Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Jim's KZ750 at the Stampede

I talked to Jim who had ridden from Alberta Canada to compete in the Stampede. Jim calls his Kawasaki KZ750, "Calamity Ensues" after the two female devils on the tank. Get it? Calamity and Sue, yes, Canadian humor.
Jim's bike had developed a intake manifold leak so he was in the motel parking lot with the carbs off using a little RTV to seal things up.
Jim took time from his repairs to talk with me and that's no small thing with the start of the race just hours away.
By now the Stampede is over, and though I don't know how anyone did, I hope Jim did well and had a good time.

1 comment:

veryunforgiven said...

Ray, Just to let you know. Archie and I finished the Stampede 2011. 26 bikes started out from Lake Tahoe and only 16 finished. Archie came in 15th and I came in 14th. The KZ750 I ran was originally purchased for $100 as a basket case. I sent the frame off to Red and Kate at Cycle One Manufacturing in Oklahoma and had the cool 6 inch stretch hardtail done there. Excellent people to deal with. Then I got it on the table and had about one month before we had to leave to make it to Tahoe for the race. I did the rest of the fabricating myself and got 'er done with some help and parts from T J's Cycle and K&W Powder Coating here in Calgary.
This bike handled like it was on rails thru the corners, was not uncomfortable and I'm sure I could have made it in the top 3, but decided to stick with Archie and his '71 Norton chopper to help him repair it along the way. We weren't first but we weren't last either and at least we finished. It was quite a ride a great adventure for us to share before Archie had to head home to Scotland. Thanks to all the cool and fabled people we met along the way and at the Smoke Out East.