Ricks Own Bikes

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Here are a few pictures of my own current bikes, a lot of the bikes have special memories for me and although they are not all kept in the "museum" they are still around and often they are still in annual use.

Double Click the Image for a larger picture.

My KZ1300 - Almost as quick as a standard H2 - But a hell of a lot heavier!

The Z1300 is a superb bike, it has all the speed of a H2 but it also has the ability to cover hundreds of miles a day with little effort from the rider. My own Z1300 had a major overheating problem a few years back which turned out to be the nylon water pump drive gear coming away from the metal water pump gear and not pumping sufficient water.

My Z1000 Police

An unusual bike and also One that is suitable for covering a lot of miles in a day, with standard gearing the bike would rev out at 88 mph, a different sprocket arrangement allows the bike to cruise at 100mph with ease.

My Z1000ST - Now put back to original spec

Just a very nice example of a ST1000, the bike is in superb condition apart from the 2:4 seat which was a genuine optional part from Kawasaki. Unfortunately I acquired this bike around the same time as the Z1rTC and as there is no contest of which I prefer I am afraid to say that I ridden his bike less than 50 miles.

My KZ1000 (the daily rider on U.S. trips)

My Z1000 Turbo - LOVE this bike!!

What can you say about the TC that hasn't already been written? When I bought this bike it left an impression with me that would be VERY difficult to erase, I had honestly never ridden a bike with such a HUGE rush of power, I am not exaggerating when I say I accelerated at 80 mph, the back wheel span and it was nearly impossible to change gear fast enough to keep up with the revs up to 140mph! The bike lasted around 12 miles before it spluttered and poured out blue smoke, I limped the bike back to the workshop and stripped it down to reveal :

If you notice you will see that the ring lands (the section between the piston rings) have all shattered. Whilst I understand four stroke engines I m no expert on "performance" engines, So, I sought advice off other "experts", my pal, Gary S in Michigan suggested that the engine was running far too much boost and if I were to continue running high boost I had to lower the compression ratio of the engine. I researched the Z1rTC littl further to find that the engine is a bog standard Z1r item with a turbo slapped on it - it is a strong engine but nowhere near the strength required to run a high pressure turbo, after checking further I found that the bike should be running 8 p.s.i. boost. I checked the wastegate on my bike and found that I was running 42 p.s.i. boost! No wonder the bike went like a Hyabusa on acid! I turned the gate down to 10 p.s.i. and fitted a set of new genuine pistons. Unfortunately the bike as now fast but it just didn't thrill me anymore :( I tuned the boost up to 14 p.s.i. and the bike would now give most modern bikes a run for their money, the only drawback is that you have to constantly be aware that any over revving or missed gears will mean instant death! The motor lasted nearly 300 miles before it ate itself again. I am still searching for some low compresssion pistons that don't require the bike to be re-bored, failing that I will have to get thicker base gasket made up.

My Z1s

My Z750 Twin - Don't ask!

A thoroughly boring and practical bike, how on earth can Kawasaki have been allowed to replace the H2 with this dinosaur ?

My Blue H2

Maybe the "ultimate" H2 - an very early bike with the early spec (H2r) porting, a bike that turned into a legend

My Gold H2

As used in the November 2004 "Classic & Motorcycle Mechanics" magazine. The bike is a British model but sprayed in the Euro / Asian Gold.

My H2a

This fantastic original bike was ridden by Francois Balde at the 30th anniversary celebration at the Monthlery circuit in France, I then sold the bike to Jean Pierre Chevallier.

And my U.S. versions

My NEW H2b

My Road going H2 Drag bike - Superbike eater!

The idea of this drag bike was formulated some 15 years ago by my pal John Smith, at that time John poured a lot of money into the very best of the tuning mods available. Most of the engine and port work was done by “Fast By Gast” in the U.S. The frame was modified to take the outrigger for the front sprocket which was offset by a couple of inches to accommodate the huge rear tyre – at that time the 180 x 18 rear tyre was the largest street tyre available,the tyres were fitted to Astralite wheels which used a extended One off Spondon swing arm and modified H2 forks, braking uses Brembo equipment, lack of financing left John to put the bike up for sale (in kit form) which is how I came to buy it some 6 years ago. As always time was a great problem for me and after it being laying idle for another couple of years I persuaded Roy Chadwick to have a go at completing the project. Roy did a large amount of work on the bike and eventually had it looking like a motorcycle. I fetched the bike back from Roy when I aquired more garage space with the intention of finishing the project myself and finally getting to drag it.

As tine went on it became more apparent that not only would the bike not be competitive but I would also struggle to find the time to take it to any meetings. I finally made the deciscion that the bike had to be completed and it would take just a few modifications to get the bike M.O.T’d and on the road. The first problem was the super fat sidewinder pipes – these were exchanged for a spare set of slightly modified Dencos, lights were not an issue as I could get a “daytime” MOT on the bike.

I managed to trash yet another set of pistons on my Z1r Turbo which prompted me to get the bike completed in August (with a lot of help from Mal) when it first fired up the sound was pretty incredible, the Dencos which had always seemed quite placid now had a totally different far loudr rasp which was presumably caused by the far greater amount of fuel/air mixture being drawn through the 40mm flatside Lectrons. The first test outing provided a scary 8 miles to the gallon – but what a blast!

The bikes first real run was at the Southern Rally where is turned a few heads to say the least and it also returned a far healthier 15 to the gallon on the ride out. I covered around 150 miles on the bike over the next couple of weeks and was very impressed by it’s performance, this prompted me to see what it would do down the strip and I decided to take it to a decided to take it to a “run what you brung twisty sprint” meeting at Darley Moor. Unfortunately Darley Moor is a real race track and so they are bound by a 80db noise limit – the bike failed miserably with 118db that peaked to 180db! The new plan was then to take it to a run what you brung meting at Blythe. It had been over 10 years since I last attended a meeting but my first run was covered in 12.2 seconds at 110mph, the next was down to 11.8 but for some reason it started to jump out of 5^th gear. Subsequent runs (just using 4 gears) had the bike coming down to 11.4 and then 11.3 ( I was getting better at it) and finally a consistent 11.2 at either 126 mph or 108 mph – I know little about dragging so can only assume that the large speed differences were between me being on one wheel or keeping the front end down, I do know One thing though and that is that there were GSXR, ZZR and other “Plastic fantastic” bikes that were following a 30 year old bike across the finish line! J