Hi folks, just tuning in to your fine site. Not a KZ owner just yet, but I have owned a couple of GS1100s (dodges tomatoes.....).
I am 53, born in 67. Not the summer of love, more like the autumn of regret....
I started on a CB650 in 1987 which soon went far away due to numerous mechanical issues, so I consider my first bike to be a 1983 GS550E, which barely won out over a very pretty and oh so green KZ650 which was $200 more expensive,(it was lot for me back in 94). Since then, I have owned a GT380, GS1000S with an 83 1100 motor, an XJ900 Seca which I brought back from the dead and still miss, an XJ650 Turbo Seca, an 83 GS1100E, an 83 XS650 (still have), and a Bandit 1200, which I stupidly bought at auction and which convinced me to sell my immaculate and never to be replaced GS11.
I blew up my Bandit most excellently at about 160mph a few years ago and I am getting it back up to snuff to send it off, since it is now something of an irritation. I really should have kept my big ol GS since it was plenty of bike and had a cachet the Bandit never will, but I was convinced I needed radials, six-pots and something newer. Too bad.
Anyway, I became interested in bikes in the mid 80's, and I had a friend with a stash of early 80's mags chock full of tests of the big bruisers of the day, so I came to have a great affection for the big KZs, GPzs, Spectres, LTDs, Katanas, GSes, and CBs. I was a huge Kawasaki fan, but had a great respect for the GS line as well, and considered them natural rivals. It could have gone either way, but time and constrained funds saw me in the seat of that 550e back in 94 and I was off to the races, so to speak.
Lately I have had a hankering for another classic litre bike. Once in awhile an XS11 will come up for sale, but they don't quite do it for me.
Currently in my area, there is an 1100 LTD and an 1100 Spectre available. The LTD is an 85. The Spectre an 82. The model year is irrelevant to me after all these years, but is there anything which would recommend one over the other? Mileage is similar. I have always liked the Spectre paintwork.
Cheers for now.