Really loving this bike (KZ400)!

It should really go without saying, but I can see why my dad held his bike (440) so highly, because I have grown to love mine (even though mine is only a 400)! I love the fact that it gives me plenty of smiles even though it is only 24 lb-ft torque and 36hp - who said you need to go fast and have crazy, stupid horsepower to have fun?! I love how it handles - it's an agile little sucker, this bike taught me to have courage when leaning (I could hardly get my older Yamaha to lean because it made me nervous). And I especially love the fact that I can get almost 70 mpg out of it if I ride respectfully (low and slow), but can still knock at least 45 if I rip on the go-stick 24/7 .... it never felt so good to fill on up only $2.50 before!! (I fill up every 50-80 miles). Yes it's loud...maybe even a little obnoxious (new muffs are in the works), but I adore this bike and I hope that I never have to get rid of it.

Ride safe, brothers (and sisters?)!

They really are great little bikes. I should ride mine more but it only has 4,500 miles on it.
Glad you are enjoying yours.

The 400 was my first Kz. That got me hooked!

I've been looking to add one to my stable for a while. I get kinda bummed when I see them all getting chopped up on here.

Kidkawie wrote: I've been looking to add one to my stable for a while. I get kinda bummed when I see them all getting chopped up on here.

I totally agree! Remember this one (see below). The girl started the project by cutting the bike up (see www.kzrider.com/forum/10-new-members/599...?limitstart=0#689636 ), but a couple weeks later she vanished. Did she scrap it? Too bad, it looked like it was a pretty nice survivor until she hit it with a hacksaw. :( Ed

650ed wrote:

Kidkawie wrote: I've been looking to add one to my stable for a while. I get kinda bummed when I see them all getting chopped up on here.

I totally agree! Remember this one (see below). The girl started the project by cutting the bike up (see www.kzrider.com/forum/10-new-members/599...?limitstart=0#689636 ), but a couple weeks later she vanished. Did she scrap it? Too bad, it looked like it was a pretty nice survivor until she hit it with a hacksaw. :( Ed

Yes....that's one of many.

I put 5K miles last year on my 440 and loved every minute. Probably the most fun out of all the bike I've owned. It isnt the fastest bike but it sure handles like a dream. Its sad that they seem to be the ones that get chopped up the most. Usually nice bikes turned to scrap. The people doing it always get pissy when you try and show them how easy it is to ruin them with a hacksaw. Oh well, if it wasn't for people hacking up really nice bikes I wouldn't be able to find their really nice parts to make my 440 look like the one they destroyed.:whistle:

I started at a young age with mini bikes - lawn mower engines in a basic frame - and then graduated to enduro styled bikes. My first, new, "street legal" bike was a Suzi TS-80 which I bought with my first summer job income. Of course in the dealer's showroom were all these drool-over big bikes but the woman (yes, even back in the 70's, there were women involved in motorcycling ) must have been a mother too because she advised me to learn how to ride and to do so on "an appropriate sized motorcycle". Even that bike was big enough for me to get into trouble with because after all was said and done, it wasn't so much me, the newbie rider on the streets of a busy, big city but all those others out there that I was sharing the roads with. I nearly got knocked off my bike by a city bus of all things in the first week I was licensed.
By the following the year, I had graduated to a GS400 and rode that bike for years. Great thrills. Great memories with my Dad, in the garage, learning the basics of motorcycle mechanics and maintenance. Within a few months it seemed, all my friends had 400's - Yamaha xs400, Kawasaki KZ400 and Kawasaki 440 LTD. It was the LTD that really turned my head though. I thought Kawasaki had done the impossible when they developed that look and always wanted one. I had my 440 up to a few years back when I gave it to my son who suddenly showed an interest in motorcycles and he learned how to ride and got his M classification on it.
The 400 range of bikes were.. scratch that, ARE the seemingly perfect size motorcycle. They are fast enough for hair-raising adventures but also light enough to make riding fun and easy. They have great fuel economy and have enough power to ride 90% of the riding I am usually doing.
I did take my "little bike" out on a vacation one time. My girlfriend on back. A luggage rack packed. We hit the highway and drove for hours on end. Man my butt was sore from the saddle after about 4 hours constant but the bike hung in there and performed flawlessly even while many friends said it was too small for extended highway driving. I don't think it was too small, just I was too big for it's thin foam seat.

I started out on a KZ440 LTD as well and still love that bike, it was the most agile and confidence inspiring bike and I still adore it to this day! Truth be told I would not be surprised if that little bike with its brilliant handling and ability to throw it so effortlessly into corners would beat most any other bikes coming DOWN a canyon simply due to its handling... heard many a time that few can keep up with them going downhill on a real twisty canyon road, and they are a BLAST to do that with. Three generations pic of that first KZ440 that Pops and I picked up last fathers day for me to learn to ride on :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

Brett

Great photo!!! Ed

Awesome picture Brett. Hang that in the garage for inspiration.

Thanks gang, was a terrific Father's Day for sure. Drove a few hours out to Scotts Bluff, NE and picked up the bike. Pops rode it back since I was just about to go through my class, so I drove the 2002 Trans Am WS6 back for him, when we arrived back my son was going nuts wanting to be on the bike, honking the horn and twisting his wrist making moto noises HAHAH was so cool! :woohoo: :woohoo:

Brett