Hi all!

Great site......... I canyon raced a highly modified 1973 Z1 back in the years (1978-86)
I've found a 1974 Z1 locally and looking to buy and build it the same way my last one was which was exactly like Harry Klinzman's only I finished mine 2 years prior to that very Vetter bike. You see, I knew both Harry Klinzman and Harry Mallett during that erra. I had one of the very first Bassani exhausts of that kind well before the Vetter bike was built. I look forward to getting this bike and duping my old one again, only this time I think I will give it both paint sceems, Racecrafters and Vetter. I am currently duplicating Wes Cooley's 1978 championship GS1000E. So far its coming along exceptionally well.

C. Cancelli

PICS we need PICS

Yea...pics...a lot of pics as you go. Harry Mallet had some great looking and running bikes. Didn't he build up a black Z1R or was it a MK11? I have a magazine article of that bike around here somewhere. I know it's in the house but that's about as close as I can get but it was a great looking bike.

I'll try and post sme pics of the Suzuki but as I stated, I have not yet made the purchase of the Z1 to build. The bike you speek of was a MKII and I had the pleasure of riding that bike one afternoon. Harry did some beautiful chassis work then however his swing arms and motor work were not exactly up to par. Harry Klinzman's sold me his Performance Works swing arm around 1981 and I found out why very quickly, it didn't work. It flexed worse than a stock arm and this was a caged, square tube unit. The problem was the wall thickness was too thin and the cage tubing to small, 3/8 diameter if my memmory serves me right. I guess he was trying to save weight but it just didn't work, very cool looking but flexed like rubber. In riding the beautiful MKII I was surprised in the lack of power. Oh it ran nicely and all but expected a harder pull but it wasn't there. My old Z1 had a bit more and I had quite mild cams in it that didnt require clearancing or shim under bucket. Harry Mallett and I were good freinds and spent many after rides at a place called The Sage Brush Cantina in Calabasas, Ca. where we sipped Coronas and chased women. I mean, this was back in the very early 80's, I even road with Jay Leno and later worked on a couple of his cars one being a Lambo Espada. Wow! It was just before he started sitting in for Johnny Carson back when he was just doing stand-up and still very approchable but thats a whole different story. I on the other hand own and ran my own Sportbike shop on Van Nuys Blvd. right across the street from a Racecrafters store. Man, what flashbacks, a lot of them, wow!

welcome to z-jungle

Welcome prirace...I also am looking forward to the photos

welcome,
you must have a huge stash of pics.share some when you can.

leon

wow killer stories...where are you now...go you ride up for the GP's...i was changing tires up the 101 in S.L.O town , around that time and was a 18 yr old with a great 73 Z-1...i also am rebuiling my youth with these things....i also got to see Wes's bike a few times as Mr Vetter kept it local and we knew some folks renting from him...the girl took us into a shop one night and there was a dream bike and a mystery ship just sitting there.....

i also got to score two complete MKII body sets left over at the shop i changed tires at...when the ten ,twelve KZ1000 MKII & A-4 were bought to strip and make the Mystery ships...

i also loved to canyon race and we had some awesome roads around San Luis and out to port San Luis...

I flashed back to the Mid 80's reading your stuff....thnaks...i am all keyed up....man those were great days to be young and on a KZ.....

Welcome and please...many pictures.......

let me know if you need anything i have boxes of little extra stuff

Welcome again...PICTURES!!!!

Craig ..up in monterey

Wow! This is the site! You guys are truly into it. I was lying about everything! No just kidding...... Ha! I wish I had kept some of the photos especally of my Z1. I will check with the family to see if anyone has any pix of those days. I owned "the crest" back then (Hwy 2)and arguably one of the fastest and or craziest (which ever you prefer) canyon scrafers of the Los Angeles basin. Aside from being an ace tuner and shop owner I was known by many of whom I have never seen before as my Z1 was truly an icon. I was also a Saturday morning special guest on a LA talk radio show called "Center Stand" which was strictly for bikers. I was the answer man for those who called in with mechanical issues. One of my first jobs out of high school was wrenching for Burbank Kawasaki, Carry Andrews was service manager it was just the two of us in service. Small place but we had a CHP contract and no shortage of work, I wore out a few air wratchets there for sure. Craig in Monterey, I am glad to hear from you we have a lot in common for sure. Yes, I did ride to Laguna Seca every year from 1977 on. That year the owner of Burbank Kawai rented a small Sesna and flew us up to pit for Carry and I've been going ever since. In 1988 my bike shop crew and I planned a ride to Laguna Seca for the race. We were to leave right after work but we were so busy servicing bikes for so many going to the race I wasn't able to leave with my crew at closing. It wasn't until midnight that I was able to finally hit the road on my then modified Ducati 750 Paso. I think the record still stands as I pulled into the race track at 4:10 am from Van Nuys which is in the San Fernando Valley some 365 miles away. I rode straight up 99 in the dark with the throttle pegged most of the way keeping the needle between 120 and 130. My neck and shoulders were so stiff from laying on the tank the whole way. I remember about 1 am an old farm truck pulled out onto 99 from a side street in front of me at about 10 mph heading north as I was, I drifted over into the south bound left lane never letting up and passed him doing a buck twenty. I'm sure he never saw me until I passed him just a few feet from his door. I stopped for gas shortly after and found that I had lost the tail piece, must have vibrated off.
Anyway, I am up in Oregon now operating an engineering and development site designing go faster products for euro sports cars mostly but get a few bike bits in once in awhile too. I did a slip-on undertail system for the 06-07 ZX10-R back when they were new. I sold quite a few to local dealers and a couple of dozen on youtube (Kawasaki ZX10-R exhaust)the unmistakable triple undertail muffler design by Motocancelli.net also on the site.
Its great chatting with you guys, the flashbacks are awesome! 57 now and feeling groovy?.....

Welcome!

Could you please put some spaces in your reply so us old gogies can read it? :whistle: