Hey, remember that Kawasaki I have??
In my defense, it hasn’t actually been in my garage for the past two months. 😉 My friend Andrew (Nny on Sport-Touring.net) was without bike and wanted to try a Z out, so I loaned it to him…and then never really hurried to get it back.
But Andrew brought it back on Friday night after purchasing a very nice looking Ducati Multistrada for a killer deal, and I took it (the Z, I mean, not Andrew’s Duc, sadly) out for a short spin today.
Observations upon riding the Z after 5 months of riding the F and the XT:
* Holy crap, it’s low.
* Holy crap, it’s small.
* Holy crap, first gear pulls and does not give one thoughts of an aged and anemic slug
* Holy crap, the mirrors still suck. 😉
Other than that last one there, riding the Z today has convinced me to keep it. I had been toying with selling it, but no longer. I think all I needed was a break, to ride something different, to come back to it later and think, “yes, you still have your place in my life.”
I rode past the local reservoir at about 50mph, flicking the Z through corners and grinning a big shit-eating grin in my helmet. I took the Z up a dead end road with tons of 10mph hairpins and never once felt unstable.
It’s a very DIFFERENT bike than the F or, of course, the XT. It has different weaknesses, but also different strengths. And after six months away from it, I’m excited to learn its strengths again.
Welcome back, Z. 🙂
