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Kawasaki ZZR 1200 (2003) Sept. 9, 2006 - April 30, 2012
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Schoharie Valley - Bear Ladder Road Columbus Day 2006 |
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The '93 ZX11 was sold at the end of the summer 2005 with the intention of buying a newer high performance sport bike. My first choice was a Suzuki Hayabusa. However, searching eBay, MonkeyAds and the Atlanta Journal online ads turned up a parade of bogus listings - low prices for imaginary bikes listed by scammers. |
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I did find a 2005 Hayabusa nearby, but the price was too close to that of a new bike (asking price was $9,500). A short test ride in Rotterdam on a cool fall morning showed that the bike was very similar to the ZX11 in ergonomics. But it felt stronger.
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When I couldn't find the next bike of my dreams, I had made up for it by buying the Kawasaki Ninja 500. This would have to suffice until I could find a big-bore performance bike. I got the opportunity to sit on a blue ZZR in Jumpin Jacks parking lot in July 2006. This gave me a first hand feel of the bike. The owner gave it a good review which got me considering this as my next bike. It seemed tall yet similar to my ZX11.
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after this, I missed out by just $100 on a ZZR on eBay. Then a listing
in the
Want Ad
Digest led me to a look at
this bike
on Labor Day Weekend on the way back from the Vintage Car
Races at
Limerock Park in
Conn. I negotiated the price to $6,400 from the
$7k asking price. The bike had just 3,200 miles and was in perfect
condition. Exactly what I was looking for. I picked it up the next weekend, Sept 9th. Steve and I rode down the Taconic Parkway on his 1600 Road Star the 70 miles to Milan NY at Rt 199 [right off the Taconic]. I brought a license plate from one of my other registered bikes and rode away, not realizing that the inspection on the bike had expired in 2004. No problems and a fine day of riding back to Schenectady.
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Columbus Day 2006 - 200 mile ride, Schoharie Valley to Rt. 42 at Shandaken NY
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HP (red) and Torque (blue) Note dip at 4,500 rpm
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There is a performance glitch at around 4,500 rpm, though it is at a lower
rpm on my bike, closer to 3000. A fix is explained step by step at ZZRBikes.com, though I don't get this done until 2011. Throttlemeister throttle lock added for 2008. $120 mail order. I don't find it all that useful. Maybe for highway cruising it would be a help, but for just riding around, or commuting, it seems that manual control is more pleasant and exact.
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By the summer of
2011, I have about 14k miles on it. The carburetion issue has been
fixed and the bike runs perfectly. |
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In early March 2012 I put
the battery in, advertise it on Craigslist and trade it as an even deal for a Suzuki VStrom
650 after a month of running the posting. A great last ride 60 miles
to Saugerties for the trade and it's gone with 14,100 miles. |
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