I have moved to the big Island of Hawaii-

Motorcycles are very useful here- considering it is some of the highest gas prices in the US, and the weather and roads are really good for motorcycle commuting! If you add on the traffic patterns and the ability to legally ride in the moped lane in my particular commute (Hawaiian road 130)
it makes even more sense to have a good ride for my 18 mile commute.

Well, interesting thing about Hawaii- motorcycles are worth more, by comparison, than cars. The rental car market just dumps cars on the island rather than send them back to the mainland, while bikes have no such mechanism, owners typically keep thier bikes when they leave, or the jungle quickly kills them if stored outside- and I mean dead, dead dead!

Well, the upshot is, I have found a 1976 KZ 900 for sale locally, and am going to look at it tonight- it is rough, but a good price for the Island. he wants 300, but I am going to offer 100 to start out- no title, no handlbars, no carb and missing the two outside pipes.

I have 5 KZs in storage in Alaska, and plan on shipping them all here eventually, along with my entire bike shop, and restarting my bike shop here, but that will take about a year for me to save up the dough. I will ship one of my four into one pipes here, or a brand new in the box four into two I have, and will buy handlebars new. It will need tires and battery I can tell just from the pics.

So, long story short- I hope to be back on a KZ full time soon!

Question for the board- I want to start fresh in the carb area, and don't want to use one of my sets I have now for my bikes in Alaska- who is the vendor to beat these days for a rack of clean, ready to bolt on carbs?

I will go look at the bike tonight and take pics!

For now, here is the pic I got from the owner

why such a drastic move?
kinda going from one extreme to another.
watch out for the dog! ha ha!

Wow! Looks like quite a project. How about shipping them there? How much does it cost? Just what is the price of gas on the island?
I have to go there one of these years. I hear the cost of living is sky high there. I would like to know about all of that. I think we would all know.
What are you doing there? What jobs and such are there to take up?
You have moved to one of the most beautiful places to live so I hear, tell us all about the island and your experiences please.

Ah, I'm envious...my wife and I looked at moving to Hawaii back in the early 1990's but we couldn't swing two incomes on the same island (me on Oahu and her on Kawai...we obviously passed on the deal)...

Cheapest fuel on the island is 3.45 a gallon- and the cost of living is actually cheaper than Alaska- my business I had going on the mainland failed due to a fraudulent investor, sadly, and I am starting from scratch at the age of 45. Shipping is as bad as to Alaska, and I have a whole container to move here! will cost me 8-10k by the time it is all said and done I think.

Alaska has a HUGE population of Hawaiians and Samoans, and funny thing, I lived in a predominately Polynesian neighborhood in Alaska, live among more white folks here now LOL

Most folks will tell you that the job market is horrible here, but I think that is mostly bunk, I got a job at Sears in a week, interview with the hospital next week, and have been offered a county job as a beach life guard as soon as I complete my training in the next two weeks- I have three jobs mon!

Work is here if you are smart and have a good work ethic. I have heard of discrimination against whites here, but never in my 20 years coming here have experienced it personally, and neither have my children since they were born. My Hoele children get along great with the brown kids, and my boy has only had about 3 fights total, no higher than an average Hawaiian culture- but he doesn't get bullied easy and is a very social kid, and really, really good at football, Jujitsu and Karate. Hawaiian respect a fellow warrior, and my daughter hasn't even had an argument with a native Hawaiian.