Kawasaki Z900RS Cafe Part 2 : Best Laid Plans...

 As I said in the last entry, I purchased this bike in mid-March even though I could not go get it for another 3 weeks. I was worried that it the longer I waited the less likely it would be there. Turned out that was a very good call as When I arrived on 3-April to pick up the bike, my Ace Sales Guy Brandon told me that the following weekend a couple days later, people came in 2 different times looking for that bike. But, it had a deposit on it now, so Ah Hah Hah Hah Ha!

I had lined up a U-Haul trailer that I would pick up on 4-2-24 and a hotel room to spend that night. As the day approached, in typical fashion known to all motorcyclists, it became apparent that the weather would NOT be cooperating. 

From NOAA : “A spring storm brought rain, heavy snow, damaging winds and thunderstorms across much of the Great Lakes on April 2, knocking out power to over 100,000 people across the region during the height of the storm.”

With all paperwork ducks in a row, I headed off on a 370 mile trek, mostly in pouring rain. The next morning I checked out, collected the U-Haul trailer and was waiting at the door of Roundhouse Powersports when they opened. I know people hate starting their day that way, but hey, I've got a 45 minute break forecast in the rain and I'm on a schedule.

Got the paperwork done and while I was looking at my watch and waiting for everything to be ready for me to take the bike, I wandered over to the Roundhouse Harley Davidson side of this huge dealership and bought a tee shirt, 'cause that's what we do.

By 11:20 I was loaded and ready to hit the road, just as it started to sprinkle...

I then drove home 7 hours in the rain. At one point in the Poconos it was raining sideways and everyone was crawling along at 35mph with flashers on. Road spray from passing trucks was blinding and you had to slow to let them make space.

As I got within 30 miles of home I started to see trucks out salting the NYS Thruway, which I avoided like the plague, and were also ominous as to the expectations with the temps dropping. I got home in a well-timed break in the rain and got the bike into the garage.

Within a few hours the rain had turned and had the storm been like this the entire drive home I am not sure if I'd have pressed on or parked for the night, but I've have been angry to move my new bike in snow and road salt. And so it goes.

A couple days later the snow was gone and it was time to get the bike washed and wait for warmer days.

Kawasaki Z900RS Cafe Part 1 : Discovery

Looking at the Z900RS, it immediately dragged me back to my late teenage years riding Kawasaki dirt bikes, and hanging around the local Kawasaki shop. I had posters on my bedroom wall of the KZ650 floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee; the 2-cylinder KZ750; and of course the KZ1000. A friend of mine's cousin owned a H2 Mach IV 750 triple that he streeted during the week and threw wheelie bars on and ran at the nearby drag strip on Sundays...

Of the 16 bikes I have had over the years, 9 of them have been Kawasaki. I had a couple truly great GSX-Rs but I love Kawasaki motorcycles. Read my Americade posts. I was the only kid I knew who could identify them coming down the street in the early ’70’s by sound. I learned to shift on a KE100, got my license on a KZ400 and took the plunge into sportbikes in 1984 when I bought a GPz1100.

Once I found the Kawasaki Z900RS Cafe, and spent a couple weeks researching the bike, it became my choice for next garage addition. It was brought out in the U.S. in 2018 but was not on my radar until recently. It shares all the "retro, classic" looks of the Z900RS but the cafe-type styling appeals to me more after decades of sport bikes. Its looks are the antithesis of say, the Ninja 1000sx. 

Let's see, what else does this bike have going for it that appeals to me :

- It does NOT have a multi-point IMU

- It does NOT have a self-adjusting sky-hook suspension

- It does NOT have adaptive cruise control

- It does NOT have an up / down quick shifter

- It does NOT have 200+ HP

- It is a street bike, NOT a track bike on the street

I've seen many videos and forum posts saying you NEED an ECU flash to remove the jerky throttle response. While now riding my bike, I have searched for and experienced what I assume is being referred to, but don't even give it a thought. Ain't no big deal if you've been riding a few years.

While shopping, I was really liking the 2018/19 Kawi green colors, though I'd peel the mustache. I also like the black ones later on. I figured if I could find something with less than 5000 miles on it and less than $10K I would get that and keep the Road King. I really like my Road King after spending a couple years getting it setup for me; I love the fit and finish of the bike and it is well suited for cruising / touring and NOT more aggressive cornering.

In early March I found a left-over 2023 at Powerhouse Kawasaki in Altoona, PA. It was waaaaaay cheaper than other dealers had the same bike listed. It was cheaper than any other Cafe I could find with less than 10K miles on it....

Hmm... I thought about it for a couple weeks and noticed that the 2024 Z900RS Cafe has not been changed at all, other than the Great New Price increase. I thought about it one more day and figured someone else would surely notice this as well, so I called and bought it over the phone. Said I'd be down in 3 weeks to complete the sale and pick it up.

Altoona, PA -- here I come !

2023 -- A Reevaluation Year

 Events of 2023 limited my riding time, therefore not a lot to post here. It started off with the usual enthusiasm to get back out on the road. I was hoping to expand my riding circle in the H-D world and see a bit more of New England on the bike. Didn't happen.

I think I took maybe 6 rides all season. A few were with my long, long-time ridding buddy of 40+ years, but they were local runs after meeting at his house; perhaps an hour in length from there. If I'm getting picky, I rode my bike about 20 miles each way to and from my dealership to have a set of Pirelli Night Dragons installed.

Right as the summer was becoming official, things turned. I did not ride the rest of 2023. By late summer I wasn't even waxing weekly anymore. By the end of summer, moving into Autumn, every time I looked at the Road King sitting in my garage, I started to think there's a pile of money sitting there I could be doing something else with...

As I shuffled my garage for Winter, I was pretty sure I would sell the Harley in Spring '24. But, I still wasn't ready to hang up my helmets. I was just deciding that maybe it was time to move in another direction. Maybe, another new bike.

I spent the entire winter researching various motorcycles, listed below in order of discovery:

The leading number is the number of times that I’ve reviewed it, sometimes for weeks, then looked at another bike, gone back to it and then moved on, again…

01   Moto Guzzi V100 Mandello S

01   H-D Pan American 

05   Triumph Tiger 1200 GT Pro

01   BMW GS 1250

08   Kawasaki Ninja 1000sx

05   Kawasaki Versys 1000 SE LT

02   Suzuki GSX-S1000 GT

05   Honda CB1000R Black Edition

        01   Kawasaki Z900RS Cafe

At this point I prioritize the more upright, relaxed rider's triangle. My back and shoulders are all done with the clipon, rearset, race crouch. But I want some amount of ground clearance for cornering. I spent a lot of time trying to talk myself into various ADV bikes but just wasn't feeling it. I really wanted to want the GSX-S1000 GT but all the road tests I watched said it was a bit more aggressive riding posture than would be good for me, and I've already lived years with the 1000sx which gets better sport touring reviews.

I am not a huge fan of the current styling trend in both cars (especially E-cars) and bikes moving everything towards something George Jetson (look it up youngsters) would admire. Ultra tech and angles and beaks, Oh My. 

I was liking the CB1000R Black a lot. Sorta retro vibe, but angrier. Then I saw one in a showroom and it did not have the fit and finish I wanted at all. An old pic of a Z1000 popped up on my wallpaper rotation, so I was looking at a review of the Kawasaki Z900 one day and they mentioned the Z900RS, which I was not familiar with, so I looked at it. That review led me to the Z900RS Cafe ....

As the riding season winds down...

 I lost a few months -- the entire summer to be exact -- from my riding season this year due to work commitments. Most often, I only rode to work; and it wasn't even a nice commute. Pathetic. I began to make up for misplaced time with a 4-day trip to Barre, VT at the end of August. That was a great get-away and the western side of Vermont is always a scenic ride.

The upside of working this summer was to get some fun-money for upgrades to my aging riding gear and new pieces/parts for the bike. The list for 2022 includes:

Chrome Front Axle Nut Covers

Mustang Standard Touring Solo Seat with Driver Backrest for Harley-Davidson Electra Glide & Road King Police 1983-'21, Textured, Black

'09-'22 Harley Touring Vivid Black Mid-Frame Air Deflectors from Hogworkz

Harley-Davidson® 16 Inch Detachables™ Wind Splitter Vented Windshield Dark Smoke

Extended shift lever from Softbrake

H-D Chrome Flush-Mount Fuel Cap and Gauge Kit

Dakota Digital 4.5 in. Chrome MLX-2011 Series Speedometer

CVO Road King Windsplitter replacement windshield from Freedom Shields

10" H-D Fused Lo Chrome WITH heated Kahuna handgrips. Super nice upgrade!

YHMTIVTU Motorcycle Saddlebag Liners Organizers

H-D Profile Custom Mirrors Satin Black, since my riding position was perfectly altered after addition of the Fused Lo bars, but I only see my elbows in the stock mirrors...

H-D Tank Knee Pads as my more forward seating position is allowing me to grip the tank more with my knees

Every mod in place now is working perfectly for me and I'm really enjoying this bike. While I appreciate the classic nature of the Road King and I've kept to mods that accentuate it. I hated the stock speedo cluster. 4.5 inches of wasted space for information. It's bad enough to have to drop your eyes away from the road to look down at the tank in the first place and I considered relocating with new gauges on the bar, where nature intended them.

I decided to go with the H-D flush-mount fuel gauge and gas cap. And the largest upgrade was moving to the Dakota Digital instrument cluster. Now I can see much more information and see it quickly without trying to look a the dumb little couple inch square LCD panel in the stock speedo. Dragged this bike right into the 21st century but kept the stock lines.

Next year? New grippier tires and maybe front and rear suspension replacement. I have to constantly slow down in corners to keep from scraping the floorboards. Usually the edge of my riding boots scrape pavement as the first lean angle warning indicator. We'll see...

Another riding year has completed. I always feel like I never get to ride as much as I intended to at the end of the prior year, but I always enjoy every ride I get to take.

Quick ride in the Berkshires

 Last Sunday was another beautiful day for a short ride. Not a cloud in the sky and temps were up into the 60's, so just needed to pick a direction to go. I decided to head out to the East and ride towards Hancock, Mass, then follow Rt43 north to the intersection with Rt 7. Originally I was thinking I might ride up Mt Greylock but I decided to wait for a warmer day for that climb. It's not super high but the temps do drop as you climb. 

I continued south on Rt 7 into Pittsfield MA, where I picked up Rt 20 heading west back into NY. Traffic was pretty light in most stretches and there were a good number of motorcycles out along the way as we get into warmer weather. When you have to start to mow the lawn around here, the chances of seeing more snow are mostly done for the season.

It was an easy ride and most of the (not NY) roads were in great shape. Overall a nice couple hours and about a 100+ mile loop.

Horns of a dilemma

 So, how's that new seat working out?...    

Over this past winter I picked up a Mustang solo seat with support bracket and spring mount kit for H-D. Seemed fine sitting on it installed on the bike in the garage. Looks really cool with it's profiles. Then I got out for the first ride of this year a couple of weeks back. The seat feels much different than the H-D seat I had installed last fall, but I suppose that is to be expected. The Mustang seat clearly looks like a higher build quality. You can just flip over any H-D seat that you've spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars for and see that it is stapled, whereas the Mustang seats I have are all riveted.

I was after this seat right from the time I was ordering the parts at my dealership to do the conversion, but there were none available. Interesting story on that, I spoke with a sales tech on the phone about ordering this and he proved in repeated emails he had no idea what I was talking about and kept referring me to the wrong seat. I was after this seat as Mustang has a built-in backrest capacity for most of their seats, including this solo seat, and Harley does not. Like the Corbin seats I've had, my Mustang seats have a built-in receiver in the back of the seat which you just slide the arm of the backrest into. Simple. But not Harley.

I went out for a 40 mile ride and was not totally liking the feel of the seat. It has a pressure point the H-D seat does not. It is much more thinly padded on the seating area, but bulkier on the lumbar/back of the seat. I kept feeling like it had me moving towards the tank and I had to keep adjusting.

I next rode about 30 miles to a friend's house and told him about my experiences with this seat. He currently has the same one on a H-D Electra Glide Police and didn't find it as difficult as I had. He is also a couple inches shorter than I am. I rode home and had the same opinions.

I then put the H-D solo seat back on. It is more thickly padded and has a wider seating area for wide  American butts. I rode 60 miles yesterday and liked it. I found myself moving around on the seat a bit to put the bike into corners. Not saying I was dragging a knee but I was definitely comfortable with riding the bike. So.... today I swapped the Mustang back on.

SSDD. Because the padding is thinner, I am sitting a bit lower with this seat. Not the end of the world. I also feel that due to the sculpting of the seating area that I am sitting closer to the tank. Okay... But both of those things combined completely changes the rider triangle.

My legs are now level VS hips higher than knees. My feet fall in a very slightly more rearward place on the boards putting my legs in a 90 degree bend. Just that bit of loss of height and moving my feet back a little more, makes bending my ankles to downshift and brake just a bit less pleasant. And I've already installed a 1" longer shift lever and rear brake lever.

Well this sux. It's not like given the choice between riding with the Mustang or not riding at all that I would chose door #2, but the H-D is clearly looking like the better option for me. Ugh. I REALLY wanted that backrest for longer rides. There may be one more adjustment I can make to the seating configuration to see if that helps. TBD. Too cold to ride until next week, so I'll try it again...

The above is the H-D solo seat from last fall

From today's ride, the Mustang solo seat

Ready for Spring to arrive

 It is beginning to look as if Winter may have lost it's grip on the Northeast. Temps are still around freezing most nights, but are consistently reaching into the 50's during the day now; sometimes higher. There has been enough rain to wash away the salt and sand that had been applied to the roads during snowstorms, and I am ready to ride at the next opportunity.

I accumulated a few goodies over the past couple months to add to my FLHR and put a few of them on during the last 2 weeks as time allowed.

> Chrome front axle nut covers

> Mustang solo saddle with backrest    (4^th seat I’ve had on this bike in ½ year or so I’ve owned it)  I already have the Mustang passenger pillion from earlier with the H-D solo seat. Decision Time cometh and then I should sell a couple of the seats I have accumulated…

> 2” Ride Masters aluminum seat riser

> Replaced all lights with Eagle Lights LEDs

> H-D Wind Splitter vented windshield, which is kinda like the amount of protection from the windscreen on all sport bikes I’ve owned, ie not much. But it looks a lot cooler than stock, so ….

> Painted air deflectors from HogWorkz behind rear cylinders. Mechanics must have really small hands...

> 1” extended shift lever from Softbrake   Already have their clutch lever and extended brake pedal

> H-D soft lowers

> H-D black fender skirt

I will be getting a taller tinted, flared windscreen soon for longer trips or weather protection, and still have the stock shield in the meantime. So very many things I have planned for this bike, upcoming. 

All I need is $$$