Your Longest Ride

Some of you are serious Iron Butts. Care to share? What was your longest trip on a KZ?
No Voyagers or Goldwings here, that'd be too easy.
My longest was from Spokane, WA to Battle Creek, MI. It was on a KZ650, and there were two of us (both on 650s). The year was 1978, and I was 21 years old. The trip took 4 days, and I was REAL glad to get off that bike at the end.
Who's next?

The Warden and I...back a few years,We went to Seattle Washington,to hook up with a few Members from here.Stayed in the area for a couple days,and headed to Vancouver to visit the Ma-in-Law...stayed there for a few,and made Our way home.Veered off a couple times along the way.to visit Friends,and beers.
Total miles...1500 round trip.
I forgot that even HADan ass by the time We got home.:laugh:

Does San Fran Bay Area to Palm Springs on an '87 GSXR750 count?

KzJim wrote:

Does San Fran Bay Area to Palm Springs on an '87 GSXR750 count?

I think it would.It's not a "Lazy-Boy" bike,lol.
How many miles,round trip?

Norwich England to the Swiss and then Italian Alps in 1986 on a Z1b with a full race peckett and mcnab 1100 engine, saw 160 mph on the german autobahns .

Changed the oil in switzerland and over filled it, stopped half way up a swiss alp pass to let some oil out of the bung on the side of the engine, that worked ok until i rang it off putting it back on. Coasted 15 miles down to a village found a closed garage got the owner out, found an oil pipe take off that fitted the thread and brazed the end up to keep the oil in, carried on over to Italy, got there at 9.00 pm found a pizza place up in the mountains, we had not eaten all day so demolished 2 large pizzas and many beers, the owner helped us put the tent up at midnight in her back garden.

Broke the clutch cable the next day and had to drive a 100 miles following a looney local on a moto guzzi til we found a new one.

2 weeks, 3000 miles, most miles in one day 800 Got home took the rack, panniers etc. off and raced at santapod drag strip the following weekend!

I used to just live for the long rides. Every trip I ever took was on a KZ. I started in 1980 on the KZ650 riding 2000 miles to Montana, back through SD to Denver. Next year 3200 miles out to San Diego, up to San Fransisco and back. That was enough of KZ650 trips as although I love the KZ650s, they are not that great on long trips. In 1982 I bought a brand new GPZ1100 and thought I’d ride to Connecticut for the national motorcycle drag races in East Haddam. That was 4000 some miles. 1983 I thought I’d ride the entire east coast so rode to Key West up to NJ to Englishtown for the dragraces there and back. By then GPZ1100 was fairly worn so I got the 1000MKII and was happy with Florida so just rode various rides down there and up to NH for the AMA superbike races in 1987-1988. In 1989 I thought it would be fun to ride to NH for the AMA superbike races then clear out to Sonoma. CA for the Nascar road course the next weekend so I did that. I got 2 weeks vacation every year and liked one long ride so in 1990 thought I’d go all out and do the 4 corners tour on the KZ1000. 4 corners are Madawaska Maine, Key West FL, San Ysidro CA, and Blain Washington. I rode that routt and went 10,300 miles in 13 days. 1991 I did the same thing but took a little longer routt riding to Key West up to Maine then staying entirely in the USA to Blain, down to San Ysidro and back to Denver. 10840 miles in 13 days. In between all these trips I rode the 1000MKII on 4 of the Colorado 1000 in 24 rides and out to Las Vegas a few times. I enjoyed every one of these trips on a KZ and never was stranded ever. That’s the funny part as my Dad and Uncle would take trips on their big Goldwing and Venture and nearly half the time one of then would return home on a bus because of terminal motorcycle breakdowns.

Great thread.

RonKZ650,

You will win this contest by a longshot. Those are some amazing rides. I suggest someone do a proper story on this, and submit it to Motorcycle Classics for an article. Do you have any pictures of your jaunts? That would clinch it. If I were their editor, I would publish that in a flash.

It is clear to me that the KZ line has an unbeatable reputation for durability and reliability. You can't touch this.

/

How about Pittsburgh/Cleveland to Daytona and Back on a zx-6, FZR600, and a TL1000R?

Boy those are some great sounding rides. I wish I had more time to do some of those. My longest ride was 2 years ago. I rode the KZ from Riverside CA to SanFrancisco going up the Pacific Coast Highway all the way. That was a little over 700 miles and 12 hours straight in the saddle, including running out of fuel in SanFran,(you'd think a city that size would have more gas stations!).I will be prerunning the Baja 500 course this weekend on my dirtbike. Think about it,500 miles on a CRF450 in a day!(Well 2 days prerunning,1 day racing). A quick tip for those people who visit from out of state--PLEASE look at the ocean from a turn out and not while driving your motorhome at 15mph with your head sideways:ohmy:
I think ltdrider gets the dedicated iron butt rider award. He rides down from Palmdale all the time for club meets and rides. My helemets off to you.
I have been toying with the idea of riding my 1971 Honda CL350 from Seattle to Alaska, solo, then write an article obout it. Anybody can buy a new BMW or something and do it but doing it on a 30+ year old machine would make a great story!

How about ,
Sunnyvale CA ,
Just south of San Francisco.
Over the hill,then on the coast all the way to Big Sur.
Turn east to Sequoia National Park ,
Into Kings Canyon National Park ,
Then back the long way ,

In the summertime , on a weekend with all the cages and RVs in the parks .

In less then 40 hours ! Somewhere between 500 and 600 miles ,and never hit a freeway.

On the same bike thats sleeping less then 30 feet away from me right now .

Sorry ,I forgot to mention 2 hours each way in the costal fog.

Post edited by: MDawnz1, at: 2007/05/26 02:46