(Click on picture to see more pictures of the car)
This is my 1991 Kawasaki Zephyr 550. Its a pretty rare motorcycle around my area but its really popular in the UK and Japan. I bought it because it was a pretty rare find and it didn't have that many miles on it. I decided to buy my own motorcycle because my dad's Kawasaki KLR 250 didn't have the power to keep up with traffic on the freeway so I decided to get something with an engine at least twice as big as the KLR. I didn't want something too big or too fast because I'm a beginner I didn't even have a license when I bought it just a permit. I also wanted a naked bike because I like that naked bike look. I searched craiglist and came upon many motorcycles the SV650 and Bandit were too expensive and a Hawk NT650 was hard to find the color I wanted graphite. Then I came upon an ad for a 1991 Zephyr, there were no picture of it but some sample pictures. I knew what a Zephyr was but I just about gave up on looking for one because I didn't even know if they existed in America and they DO! This guy was up in Benicia and he had the bike at his exwife's house. He apparently bought the bike about 5 years ago and lost interest in riding because one of his friends died. So the bike sat for 5 years, he told me it was a really dark blue almost black, YES it was midnight blue! I think it was fate that led me to this motorcycle like how fate led my to the Z it was Midnight Blue like how I'm going to paint my Z and it's name starts with a Z as well! Me and my uncle hopped in his 4Runner and headed to Benicia to meet him at his wife's house. When we finally got there there it was sitting under a car port. It had a busted left mirror cuz someone broke it off. It was D-I-R-T-Y and didn't wanna start up. My uncle hooked up some jumper cables to it and after a lotta cranking it fired up weakly. The engine wanted to die and there was lots of fuel leaking from the carburetors bowls. It had been sitting so long that the seals in the carbs had shrunken. Drove it up and down the parking lot I was amazed at how heavy it was but it was so down low compared to the KLR. It also came with a luggage rack to strap things to. He was a pretty cool guy we talked for a bit and I bought the bike off of him for 1700 dollars and it had like 7500 miles! He said before he stopped riding it he had a tune up done too score! Drove it back and took it for the first drive around the block and WAM after 6000 RPM the bike was a rocket, it rode so smooth too. My uncle said that the bike needed to be driven more to get the seals to seal again I need to get rid of that 5 year old gas. The tank was 3/4 full when I got it so you know what that means there was probably 1/4 tank of water condensation in there. Sure enough the tank had rust in it gasp! Well it still ran hopefully it doesn't harm the engine. I cleaned the crap out of the bike, I scrapped the rust off with a scotch brite pad and steel wool. Then I put blue magic on the metallic surfaces and wammo looks almost brand new! Waxed the tank and molding and bling. My dad dropped the bike already apparently he's never ridden a bike that heavy b4, that ones free one he gets because I dropped his twice. Luckily just the lights got scratched up and I buffed the transmission cover.
Me and this bike have been through a lot. It helped me get through college because parking was really hard to find for cars but not for motorcycles. The carbs kept on leaking for a while. Turns out the tank was badly rusted. I took it to Spec 1 behind Cyclegear in San Jose and they took the carbs apart and cleaned them up good and then they cleaned out the rust out of the tank. I had already cleaned it a lot too lots of rust chips came out of it. They also did a valve adjustment and synced the carbs. They bike ran great afterwards. In May of 2007 I wrecked the bike in a collision with a Ford Expedition that took off from the intersection at a bad time. I heard the car's tires screeching right next to me while I was splitting lanes, as he braked to avoid this truck. Unfortunately I didn't see it in time and I hit the front fender with my front wheel and I flew forward and slammed my face on the fender. Luckily I was wearing my helmet and it helped soften the blow. The truck backed up after it hit me and took off. I got up and chased after the truck trying to get the plate number but I couldn't and they wound up hitting 2 other cars during its getaway. Totally hit and run. Luckily I was just a little banged up. The chin strap bruised my neck a little and I had a small cut above my knee. I couldn't get anyone to tow the bike home so I rode it all messed up home. The damage wasn't too bad but the insurance company totalled it. I decided to keep it so I took the money and fixed it up with some parts I found on the internet. I aligned the forks because they were all crooked, bought a new front fender, bought a new headlight bucket, and I bent the handle bar as straight as I could get it. I took it to get inspected and did all the DMV paperwork and be Zephyr was back on the rode. Its a great bike I'm at the point where I've started to out grow it so I got me a GPZ 750 turbo...
none