How are you liking that Z650RS? I'm guessing quite a bit, based on the mileage. Taking the trash out last night, I glimpsed into a neighbor's garage a few nights ago as they hit their opener to park their car. I don't know them, but I spotted a Z650RS parked up against the front wall, which would be obscured by their parked car. I've never seen a motorycle come in or out of that garage, but thought it was interesting to see. Of course, my gears started turning about a possible conversation that starts with "Hi, I'm the guy across the street... noticed you have a motorycle in your garage that you don't seem to be riding..."
Going back to magnificent German things, this caught my eye yesterday parked at the outer edge of the Van Nuys airport. The back road on the outside of the fence to the airport is around the corner from our blood laboratory drop off point, and is a good spot to take a break and eat whatever lunch I've packed while I watch planes take off and land. I park my blood bike near the fence lined with parked planes. A few pads over from this cannibalized AT6 painted in German WW2 markings is a fleet of AT6s that make flights over the Southern California area for holidays, baseball games and things like that.
I was wondering where I would have ever seen an AT6 in German markings before. Couldn't think of a movie that would use such a glaringly recognizable American plane as a stand-in for something German (yeah, they look more like Japanese planes and have doubled for Zeroes).
Then it hit me. The SS Lane Victory - a WW2 Victory cargo ship, is a floating museum in L.A. Harbor. Years ago, before the boiler conked out, they used to take visitors on cruises out to Catalina and back on it. During the trip, they'd stage a mock "attack" on the ship by a German bomber, that would then be chased by an American plane, they'd do a few maneuvers, then the German plane would limp away trailing smoke. Both planes were AT6s. This must be that German plane!
Gone, I love this little 650cc motorcycle.
It has a completely different character than the CB—it’s a bit of a little rascal and a rebel... and it loves high revs.
Easy to control and manouver.
Very, very comfy seat, no pinch even after 600+ kms.
A full gas tank usually last for about 280 kms, but if you keep the rpm under 4000, I managed to cover 330 kms on two occasions.
Other people like it too.
"Drop a gear and disappear"® '24 Kawi Z650RS - Hooligan® '14 CB1100 DLX, s/n 170, 42K kms - FOX®
'14 CB1100/ABS, 134K kms - sold
'13 CB1100/c-ABS - 56K kms - sold
*Grand Chancellor*
07-02-2026, 11:30 PM (This post was last modified: 07-02-2026, 11:41 PM by Gone in 60.)
That's pretty cool, Peterbaron!
The shark has exploded... After getting the severed ecu harness reassembled on the hobbled blood bike, I went for a very long ride full of stops and starts, street and highway driving, and the problem seems to have gone away. It appears that the janky harness connections were what was triggering both open and short circuits, and all of the random loss of throttle control issues. The boss has agreed to the bonus of Macallan.
This ain't my CB1100, but as long as I was out making repeated short trips on the work bike, I figured that vising a few in-laws nearby was a good stop along the way, so I did the photo challenge, but on the wrong bike.
We're at the point that our first blood bike has rolled 6k miles, and I brought her back home for an oil change and inspection. Her rear brake pads were a bit thin, so I swapped those as well.
With the bikes that aren't in garages sitting in the sun most of the day, the old, worn seats are starting to get a gummy finish to them. We thought it was just one seat, which I recovered in black vinyl, but a few of the others are starting to do the same thing.
I put the worst of them on #1 when I brought her home for service, and tried my second attempt at seat covering. I think I did a better job on this one - no overlapping seam on the back, stretched all around. As long as nobody looks at the mess of staples on the underside, it's almost perfect.
On Friday, I trained a new rider for our delivery service. I certainly didn't have to train him on the riding part, as he's a Rawhyde instructor. But, we went through the procedural part of making a pickup, following the directions to the dropoff, and completing the process.
As we were on the 60 mile ride to the dropoff, a Harley chopper came up on us pretty fast. As the rider passed, he slowed to our speed (about 75), gave us a salute, and sped on by. As he pulled away, we could see that he was a vested Vago, a member of one of the prominent "1 percent" clubs in the SoCal area.
So now, I've been given respect from both a Vago and a Mongol. Certainly wouldn't get that on the CB or any of my other bikes. Sorta cool.
