The Club For Classic Japanese Motorcycles

Brent Westbrook's Kawasaki Z900 and ZZR1100

I bought my Z900 by accident. I was looking at bikes outside a dealer in North Devon. There was a pristine Z1A. On enquiring, it was a customer bike awaiting a service.

However, there was a Z900 A4 amongst the bikes. It had been traded in for something smaller. It had been a ride-to-work bike. The owner had found it to be a bit of a handfull now he was getting older.

The owner happenned to be a member of the Taw and Torridge Motorcycle club - and I knew him. I'd seen his British bike restorations so I knew the Big Zed had been looked after.

£1000 and it was mine.

I've never really liked the Z900 A4 colour scheme so went for Z1A colours. It can always be changed if I have a mind to do so.

I actually bought it to do rallies and events since I'd moved to Devon. It was getting a bit too much for my 250 S1B.

Now that I have the ZZR1100 for that, the Z900 will be getting a 4-into-4 exhaust.

The ZZR1100 I purchased from Malcolm Linsley (our chairman) - again by accident. He wasn't really using it and wanted some cash for a Canadian Holiday. So the deal was done there and then at Kettering.

I took a van to Stafford in the October and picked it up.

I've had to very little to it. The lower radiator and oil cooler mounts are prone to corrosion so I made and bonded new ones in place.

The radiator and oil cooler grills are mild steel mesh and had rusted badly. These got replaced with aluminium mesh.

The lower fairing panels were resprayed and re-lacquered. That was fun - silver base, red lacquer then clear lacquer. The red lacquer has to be the exact depth or the colour doesn't match the rest of the bike.

Other that tyres and brake pads, it just goes and goes (very, very quickly indeed!)