How I've come to own a modified Z1000J and it's refurb
Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2016 12:49 pm
In 1983 I left school aged 16 and got a job at a beer kit factory about 4 miles from where I lived, with my first pay packet I bought a 1980 Suzuki TS50ER, this is how I got into motorcycles, I'd preferred cars prior to this.
In about October of 1983 I discovered motorcycle magazines, one of the first motorcycle magazines I bought had an article about an Eddie Lawson Replica Z1000 built by a bloke called Dave who worked at a Kawasaki dealers in the north of England (he now runs Z-Power), I was smitten, that was how I thought a bike should look, two years later I passed my bike test but Z1000s were beyond my finances so I bought an LC, more LCs followed, then I got into GSXR750s and went through a series of race replicas (and trail bikes) until in 2003 my wife declared that we were having children, I thought a 170+ mph sports bike wasn't really the most sensible thing for someone who needed their license for work to ride, so I bought a Husqvarna SM610S, which I enjoyed for about 2 years and then went off riding it, so it sat festering in the garage, unused.
In the spring of 2015 I started wanting to ride a bike again, so I dusted of the Husky, mot'd it, insured it and went out for a ride on it, it felt horrible, uncomfortable, twitchy and aggressive, so I started looking on eBay for something else, something that would be a bit of a project - so I bought a cheap 1993 CB400 Super Four, this only took me about two weekends to get it back on the road and running well (not bad for a bike that had been sat for 3 years), I also found that I really enjoyed riding the little H**** and in the spring of 2016 I fancied a bigger bike, but I wanted it to be a bike to suit what I wanted rather than something straight off the peg, the only new bike that came close was the H**** CB1100, but it looked poop.
So I considered getting a CB1300, but again I don't really like the look of them, so I started considering building a Spencer replica CB900F, but the early 80s CB has reputation for reliability problems and the ones on eBay were expensive for what they were and the whole project was looking a bit dead in the water.
More trawling of eBay followed, GS1000s, GSX1100s and Katanas looked at but none of them really floated my boat, then in August a bike described as a 1982 Z1100R Eddie Lawson replica popped up on eBay, it obviously wasn't a genuine Z1100R and had modified suspension, I assumed it was either a GPZ1100B or a Z1000J made to look like an ELR, but it sparked that memory from 1983 or 4 of what I thought a bike should look like, a deal was struck and I had to collect a bike from Guildford.
I wanted to collect it as soon as possible, so a huge VW Crafter van was hired from Enterprise (it was all they had), scaffold planks bought from B&Q and I was on my way to Guildford, assistance getting the bike into the van was got from someone I'd never met before from another motorcycle forum and we arranged to meet at the sellers house in Guildford.
I drove down, cash in pocket, and arrived at a house in the posh end of Guildford, the seller (a senior lawyer at a petro chemical exploration company) turned out to be a really nice bloke but he didn't know much about the bike, but seeing the bike in real life I knew I wanted it badly, who cares if it didn't run very well, it was big green and looked good. Cash was thrown at him and with the assistance of Ian (from the other forum) the bike was loaded into the van.
A two hour drive later the bike was home, but still in the van, ramp was put in place and then time spent wondering how I was getting such a big heavy bike out of the van, in the end I got my wife to assist, she held the bike upright a I made the jump from van to ground and it came out easily.
In about October of 1983 I discovered motorcycle magazines, one of the first motorcycle magazines I bought had an article about an Eddie Lawson Replica Z1000 built by a bloke called Dave who worked at a Kawasaki dealers in the north of England (he now runs Z-Power), I was smitten, that was how I thought a bike should look, two years later I passed my bike test but Z1000s were beyond my finances so I bought an LC, more LCs followed, then I got into GSXR750s and went through a series of race replicas (and trail bikes) until in 2003 my wife declared that we were having children, I thought a 170+ mph sports bike wasn't really the most sensible thing for someone who needed their license for work to ride, so I bought a Husqvarna SM610S, which I enjoyed for about 2 years and then went off riding it, so it sat festering in the garage, unused.
In the spring of 2015 I started wanting to ride a bike again, so I dusted of the Husky, mot'd it, insured it and went out for a ride on it, it felt horrible, uncomfortable, twitchy and aggressive, so I started looking on eBay for something else, something that would be a bit of a project - so I bought a cheap 1993 CB400 Super Four, this only took me about two weekends to get it back on the road and running well (not bad for a bike that had been sat for 3 years), I also found that I really enjoyed riding the little H**** and in the spring of 2016 I fancied a bigger bike, but I wanted it to be a bike to suit what I wanted rather than something straight off the peg, the only new bike that came close was the H**** CB1100, but it looked poop.
So I considered getting a CB1300, but again I don't really like the look of them, so I started considering building a Spencer replica CB900F, but the early 80s CB has reputation for reliability problems and the ones on eBay were expensive for what they were and the whole project was looking a bit dead in the water.
More trawling of eBay followed, GS1000s, GSX1100s and Katanas looked at but none of them really floated my boat, then in August a bike described as a 1982 Z1100R Eddie Lawson replica popped up on eBay, it obviously wasn't a genuine Z1100R and had modified suspension, I assumed it was either a GPZ1100B or a Z1000J made to look like an ELR, but it sparked that memory from 1983 or 4 of what I thought a bike should look like, a deal was struck and I had to collect a bike from Guildford.
I wanted to collect it as soon as possible, so a huge VW Crafter van was hired from Enterprise (it was all they had), scaffold planks bought from B&Q and I was on my way to Guildford, assistance getting the bike into the van was got from someone I'd never met before from another motorcycle forum and we arranged to meet at the sellers house in Guildford.
I drove down, cash in pocket, and arrived at a house in the posh end of Guildford, the seller (a senior lawyer at a petro chemical exploration company) turned out to be a really nice bloke but he didn't know much about the bike, but seeing the bike in real life I knew I wanted it badly, who cares if it didn't run very well, it was big green and looked good. Cash was thrown at him and with the assistance of Ian (from the other forum) the bike was loaded into the van.
A two hour drive later the bike was home, but still in the van, ramp was put in place and then time spent wondering how I was getting such a big heavy bike out of the van, in the end I got my wife to assist, she held the bike upright a I made the jump from van to ground and it came out easily.
