What first got you into Kawasakis ???

[photomike666]

Never rally been brand loyal as such, have had two Yams, two Hondas and two kwaks. Funnily enough no Swepies. I joined here through a mate, loved the look of the Zx10R, so when I got the chance, that was the bike I chose. And like Marty and Gos, it will live in the shed for ever. but then so might my last bike - or my present rack bike.

[Neka79]

well it started years ago...wen i was abt 16 or 17 i fell in love with 2 bikes....

the 1st model cbr900 (92)
the zx7r (94 ish)

i had my L's and rode my poxy honda 250 (MVX) to school and the auto teacher turned up on his son's zxr750 (89/90??) .... i liked it, but when i saw the newer version, it was lust...

when i got my 1st real job i printed off 2 pics..a cbr900 and a zx9r (96-colour like stace's) and stuck em on the wall next to my bed, so id get up every day and go to work...

couldnt afford a cbr/zxr so i bought dads mates cb900 (also looked at another mates dads gpz 900"ninja" with custom paint job) ...had that for a while...

went in to local dealer to look at bikes, cos my mate had just got a 89 zxr750 and i saw it... a 99 zx6r in green..it was sex on wheels, i still love the look of them things!!

put a deposit on it that day, picked it up the next.. joined ksrc abt a month or so later...
the rest is a terrible tragedy....

[MiG]

When I was doing work experience at Boeing I asked the other work experience guy for a pillion ride on his GPz900. It was fucking cool (woohoo $1.80 on that little street between holden and boeing) and afterward I asked him what bike I should get. He strongly recommended the GPX250 and I did nothing about it for 2 or 3 years. Recently I decided that I'm getting a bike and after confirming that a GPX250 is a good choice I got one.

[varden]

I was shopping for a bike for my girl and i saw an electric blue 98 ZX9R parked in the line up, it was love at first sight. Salesman patted the seat and said this bike will do 300kph

I considered my short life expectancy if i brought a bike like that after a 4 year lay off from riding and focussed on the FZX250 Lisa wanted.

But I decided I'd have one one day.....

Got an RF900 first.... oh yes so sensible.

Then watched an 04 ZX6R on pilot race rubber carve up at norwell and i was in love again! I vowed i'd have one of those some day too...

Sold the riffer after a year of tomfoolery and brought a mint 15,000km 1998 ZX9R...6 months later i brought a smashed up 04 ZX6R with 1600km on it...delemma.

Only had the 9 for 12 months before my need to thrash a bike around a track showed the 9's short commings (compared to a recently purchased ZX6R that was already character enhanced.)

I sold the 9 before i destroyed it....and i still regret letting it go.

Been hooked on kawasakis since.

[Stretchy]

I was into dirt bikes in high school and my favorite racer was Jeff Emig so always wanted a KX.
Then got into roadbikes as the Go-Show was doing his thing in world superbikes.
Did not get a bike for a long time though as was scared of the unknown and getting hurt, seems silly now as i race a ZX10R.

Finally got around to buying a bike a couple of years ago but decided to go with an R1 at the time but as soon as i saw the ZX10Rs i had to have one.
Could not afford it though but some nice lady decided to not give way to me and precided to give me and the R1 some interesting modifications.
Limped in and bought a new 05 ZX10 two weeks later with the insurance money as barely used it for the next 9 months as had a lot of back problems from the accident.

Never liked older bikes before but now as i get older and know a little more from seeing some of the guys here and other places riding the older bikes that its the rider that makes a bike fast and not the other way round.

Will get some older bikes one day to have some fun with, a ZX7R and a KZ1000 are on the short list so far.

[nobby]

Nothing so glamorous for me, in my first life as a rider I started on a CB175, and moved through dirt bikes, had an XS250 twin, then an RD250 until I finally finished up with a Suzuki GSX750S, Katana 82 model and just over 12 months old when I bought it off a mate who was being posted overseas.

Absolute bitch to ride, and the last Spoozuki I will ever own. Sold it in 85 to buy a fridge and it took me 20 yrs to buy my next bike.

As for Kwaka's, never owned an exotic model, the zzr600 is my 3rd Kwaka but definitely not my last.

[Black Magic]

Big in character- small in stature- that about sums it up for me!
I wanted a hot looking sports bike but am 'vertically challenge.' The ZZR 250 was the hottest looking little bike that I could touch the ground on. After owning one Kawasaki- I only had eyes for them, so my ER6F was the next choice in a more powerful bike (650) that still let my tootsies touch the bitumen.

[Wattie]

i rode a yamaha when i was 4.
it was a Peewee 50.

when i turned 7 dad bought me a KX60, coz they were the competitive bikes at the time.

had that for a few years, dad extened the swing arm for me, and stuck road tyres on in so i could do short circuit racing.

then went to a KX80, then we sorta stopped racing, i just rode whatever we had at the time.

The Z1000 is my 1st road bike

[Plaz]

A mate who owed me money when I was 16, couldn't pay and offered me his dear departed Dads (years before) GPZ750 turbo as the pay back. Looked at the word turbo (this was in the era of VL Commodore Turbos being the hottest thing going) and was hooked. Rode it for about 8mnth when the same mate asked if he could have a go and promptly wrote it off. So I thought about, then decided I better go get my license and bought a GPz 250 (belt drive), then about 3 weeks later a ZZR600.

[Phil]

used to look at two wheels in the library at high school back in the early 80's, for some reason i always liked the kwaka's better than everything else. gpz900 mmmmmmmmmm

one day i came home from school with a pic of an xr250 that i'd got on the way to sport one arvo, i put it up in my room - mum came in and ripped it down, told me "you'll never own a motorbike as long as you live in this house" - "i'll have one one day you watch" was my reply..........

one of the girls that i worked with ended up being a good friend - her partner had a green gpz900 - he took me for one ride on it and i fell in love with that bike. he and all his mates were pretty passionate about their kwaka 900's, i guess one of the reasons i would end up with one one day they also had 2 really cool cattle dogs and a ute they were great people and this was my first realisation that there was a difference between bikies and bikers.

now all my mates are getting bikes, the one i like riding most is a mates klr250, then another mate got a gpx250. i rode it one day and was hooked. a few other mates had tt250's rg250 and then rgv 250's. went and got my licience - until then i hadnt had one - but i did shit myself everytime i saw a cop

went a got the licience and when it was time to get a bike it was an all black gpx250. i rode the farkin thing EVERYWHERE i went for about 14 months, doing 40K on it - then had a huge highside after locking the rear brake and sliding speedwaystyle down the princess hwy in peak hour traffic bike wasnt the same so i got a zzr250 with 249k's on it. sold it 4 months later with 17K on it.

that was when i got the zzr, had the bike for years - did heaps of little things to it that just made it a great bike. sold it to a mate.

but from now on i'm joining the gosling school of bike ownership, we may aquire new ones - but the old ones arnt going anywhere.......

[rotaboy]

i brought a 2r about a year ago then had some problems with it so while on my research path i discovered this site and they kinda grew on me.
then when it was time to upgrade propper green kwaka time!

[rooster]

They were wild and cheap, first K was a 750 triple had this on my L's then a Z1000 then wasted a few years on other multi cylinder items before returning to the fold on the mighty ZRX. Stone with all those delicious K's, the mighty Green Meanies of Hansford and Toombs et al, to me there has always been that bit of character about K's that none of the other Jap Inc have ever evoked except maybe the CB1100R and the Katana and the very First GSXRs. Never really had in incline toward British or European, except maybe Laverda 1000, britsh electrics were by Lucas Prince of Darkness and Ducatis were designed by sadists for masochists. Honda to bland even today, Yamaha make good musical instruments, Suzuki big GSXs and Katanas.

[Glen]

My first bike was a Kawasaki 75 minibike my old man bought me when I was about 11. Had my first wheelie tragedy when I flipped it into the rose bushes in the driveway and I've been shit at them ever since.

Had numerous other bikes but bought a KS125 off my brother for $25 in 1982 and you just couldn't kill the bastard, inlcluding running it for a whole day without oil in the tank (bloody autolubes).

Then after a string of Suzukis bought my beautiful Green ZX9 in 1998 which (I know I'll regret saying this) I still reckon was the best thing I've ever owned.

And now the ZX10 which is just stupid and will always be 300% better than the pinhead riding it but again I love the bloody thing.

[Lone Wolf]

Ooh, ooh - almost forgot.....Tom Cruise aka "Maverick" on the Ninja in Top Gun

[Glen]

...and Peter Jackson run a contest in 198? where the prize was a GPZ900. I think I smoked two packets a day for about 3 months. Didn't win the bloody thing