises caused by petroleum shortages. The Middle East oil producers slowed exports and there was a revolution in Iran. To conserve petroleum the U.S.actually reduced interstate highway speed limits to 55 mph.

So into this world was born a behemoth of a motorcycle with a displacement of 1300 cc and 120 hp. It had liquid cooling and a shaft drive like a car. It also would break the interstate speed limit in first gear. The motorcycle was heavy at over 700 lbs. It didn't get rave reviews. But it did raise eyebrows and create a sensation for its complexity and sheer overkill for the time. One bike magazine dubbed  it the Hulk, another named it King Kong.

At the time I'd just bought a 1978 KZ1000 and quite liked it. But the 1300 was a bike I drooled over just because of the size of the thing.

I used to read all the cycle mags of the time and I remember coming across an article about a Finnish guy who'd set a world record for wheelies. He'd gone 65 miles on a California interstate on his back wheel. He was riding a KZ1300. He was a stunt rider and his name was Arto Nyquist. I really craved that bike.
Then someone stole my KZ1000. It wasn't insured for theft because theft insurance was expensive. I was then paying off a loan for a bike I didn't have any more. Then I got married. Then I had kids. Afterwards, there was never enough money for that bike of my dreams.

But in October, 2005 I found it. I came across a 1981 KZ1300 in a customer's backyard and bought it for $1000. It had a fairing and hard bags and an ugly paint job, but it was a KZ1300. It also needed work to get running. It was a project I dove into that winter. I tore off the touring junk to put it back to how it looked originally. I had a friend who owned a bike shop so I took it to him to tune up the engine and carbs.
One of my favorite memories is going to pick it up at the bike shop when it was ready. When I walked into his office there was a low rumbling sound coming from the back of the shop and my friend asked me if I liked the sound of my bike. It was the very first time I’d ever heard that engine running and I fell in love with that sound. The throaty exhaust sound reminded me of a buddy's TR6 Triumph sports car. My bike actually had more horsepower than that Triumph.

Then I had it painted black.

The thing rides like a train. And it's so smooth. There's no tingle through the grips like every other bike I've owned. Just smooth power through the gears right up to a theoretical 148 mph. I've cruised along at 100 mph but would never test my luck to find out the real top end. It's a 35 year old bike but it's an every day rider for me.

The last long ride I had on it was to the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada. It was July and the weather was excellent. That place was meant to be seen by motorcycle, with the highest mountains in eastern Canada. Rugged terrain and ocean, that’s what I like.

Kind of like Greece.

See videos at:
Video YuouTube

www.motorcyclegreece.ca