Bike of the Month Apr 2011.
Owner: Hans Åström's Z1000R2 (83) (AKA: Rullebull) Sweden.
Hello Guys! First of all i would like to introduce myself!
My name is Hans Åström and I live in Sweden,
im from a small town called timrå.
It is about 400km or 250 miles north of Stockholm.
And I am 49 years old until the end of December! Ouch Then the big five zero!
I work as a carpenter, spend my days traveling around installing new kitchens.
When I was growing up my older friends started to buy 4-stroke bikes!
But I was still very impressed with the early h1 and h2 of Kawasaki 2-stroke bikes!
But the early Kawasaki z900's was something new.
When i was bought my first big bike something strange happened.
I went against my heart and bought a Yamaha xs750 -77.
After a couple of years I wanted something new again, and once again it went all wrong!
I bought a Suzuki gs1000 -79.
Why? Because I didn't find the Kawasaki models attractive enough at that time!
but in 1980 a friend of mine bought a new Kawasaki z1 with fuel injection it was black and gold,
and I thought I should have waited for that! Doh!
In 1981 something happened that I am always going to remember,
a friend of my bought a brand new gpz1100b1 fire cracker red and what a beauty!
But that year I was out of work! The factory I work at was cut in half!
So I had no money to buy the bike of my dreams! but i could dream! right?
some years later i was still looking for that dream bike,
only problem I didn't like the new bikes that started to come out in the late 80s.
so I was out of the bike business until 1997 I bought a sport bike(Yamaha thunder ace)
but after a while it did nothing for me,
when the Harley trend hit Sweden I bought 2003 soft tail springer,
i rebuild it and made some personal changes, but i was still lost in the bike jungle!
bought a Yamaha xjr 1300-02 (should have buy a zrx1200 instead) but now I was certain
that was the old school style I wanted to have for the future!
I started to look for an old classic Kawasaki.
But they are hard to find! and Sweden is a small country!
So I started to put same announcement in the newspaper that I will buy a old Kawasaki.
One day when I went out to the grocery store there was a car with a small trailer attached,
and it had loaded on to it a kz1000r2 (83)!
My first thought was maybe I can buy that bike!
So I asked him and he looked at me like i was mad and said he had just bought it!
I was so pissed!
But i knew my sunny day would come!
One sunny day (July 2010) when I arrived home from work, tired feeling exhausted.
my wife smiled at me (not a good sign) and asked me if want to buy a Kawasaki z1000r2 -83!
I told her that is not nice to make those kind of jokes after a hard day of work!
Then she give me a piece of paper with a phone number on it I ran to the phone and called the guy!
Everything sounded correct on the phone and I was at his house in half an hour!
Looked at the bike (it had not been running for 3 years) he told me that the engine
was the sweetest Kawasaki he ever had heard!
No rattles or funny noises! (Only 3600km) But he was not able to start it!
So we made a deal on the price 8000sek ($1150.00) (luckly he didn’t know that I was desperate)
I took the bike home and started to do some work on it!
New plugs and oil, filters, battery. cleaned tank and carburetors.
AND THE BIKE STARTED RIGHT UP.
AND GUESS WHAT?
THE SELLER WAS RIGHT THE ENGINE SOUNDS LIKE BRAND NEW! RUNNING SO SWEET!
So after a couple of months of riding the bike and having read a lot more on the kz1000r website
I was determined to finally make this my dream bike!
So at the end of august 2010 I un assembled the whole bike and started the restoration.
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Everything was sand blasted primed and a top coat of gloss black.
Every nut bolt including the wheel axels were re plated! Zink and black where it should be!
Newly restored wheels with new bearings,
Paintwork was all re painted new decals applied and clear coated.
some upgrades have been done,
KERKER 4-1 with 1,5 inch comp baffle(shelved the stock 4-2 euro version)
and progressive springs in the fork,
BUT THE MAIN THING IS THE COLOR!
NOW THE BIKE HAS THE RIGHT COLOR, KAWASAKI GREEN!
(The bike was white when sold in Sweden,)
I hope this little story will inspire someone else to save one of these gorgeous old bikes!
I WOULD REALLY THANK RICHARD GALES AKA: KANO THE WEBMASTER / ADMIN.
YOU HAVE MADE THIS SITE INTO WHAT IT IS
SO WALK WITH YOUR HEAD HELD HIGH! YOU ARE THE MAN!
BEST REGARDS HANS ÅSTRÖM, SWEDEN.
We will be featuring a different bike each month on kz1000r.com
that we feel is deserving of the title "Bike of The Month."
Check back often to see what our pick is.
To nominate or submit your own bike for "Bike of The Month."
Send some info on yourself your bike and loads of pic's bigger the better.
PLEASE SEND IN YOUR INFO IF YOU ARE LUCKY ENOUGH TO OWN ONE OF THESE BIKES!
I really want to bring THIS Registry up to date so accurate number's left in circulation can be made available,
this will intern help us get a true market value for insurance purposes.
Please include the chassis number and the month of production printed on the headstock of your bike.
Your name and location. and most importantly a picture's of your bike.
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