TOPIC:

Got to finish putting the bike back together tonight and will be going Sat. afternoon if any one
is going give me a call we'll hook up for a cold beer. 512-945-8261.

www.thehandbuiltshow.com.

Wrenchmonkey I'm up for riding down on Sunday with you let me know.

Looks like It'll be a good time,
It's snowing where I'm at,
Pete

Take your cam Dave!

Too bad I'm not close enough to check it out. Sounds like a fun time. Looks to be rainin' here for the next several days. We need the rain but Cracklin' Rosie is itchin' to rev her motor up Mt Laguna! Grrrrrrrrr ................................Mike



Vroom-vroom!!!

Well, the weather for Austin this weekend is high 70's and low 80's with just a slight chance for wet in evenings. So pretty much perfect weather!
Zukdave, you got PM. Lemme know and we'll lift some ales

Heading out in a few minutes to watch some dirt flat track racing.

Chris camera's on the charge now

Have a great time guys . Drink one for me .

Have one for me too.
Steve

Enjoy the races Dave. Be safe man!

What I saw of the racing sucked but we're home safe.
I'll get pic's up tomorrow gotta make a new F/B page the one
I'm using now is maxed out.

Hey folks!

Well, weather being nothing like the weatherman reported on Friday aside, I still managed to get down to the Handbuilt show today and thought I'd give y'all an update with a few pretty pics.
Originally, I was going to ride the 550a down to Austin, meet up with my son and with fellow KZR member - zukdave and ride down to East 5th Street venue together. That didn't happen. The rain in Waco caused me to puss-out on the riding 90 miles south and so, I drove down and my son and I took his efficient little car the rest of the way in. Zukdave and I were on the phone randomly during this and he was experiencing some gremlins that were delaying him too.
Arriving at the venue on E.5th Street, the clouds lightened up. No rain (it never rained in Austin all afternoon thankfully) and this is what greeted us about 30 minutes after the show opened for the day:

Front Entrance:


A view down one side of the street:


Food trucks were rolling in and there were probably already 50 or so bikes on the street parked. We walked in (a free show) and got a beer and started ogling the shiny chrome and cool customs:


It wasn't really busy yet but the stream of people coming in behind us never really let-up for the rest of the afternoon.
Inside the walls were lined with vendors like the hosting bike shop - Revival, and I even saw a few artists (well, this is Austin) that were doing hand drawn or painted pictures of bikes and automobilia (new word I think?). I think I may have found another bar serving beer at this point too

So many awesome machines on display. Some on the walls literally and most on raised plinths kinda' grouped in similar esthetics. I kept ogling and sipping, cafe bikes, brat-styles, ultra rad one-offs, Ducati, Norton, Honda, Yamaha RDs, Harley Davidsons, Indians (old and new). All very clean and cool regardless of your personal taste. But wait. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Is there not a Kawasaki in the whole dang place? Tell me that none of these younger, hip, guys we hear on the forum here or any like minded, daring guys with a cutting torch and angle grinder haven't targeted a KZ?
Well, it seems so. Probably 80 to 100 bikes inside and maybe 10 along the sidewalk outside on display and I couldn't find a Kawi...

I walked outside, tossing my empty beer can into the bin and looked for a food truck. More bikes were showing up all the time and parking along the curbs:


It was starting to look like a bike rally fo rizzle. My son was happy to see so many Harleys and I was groovin' on them too. We found a food truck with perfectly good Americana food - Bac'n Cheez Burger - Yup. I need me one of those and a big can of sweet tea. Sitting on the curb edge, I took my first bite of the juicy burger as this young guy with more tattoos on his arms than I have hair on my head came down the street on a Triumph with a side car. Pretty girl in the sidecar. Suddenly, he leans over and picks the whole sidecar up off the street and continues riding down the street. It was awesome! I was totally NOT expecting that! More munching of burger and slurping of sweet tea, when my son says "So you like vegan food huh?". I was like Whatchoo talkin' 'bout Willis? "Yeah, I figured you knew when you ordered that thing... The food truck you chose is vegan.". I took another bite into the juicy, pseudo bacon cheeseburger and said "Guess I do like vegan. Who'da thunk?"

So we got up from the curb after finishing our food and walked back toward the entrance and just then this sweet sound rolled by and stopped. A guy backing his sleek bike back into the curb to park it. It was a KAWASAKI ! My son said "Hey ain't that a..." Uhuh! It is. The rider was just taking off his helmet and I shouted "Say Cheese!":


Turns out the rider is Tom and he told me he knew KZRider. I guess with that beautiful bike, he would. Super clean. If I recall correctly, He said it is a 1975 Z1. Things were getting a little fuzzy for me at this point. It was getting hotter, I was wearing full body denim and perhaps there was an issue with beer or maybe it was vegan "bac'n cheeze". Whatever, Tom was cool and we chatted for a few. I told him the show was great inside but sadly there weren't any Kawasaki bikes in there. He said "Oh yes there are. Didn't you see them? There's two of them, both 650's I think...". Hmmm? How did I miss them? Not just Kawasaki but also 650's? Something I've been up to my elbows in all week.. We walked back inside and soon after my hand got stuck on another beer can. It's the strangest thing.. but I was intent on finding the Kawi's in this sea of custom and chrome. That 's when my phone rang. It was zukidave. "Where are you?" he asked. I'm standing right here. I replied in the middle of the big room. "Well, I'm outside by the Wall of Death exibit with some friends having a beer. Come on out.". So I kinda' glanced around some more for those elusive Kawasaki 650's. My son was constantly bumping into friends of his and often occupied chatting but at that moment he pointed "Over there. Is that a Kawasaki? Well, at least the engine says it is..". I quickly walked around the maze of bikes on display to take a closer peek at this:




Wait... It was more like this: and another of this :slurp of beer:

Yes! That's a Kawasaki. An uber nice one at that..:



and it's a 650. Go figure. This is listed as 1967 KAWASAKI W1R. Kinda' like the granddaddy to my KZombie650. Ok. Maybe not but very very cool, no matter how you slice it.

So my son was erstwhile engaged in conversations with several of his friends around more Harleys and I waddled toward the door outside to the grassy yard / courtyard area to meet up with zukdave and just there, closest to the side exit was this:


You ever felt that pain in your neck when it snaps back hard? No, me either. My neck was already well lubricated with beer BUT look at that Kawi. And what the heck do you know but it's a 650 too! Dayum! I kinda' dig that color too.
Well, I finally pulled myself away from this turbo charged beast and waddled outside through the crowd of people, looking obvious over the heads of no one and spotted this guy over there, by the beer bar. Nice! I smiled and waved at the guy who waved back. It was zukdave!

I finally got to meet up with a fellow KZRider member in person and of course the first thing we did was ... yup. Get two beers. We sat on this rock wall and watched the crowds of people lined-up to get into the Wall of Death and chatted for an hour or more. zukdave was with a couple of his friends and finally my son texted me and found his way outside to join us. We discussed our bikes of course and made plans to get back together again soon. zukdave races his Kawasaki at a race track near where I live and it seemed every time he was there recently, I had to work but I think maybe the next time he plans to get that beast he built out on the track, I'm going to suddenly have a really bad case of the 24 hour flu and have to miss work. It's the right thing to do. I wouldn't want any of my colleagues to catch this Kawasaki fever would I?

Hey Wrenchmonkey, gonna call ya' the KawMonkey! Great job, thanks for sharing, felt like I was almost there!
We don't get much Bike show action in Western New York anymore! The biggest show around is Toronto Canada.This hand made 1915- 1982-2015 "WAGNER" would have fit right in at the show!