TOPIC:

Those look like Jardene slip on's. You might be able to buy baffles for them
Steve

No need for baffles this bad boy. For the few times i ride it per year, my neighbors are just going to have to tough it out. Out on the open road (of Texas, no less!), I am not infringing on anyone's freedom of peace and quiet. The 4-into-1 has a baffle...sort of. The open pipes are for parades and other special occasions.

NASA_Tuner wrote:

531blackbanshee wrote: welcome.
nice heirloom you have there sir !

thanks for posting,

leon

Thanks Leon!
The heirloom part is where the story of this bike gets good, so I will share. When I got my first bike, a 1987 Yamaha SRX250, brand new with savings from years of working in high school, I loved nothing more than going out on summer weekend rides with my old man. I would take my 100mpg Yamaha and follow him around the South Side of Chicago. He had this GLORIOUS and fast (!) green 1000cc superbike you see in the pictures. I was always in awe of it. It had straight open megaphone pipes and is still the loudest thing I have ever heard with two wheels. We would cruise the Chicago Forest Preserves and when we would find an open road with no traffic, he would open the throttle and just evaporate into the distance with this thunderously loud, and exotic exhaust rip from the KZ. I remember it so fondly that it could have happened yesterday.

My dad sold the bike in 2002 (or so) to a friend of a friend of his. I had long since moved out on my own, many modern motorcycles followed, but when he mentioned selling the KZ in passing, I was shocked. I guess I thought he knew what that bike meant to me. Once I let him know, he tried to make it up to me, handing down some other cool stuff, but it wasn't the same as that bike.

Dad passed away suddenly three years ago. At his funeral, my younger brother and I were talking, and I told him that the only thing dad ever had that meant anything to me was the Kawasaki. He really took it to heart. I came back to Houston and went on with normal life. My brother was now on a quest. He had the unenviable task of managing the work of distributing my dad's estate, but meanwhile he put finding my dad's KZ at the very top of his list. Completely unknown to me, he found the bike, convinced the guy to sell it back (I'm sure the story had everything to do with it!), and got it back to his house on the South Side of Chicago.

Three weeks after my dad passed, my brother and his family scheduled a video conference with me and my family on my birthday. They brought the camera into his garage, and revealed to me "live" - my birthday gift. Behind a big sheet, after singing happy birthday, my little nephew and niece pulled away the sheet, presenting a gift I could never have imagined possible. I knew immediately it was our dad's bike. I am extremely thankful.

That, friends, is a brother worth celebrating. And a big Kawasaki KZ1000 worth keeping, loving, and maintaining as long as I can.

i'm blown away,thanks for sharing that story.
may it never leave your side sir

leon