Write a road test for your own bike.

I got this idea from another forum (Ride-Ohio) and thought it would be cool to see you guys try to objectively write a road test for your own bike. Objective being the key word ... lol. Try to pretend your writing an road-test article for a motorcycle magazine about your bike. Break down your article into paragraphs like "Chassis", "Engine", "Looks", etc. Please remmember to let us all know what make, model, year, etc. the bike you're critiquing is.

I am just gonna cut and paste my road-test (with edits) from the other forum ... here goes ...

I own a 1980 KZ750H1 LTD. I spent last summer rebuilding it from the ground up. I finished it in October and only had it on the road for ten days before my daughter ran over it with my Cub Cadet deisel tractor ..... so this is kindof a first impression type critique. 10 days worth ... lol

Engine, ... Good first impressions are that this thing makes a ton of power and is very fast for a 3/4 litre bike. Probrably the fastest 750 I've ever ridden (not saying that much as I havn't ridden a ton of 750's). It starts and runs very well for a nearly 30 year old carbureted motorcycle.

Brakes, ... The triple disk brakes provide good stopping power. At least good enough for me.

Asthetics, ... I think she's beautifull !!!

Electrics, ... Lighting, gauges, etc, ... everything works as good as a 28-29 year old bike can work .... kindof outdated .... that's why they call 'em vintage ... right ... lol

On the down side ...

Chassis, ... The handling leaves a little to be desired ... this is probrably due to the leading axle front fork and mini-apes handlebars... Ah, but for the way I ride it's gonna be fine with me. I can still outhandle your average Harley but I'm sure as hec gonna get left way behind by the GSXR and Ninja guys. The ride feels fine ... maybe a bit soft. At 5'10" I'm not all that tall but I have longish arms .... lol. The seat feels and looks great but positions me a bit too close to the handlebars.

Transmission, ... around town and on country roads the gearing is great. I find myself looking for a sixth gear while cruising at highway speeds. The motor starts to feel a bit buzzy. Again, just something that I'll have to get used to, I do most of my riding around town and on country roads anyway.

The future, ... Over this past winter I have rebuilt the old girl again. She'll soon be ready to ride once more. I have replaced the bent lower triple tree and updated the factory steering stem bearings from ball to roller bearings type and have also replaced the mini-ape handlebars with a set of OEM LTD buckhorns ... Those two things alone are going to greatly effect my handling so the story is still out on those "upgrades". I have also completely gone thru my forks with new seals, oil, air pressure, etc. I cranked up the the rear shocks to full firm. I've also added some custom touches (including some new chrome and new paint (again)) ... the old girl is really looking quite fine !!!!

Hey, this is pretty cool. Good idea.

Okay, I'll do one on my Z1R. It's a '78 so it has the 18" front wheel as opposed to the 19" that the '80 sports. I picked it up way back when I was a Junior in college, painted it yellow (trust me, it looked good), down 2 teeth on the counter-shaft sprocket, 29mm Mikuni smoothbores, velocity stacks with screens. Back in the late 80s this set up kept it even with a stock 1000 Ninja thru the quarter mile...not bad.

Motor: the stock KZ1000 motor had the same top-end as my Z-1 900, but with a lot more power in the mid-range. With the short gearing and the smoothbores it would power-wheelie in first gear. I put it back to BONE stock in the early 90s, stock pipe, air-box, gearing. And it instantly became a nice, smooth, slow:blush: , sport-tourer.

Brakes: the triple discs looked good on paper, and it halued-down quite a bit better than my Z-1, but still, a lacking set-up. A friend had a Z1R with braided lines...a night-and-day difference...get the braids!

Asthetics: I could talk about this all day. To me, the lines on a Z1R are timeless. A gorgeous bike that somehow manages to make sharp angles go perfectly with a round head-light; it also manages to blend sharp traingular angles with sharp square angles...visually, a master-piece.

Electrics: besides the typically inaccurate fuel gage, and an optimistic speedometer, no failures...typical Kawasaki = bullet-proof.

Tranny: again - from my experience - typical Kawasaki. Rugged, bullet-proof. Lots of street-drag launches, lots of track launches, lots of clutchless speed-shifts, lots of clutched-up wheelies. Lots of abuse, no problems.

Chasis: well, there has to be a fly in the ointment somewhere, doesn't there? In my life - besides cruisers, touring bikes, and BMW boxers - I have never ridden a more evil handling sport-oriented bike. This thing wallows in corners and squirms around when you run it in deep on the breaks. Powering out of a corner is an excercise in sphincter control as it will either push you out of the corner, or buck and wobble you un-intentionally (like a pre-front end tuck) into an understeer down into the corner. But it does well at stop lights, and parking lots...

The Future: Well, I think I touched on what I NEED to do. Besides getting big/wide 17" wheels, a beefy swing arm, and inverted forks all off a '92 FZR1000 I need to have the frame checked and then braced before I install the 1260 motor. If she's evil with 75 real ponies, I don''t want to think what she'll do with twice that...bbrrrrrrr!:dry:

So, there she is: my '78 Z1R, not perfect, but neither am I. PLUS: she's the same age as my wife and the wifey likes the Z1R...cool, or what!

:lol: -KR