45 YEARS OF Z1 RIDING FUN

I bought my 1975 Kawasaki 900 Z1B in the spring of 1975 at Robinson Cycle Sales near the Rochester, NY area. About 4 years later, I moved it to Houston, TX and then to Redondo Beach, CA 5 years after that. Although the best motorcycle riding weather by far was in Southern California I moved back to Pittsford, NY 10 years later. The riding season in upstate NY is somewhat limited and I managed to keep the mileage low during my 4 mostly snowbound years there. My final work and motorcycle relocation occurred 22 years ago when I moved back to California to live in Westlake Village.

The year-round riding is great here, but I look back on all of the different places I have ridden with a great deal of satisfaction anyway. There were only two exceptions, one was the guy in the old pickup truck with a gun rack that tried to cut me off on the freeway in Houston and the other was a woman in a Sienna van who darted into my lane to get to a gas station. Luckily I was just coming to a stop at the intersection and only tapped the van's rear bumper. (And had the closest thing to a heart attack that I can recall.) I caught up to the pickup truck and flipped the driver the bird (with no Easy Rider result) and I pulled into the gas station and informed the clueless van driver about LOOKING and YIELDING the right-of-way. I have never liked the Toyota Sienna since then.

Photos taken near Triunfo Creek Park in Westlake Village, CA.

 

2021 UPDATE:  The old Z1 has moved without me this time. I sold it on January 14th and it now lives near UCLA in Los Angeles, CA where it is being well cared for by the new owner.