Cafe Culture, out on a Saturday

Saturday today here in the UK started warm and sunny, so I dropped down to the lockup and pulled the Z1b from its slumbers, where it had lain unused for too
long, so long in fact that the clutch had seized, but that was easily freed up, and soon it was sat there burbling away on tickover, while I put the lid on, snicked into first gear and headed out for coffee…

Pretty soon and a short ride away I was parked up in my local MacDonalds, with my first coffee of the day. The bike looked great so I grabbed a quck phone pic, before heading on out.

 

Kawasaki Z1b

 

I like the easy laid back quality of the phone pictures, they look like they were taken with a Polaroid back in the 70’s.

After coffee, I called in at my local bike shop, and topped up the oil in the Zed, before heading out to the Triumph owners club show, and the delights to be seen there…

 

350 Goldstar cafe racer

 

Triton

 

 

 

 

Back in 1993..

Way back in the 93, MTC Motorcycles, based here in Reading, decided to have a Kawasaki day at the shop, so they stuck a small advert in one of the bike mags of the time, and waited to see if anybody would turn up….

MTC

Out on the weekend

Heading to MTC

The Mighty Z1

MTC is still in the same place, but I guess we are all older with less hair and bigger waistlines now, but the Kawasaki’s are timeless.

More here…  http://kevindean.zenfolio.com/p824590645/slideshow

And a couple more just for the hell of it…

Just a couple more from the Ace to finish up…

 

Kawasaki Z1

 

Kawasaki, Hanging at the Ace

 

Turbo-Tastic

 

There are a few more pictures in my photo gallery here http://kevindean.zenfolio.com/ if you want a look..

Kawasaki Z1, Forty Years of Style…

Kawasaki celebrates Z1 and first 40 years of Z series

Revealed to a stunned European motorcycle audience at the 1972 IFMA motorcycle show in Cologne, the impact and significance of the Kawasaki Z1 cannot be underestimated.

More here…

http://www.kawasaki.co.uk/News/Details/34092D3B55B

Z1 at Forty

 

Let The Good Times Roll

See you at the ACE.

Motorcycles! The good, The Bad, and The Ugly! ….

This is just a blog about motorcycles, good, bad, ugly, stock, or custom. And the people who ride them. My projects, other peoples projects, places to go,  what’s on, what’s been on, Just Motorcycle culture. And although I have launched this now late in 2010, It is really intended to be running from January 2011. So I shall just add a couple of pictures for good measure, just to see how it looks as it flys off into webland.

Amal

I guess I should tell you what I ride right here at the begining, so at this time I have an A65 Thunderbolt, built by BSA in 1968 for export to the East coast of the USA, where it hung out until this year when it was shipped back to the UK to be sold, I bought it as a non running project. Just one owner, and two thousand miles on the clock.

1968 Thunderbolt

I also own a 1980 Kawasaki Z1000 – Mk2, this is a UK bike, found earlier this year in a barn, again it was a non running project, and has already this year been through a couple of changes, and is right now undergoing another, the paint as you can see is fresh in red and white, the wheels are soon to be returned to the factory spec of black with polished rims.

1980 Z1000 - Mk2

And lastly for now, my BMW R80ST, we are old friends, as this is my main bike, again when I bought it a few years back it was a long time non runner, but I took a chance, and it has turned out to be a great bike, we have toured around Europe and the UK, loaded up with camping equipment, or run around the back roads just for fun. Those who know will see it is not stock, but I only change things that need to be changed.

R80ST in Wales