2023 first ride out.

Took the old girl out for the first time this year to blow the cobwebs away,  cold and sunny.

Glad someone is out riding!  What part of country are you in?  Still too cold up here by Chicago, IL.

I'm in the UK.

Still braver than me Kev and im further South than you albeit only by 50 miles or so 

Damn nice. I I'm waiting on parts for my 750 twin. I am very much looking forward to getting the old girl out on the road.

Typically, it'll be another month before I can get out. We've just started getting consistently above freezing the past week or so and below freezing at night. Too much melt/freeze happening at the moment.

I am surprised no one has added to this thread yet!  Here in Wisconsin we are still in the grips of winter more or less and Ma Nature refuses to allow us any nice weather yet.  Roads are/were covered in salt and brine residue so my old Kawi sat in the garage all covered up and plugged into the battery tender.  That is until yesterday when we had a band of bad storms roll thru followed by a second string a few hours later.  In between the storms the temperature literally shot up to 60+ degrees and I thought what the heck, lets see if the KZ will start up and go for a brief ride if it does.  Discon the battery tender, check oil, gas and tire pressures and hit the start button.  Roughly 3 or 4 engine revolutions and VIOLA she starts right up!  No knocks, ticks, clunks and good oil pressure.  I am happy now, plus the roads are dry and free of salt, but dark clouds gathering to the west.  So run in the house and put my riding apparel on and jump on the bike.  I turn it around in the garage so it is facing out the door and I'm off.  Let the clutch out and the engine dies.  WTH!  Re-start and try again except with a bit more RPM and off I go.  Do some slow speed stuff first and then some braking all to clear out the cobwebs of not riding since last November.  I ride around our subdivision to make sure the old girl is running good and then hit the road.  Life is good once again!!  It has ALWAYS amazed me how even a short jaunt on a motorcycle makes life good again especially after a long, crummy winter.  About 30 mins later and several miles down the road I see rain drops randomly hitting my face shield, so with discretion being the better part of valor, I make a U-turn and head back to the barn.   I run the Kawi into the garage and shut it down.  By the time I got off the bike and looked outside it was pouring and the temp had dropped like a rock to under 50 degrees.

Funny how life works sometimes, I was giving thought to selling my KZ1000, but this is the second winter layover where this bike has just started right up after a 4 or 5 month shutdown and it runs like a Swiss watch.  I sold my K1600 GTL and have a new Goldwing sitting at the dealer ready to go, all I need is some decent weather to ride it home.  I really don't need the Kawi, but other than gas, oil and insurance it isn't costing me a thing and it still looks and runs great.  Maybe I will just hang onto it for posterity.

Rick H.

 

I saw someone out riding in northern Minnesota a couple days ago with deep snowbanks everywhere.  Kwazy.

I had the 77' KZ 1000LTD out for the second 24 mile test ride last week and found some electrical gremlins and the stock shocks are too stiff when turned all the way down.Today we installed the new Progressive series 12 shocks and started making a mount for the new starter solenoid. No riding today, it's either raining, hailing or both.

I've been out twice.  First ride was on my KZ1000 for about 20 min in 10C temperatures.  Second ride was about an hour with a bit warmer weather, but I rode up towards the mountains where temperatures were cooler.  Roads are clear, and the valleys are clean but still lots of snow in the mountains.

 

I've been riding since the 21st, but not with the KZ. We still have lots of gravel left over from winter, so I don't want to abuse the old girl. I bought a 1200S Bandit last year as a daily driver and am keeping the Kawi for nice days. I'll definitely have the KZ out before and during the 100-100-100 run. Looks to be 19c (67f) on the 10th.