Kawasaki KZ650


Blog, Motorcycles / Tuesday, January 28th, 2014

Today, I only have one motorcycle because today, I finally sold the 1978 Kawasaki KZ650 I bought a few years back with the intention of getting it running. It’s a good feeling because I felt guilty in recent years for not having the time to work on it.

[pe2-image src=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/-jWkahrW_rC4/TjBOACYN4OI/AAAAAAAABoM/BATtbnGtX0I/s144-c-o/%25255BUNSET%25255D.jpg” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/111197070419838127380/MyProject?authkey=Gv1sRgCK-_meOF1IC-OQ#5634088896385900770″ caption=”1978 Kawasaki KZ650″ type=”image” alt=”1978 Kawasaki KZ650″ pe2_img_align=”none” ]

I put the bike up on Craigslist for about three times what I paid for it. I had a bunch of emails with people interested but they were nibbles, not bites. Then I got one which was kind of shady. It was from a guy saying he was coming to the States to pick up some other bikes and wanted to take a look at mine. I was skeptical, for what I assume to be obvious reasons. Oddly enough, he followed through by giving me a call once he was in the States. It was an Irish man named James, and he arranged a time to come look at the bike. I was going to go meet him at my parents, but today was the day that the weather took a turn for the colder than [insert something really cold] and my car wouldn’t start because the battery was frozen (no, colleagues, my battery isn’t bad and in need of replacement, it’s just -17 F and that breaks things a bit). My dad ended up being the salesman. I bet he was more than eager to get the bike out of his garage. Rightly so.

I’m both happy and sad to see the bike go. I’m sad that I never got it running. It taught me a lot about engines and I always felt like I was just this close to getting it running. Maybe someday, when i have a place to store it of my own, I’ll get another and restore it properly.

 

2 Replies to “Kawasaki KZ650”

  1. Hard to let those first ones go. My first bike (a yammy 650) was burnt up in a garage fire, so I never had to experience selling it, but the way you phrase it, it does not sounds easy. Like selling a first love I suppose?

    1. Karl,

      Towards the end, it got easier and easier to sell it. It wasn’t my first bike (that’s a Honda 250 Nighthawk which I still own and love to ride) but it was the first bike I bought to work on. Years passed and I never really had the time to work on it because it was stored in my parent’s garage and I live too far away to drive home and work on it in the evenings after work and weekends are booked for the next ten or so years.

      It felt good to sell it because I knew it was going to someone who had the time to get it running.

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