So my wife was digging through our boxes of photos tonight looking for photos of our son to put in a scrapbook that she is making. She found about 20 photos of yours truly from back in March of 1988. I was breaking in a new motor that day at the track in Mead, Colorado. What struck me the most is who OLD the RZ looks, and what a geek I look like. The tires are skinny, 100 on the front, 130 on the back, the fork legs are noodles, 35mm, and the clip ons look high when compared to the seat height. My leathers I bought used from a dude in Wyoming, they had "Skeeter" on the front for his name! The last year of manufacture for the US RZ was 1986. I'm pretty sure you lucky Canadians, Euros and Asians got them through the mid 90's. What a cool bike, small, light and very quick. Mine was a black market Canadian one.
My bike was stripped of everything that was street related, lights, horns, kickstands, dash, oil pump (its a two stroke, premixed my gas) etc. It weighted about 300 lbs and put out about 75hp, stock was 58hp or so. It could pass GSXR 750s of the day and hang with GSXR1100 in their draft. It could out brake most bikes. The only weakness was the pilot, ME!
I did a few rider schools and worked my way from novice, to amateur, to expert (really I wasn't). The best we placed was 5th in 450 Superbike the best race we had was 15th in Amateur class after being gridded 55th!
The last ride I did with her was in Phoenix in 1989. I was knocked down and injured pretty back. I ended up selling her for $450.00 to a shop in Phoenix who sold her for $1,200.00 to another racer. After that last crash at 125mph, all she needed was a brake lever! What a tough and reliable bike. One of these days I love to get another RZ. I love the smell of premix and race gas in the morning!
Sorry the photos are sideways, the iMac isn't cooperating.
My bike was stripped of everything that was street related, lights, horns, kickstands, dash, oil pump (its a two stroke, premixed my gas) etc. It weighted about 300 lbs and put out about 75hp, stock was 58hp or so. It could pass GSXR 750s of the day and hang with GSXR1100 in their draft. It could out brake most bikes. The only weakness was the pilot, ME!
I did a few rider schools and worked my way from novice, to amateur, to expert (really I wasn't). The best we placed was 5th in 450 Superbike the best race we had was 15th in Amateur class after being gridded 55th!
The last ride I did with her was in Phoenix in 1989. I was knocked down and injured pretty back. I ended up selling her for $450.00 to a shop in Phoenix who sold her for $1,200.00 to another racer. After that last crash at 125mph, all she needed was a brake lever! What a tough and reliable bike. One of these days I love to get another RZ. I love the smell of premix and race gas in the morning!
Sorry the photos are sideways, the iMac isn't cooperating.
