Hey Zilla! (2 wheeled mayhem)

[Ceej]

As long as we're into story time...

Dad picked up a Bend Poweroll R&D Honda 750. It was a '78 model, so since I was romping around wadding up Ducatis at the time, he decided to park my butt on it. It was the first of the 836 kits. The '78 was the last of the SOHC models. Keep in mind this was a new bike at the time. I think it was in 1979.

Dad picked it up for a good price, and it became my run around bike. I was chasing him on a V7 sport one Sunday, charging up the back highway to Silver Creek Falls. Dad decided to put the boots to it on the V7, which had a low range track transmission. He took off into a series of corners, hard. I charged in right after him, brought the honda down deep, with my body off seat to pull the center of gravity over and try to keep the tire patch planted.. I didn't succeed. Got off the patch hard in the throttle, and lost it. The rear tire unloaded, I pulled power and was headed for the gravel on the left side of the road. The bike stood up just before I went into the gravel, and I got it simmered down. My feet stayed on the pegs through the whole ordeal, I think. I motored up to where dad had pulled over.
His first question was, "Are you OK?" Followed by, "What were you thinking? The Japenese haven't invented the frame or shock absorber. That thing handles like $#!+."
We inspected the bike. The sidewall was chewed up pretty good, along with the comstar wheel.
I kept it a bit more sane after that.

Dad took the Honda away a couple months later. I wore the rear tire completely off the thing showing my friends tire smoke. I didn't miss it. The thing got terrible fuel economy. Maybe 38 on a good day. Had to stop for fuel all the time, even riding it sanely.

He put me on a Ducati GTS 500 which was a vastly superior machine. Handling was great, and it had a solid feel with excellent feedback. Wish I had one now...

CJ

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Tyrde-Browne Racing

I'm off to find myself. If I should return before I get back, keep me here.

[wvenable]

Where is Guzzi Mark? Bet he has some good stories!

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66 Lil' Red Piggie Valiant (Mater Crusher) - Thanks Zilla!!!!! 72 Demon (Number 1 Son's)

[slantzilla]

I was thinkin' the same thing.

After the Hurricane I bought my '94 Kawasaki ZX-11D. Bike was a cranberry/maroon color and was gorgeous. I loved that bike. It is still my favorite bike to this day. First bike I got an 11 second time card with and went over 119 in the quarter. Rode it up to Byron a couple times and won Bike class both times, and beat the same guy in the finals both times too. Put a Muzzy's pipe and a Corbin seat on it and rode the wheels off of it. Wheelied like crazy. I put 19,000 miles on it in 3 years.

First bike I took my step daughter for a ride on. She was so cool. We bought her a helmet and she would sit behind me and make motorcycle noises at the stoplights. She'd hang on so tight her little hands would cramp on her. She rode home from my folks house one day when it was pretty cold. (Her Mom was following us in her car) I kept asking her if she was cold and she kept saying "NO!". I finally pulled into a rest stop about 2/3 of the way home and told her to get in with her Mom. She didn't really want to, but the poor little thing was about frozen.

At the same time my ex wanted to learn to ride. After an unsuccessful stint with a 600 Katana, we got her an '89 Ninja 250. She did very well with it, and after a couple years traded it on a brand new leftover '95 EX 500 Ninja. Last I knew she still had it too.

I traded the ZX-11 off on a new leftover '93 ZR-1100 the same time we got the EX. The ZR was Kawasaki's attempt at reviving the KZ series. It didn't work, and the ZR got traded in on the new '99 ZRX-1100 Eddie Lawson Replica replica. This was a really cool bike. It would do wheelies and stoppies. Raced it a few times, never won anything, but had a ton of fun with it. I traded it in on Kawasaki's reply to the Uglybusa, the 2000 ZX-12R. Chuck liked the bike so much he kept it for his personal bike and still has it today, along with his original '82 ELR.

I got the first one that Chuck got at Kaw Town. This thing was a freaking rocket. I had a buddy of mine ride it at 41 for me. On his second pass on a 95* day he went 10:30@138. Bike was box stock and we didn't even check the tires. Earlier I had run 11:60's @125 on it. I didn't think that was too shabby since I weighed over 375 at the time.

Down side is that since it was an early first year bike it had some "minor" glitches. The fuel map had some holes in it. Unfortunately, they were right at around town cruising speed and really annoying. The other main one was it had a crap clutch in it. Kawasaki refused to do anything about either problem, and denied there was a problem. However, the ECU and clutch pieces were changed mid-year, and the parts on mine superseeded. That move alone almost made me go out and buy an Uglyboosa. I had the 12 for a couple years. I traded it to the parts guy at Chuck's for his '99 ZX-9R and a pile of cash.

Next!

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Proud supporter of Mike Jeffrey Racing Engines since 1999.

[Ceej]

Junior year in High School, my best friend had purchased a Ducati 500 from dad on an employee discount. (He worked for dad over the summer and saved up some cash.)

Steve and I decided we wanted to take a long road trip, and I'd just got the Guzzi Ambassador running well.

Dad turned us loose when we hit summer vacation. We had a bit of cash, and dad put a credit card in my pocket along with some strict rules. I followed those rules too. How cool is it to have a cool dad?

We headed for the wild places. No people, roads uncrowded, vistas we'd never seen. It was a grand two weeks on the road. We ran low on cash, and I hadn't touched the credit card. Since we still had some vitals, about 50 miles from home, we decided to camp one more night. We'd been in three states, and motored more miles than either had ever gone before.

Sitting in our camp site, tent pitched, dinner eaten, I glanced over at the bikes, aimed back at the road through the park we'd selected.

"Steve?"

"Yeah?"

"Look at the bikes and tell me what's wrong there?"

"They look fine."

"What's wrong with my license plate?"

Laughter....

The plate on the Guzzi had been expired for years. I'd forgotten to put the spare shop plate on it. We took the back roads home.
And boy did I pay attention to speed limits for the last of our trip! There were police cars everywhere!

CJ

_________________

Tyrde-Browne Racing

I'm off to find myself. If I should return before I get back, keep me here.