As faithful and trustworthy as the CB400 Super Four was, the longing for torque came back and was a lust she just couldn't fulfil. Avid readers of UBG may remember that my, trusty if rough, XJ600 was permanently borrowed by human scum and replaced with a CB400SF in a first-come-first-bought act of desperation. I needed wheels and at a bargain price these ones were on offer. Well, it does everything well - always starts, never a problem..., but I longed for that surge, where your arms are yanked from their sockets and your peripheral vision disintegrates. The XJ had this quality, though looking back I think it may have had more to do with my previous z250 experiences (UMG 124), than the sheer power of the XJ itself!

Enough prologue - on with the story! The longing for torque had taken me (slowly at first, but growing ever stronger) and my dangerous immersion into the world of UMG had given me some funny ideas! I had an urge for wire spoke wheels, a kick start, big noise, and big stomp. I wanted a 'real bike'. Well, I was afflicted by UMG's tales of old school glory and wanted some for myself!

I started looking for another bike (I had a job, no mortgage or kids, and reckoned I could afford one). I met a nice chap outside Westcoast Motorcycles in Southport on my travels who was on an SRX600. Well this bike pretty much filled my criteria (loud, naked, big single torque, and erm... alloy wheels) and he had one for sale! Except by the time I rang him a day later to go and give him the money - it had been sold for a giant wedge of cash that he couldn't turn down.

Annoyed but not overly discouraged the search continued and I was looking at z650s when I saw an advert in BikeTrader online. "z900 - Great condition, Dry use only, 18K miles, Blah, blah, blah - £2K, no offers." Only 20 miles from my house too! All thoughts of 600 thumpers vanished from my mind, as I grabbed my bike and my long suffering girlfriend, Nic, and raced off to see this 'King of the Zeds'.

The bike was in a giant garage, stuffed with a new Range Rover and a smart looking Jag, under a dustsheet by the wall. A good sign I thought, for once "Dry use only" seemed almost plausible! At first sight of the beast, resplendent in racing green livery, with polished alloy engine cases, and those classic looks, I was smitten. But I tried to remember what to look for and to keep a clear head. The vendor looked a bit bemused as I crawled around his garage floor looking for flaws under the bike, and bounced up and down on it to test the springs and damping. The engine kicked over first time, almost as easy as the CG125 I did my test on! I had a quick conflab with Nic (who said it looked pretty) and pronounced it a good 'un! As it was getting late I left a £50 deposit on the understanding that I would have a test ride before handing over the rest.

Next stop: bank manager. Time to see about that loan they kept pestering me to take. One week and £3K later (they 'helpfully' suggested I might want to buy extras and pay the insurance in one go) my mate Gary drove me over to pick it up. A brief blast round the block showed it to have OK acceleration up to 70mph, but brakes that were so frightening I dared not go any faster! Still enamoured though, I handed over a banker's draft (piece of mind for £10 extra) for the rest and began my life as the owner of a big Zed.

It stomped easily up to 90 down the M69 commuter racetrack, with me revelling in the low revs compared to the 400 and the throaty exhaust note. Still a bit in fear of the retarding capabilities of the single front stopper, I wasn't that bothered that it didn't want to pull any faster.

The next thing to do was to show it to everyone I knew and I think they were impressed. Good start! Next morning, after probably its first night outside in years, it was a bit reluctant to start but soon got going with a few manly kicks. What followed was a rather worrying billow of smoke from the exhaust! By big billow I mean fog bank - smoke aplenty. Yikes! It was all white so I guessed it must be oil burning and was reassured by people in the know that oil was probably seeping past the valve-stem seals and not to worry.

Ah ha, so I now had a bike with 'character' - defo a 'real' bike.





Other characterful benefits include making sure you turn off the petrol when stopped (else it somehow finds its way out of the float bowls) and refusing to start after misty nights!

A couple of months later after a drug raid by the police (mistaken identity) and constant altercations with the scarily mad live-in landlord, I moved to a house with a small front garden. By small I mean 9' x 5'. Never one for convention and upset by the way the shiny alloy was developing white spots I decided to build a garage! A bonus for insurance and security, as well as keeping the bikes nice. Now you might think that being on a tight budget and living in a rented house, that building a garage might be rather difficult. But "where there's a will there's a way", and B&Q was in easy walking distance...

£30 secured a few 8' decking planks (the cheapest wood), a giant green tarp, a load of angle brackets, cheap screws, and 2000 staples. A few hours later and property values dropped, but at least the bikes were dry! The insurance company were duly informed of my 'wooden' garage so I qualified for an insurance discount but as the door was made of plastic tarp the bikes were also firmly chained to a sturdy ground anchor I'd made from scaffold pole concreted into the flower bed. This also provided a nice tie down to stop the garage flying away when it got windy!

With protection from the elements I decided to be brave and investigate why the bike wouldn't pull over 90mph. UMG reckoned it should be good for 130mph so I was certain that something was awry. After thinking about the symptoms and studying all the bits, I figured that it was something to do with the ignition. Off with the tank and I noticed the coils were different colours. One was original looking while the other one looked much newer. Investigating the old one first I yanked one of the HT leads to see if it was corroded at the coil end... 'pop' and out it came... along with chunks of resin stuff and other bits that I thought would be much happier back inside the coil! So that's what moulded in leads are! Getting a replacement coil was a pain. M&P do generic ones for about £25 but had none left in stock, though they could get one on order for me... From past experience with them I decided to look for another option. A trip to the local breakers with a pleading face - £5 later and I was the owner of a points ignition GS Suzuki coil (points and electronic ignition coils have different resistances, so be careful). It was a bit longer than the original, but that's what zip ties are for! It did the trick and I was delighted. £5 had fixed the bike and it now did 100mph with ease! The relief of success after what could've been a disaster is something that can't be adequately expressed - you need to feel it to understand.

After six months of use the bike was starting to behave better, the smoke on start-up, to which I'd become rather attached, had stopped, the front stopper had improved(ish) with use, and wet weather performance had been massively improved with the fitment of Bridgestone BT45s. I had the rusting front spokes replaced with stainless ones, but at £80, it was a bit of an expensive, and as it turned out, not a very professional job. I put 15 weight (engine) oil in the forks and preloaded them with five 10p coins per side (a tip from another z owner) which has stiffened the front end up nicely. I also got a new set of chain and sprockets as the old one reached the end of the adjusters. The slack in the cush-drive was taken up with slices of inner tube and the crap 45W original headlight was junked in favour of a 7" M&P special which can take proper bulbs. I took both mudguards off, wire brushed the rust from the underside and gave them a thick coating of silver Hammerite (which is still going strong two years later). A set of chrome engine bars was obtained form z specialist John Browse (who are knowledgeable and quick, if not terribly cheap), and the final tweak was a firm prod with a big metal rod up the (quick rot) Marshall 4-1. It sounds much better now, and has made no noticeable difference to the carburetion at all.

Soon after this me and some mates hatched a plan under the influence of beer to venture over the channel with bikes (a first for us) to see our SR125 mounted lady chum, Sam, in Dresden. That is another story in itself but suffice to say we had an excellent time and I really got to know the big z. We all managed exactly the same top speed of 120mph on the autobahns with huge amounts of luggage, and the z compared similarly with Chris' (now long suffering) 600 Bandit, well... apart from handling and brakes!. Since then I've grown to love the unwieldy big lump more and more. After Germany I learned how points work (quite simple once you know) and set them up properly as they were way out. The difference is definitely noticeable, and I reckon it might just pull 130mph next time. I made a rubber gasket out of tractor inner tube (thanks Stuart) for the points cover and I have no damp starting problems anymore. I also replaced the solid front disc with one from a z1000 that's drilled and at only 6mm thick, can take a modern calliper. A calliper from an XJ600Divvy came my way with new pads for only £10 and with some braided hose and a sturdy homemade steel bracket, the braking power has been transformed! Front wheel skids are now possible if you're brutal, and as there is not much lever movement, there's room for another calliper when I find one. The disc runs pretty hot under heavy use, but it's survived a couple of heart-stoppers and only scalded me once!

In June '03 we decided to do another adventure and followed a route from Bilbao down through Spain to Gibraltar, back up to Andorra, followed by zig-zagging through the Pyrenees back to Bilbao. Armed with all my improvements: a set of sturdy steel panniers, some fake Renthal bars (to improve the riding position), and especially the brake mods (for those mountain roads), we managed to keep up an illegal but highly enjoyable pace for two weeks. Averaging 70-80mph the zed was perfectly at home on the long sweeping corners and I even managed to get the pegs and exhaust down!









So after two years, what've I learned? Well owning a big classic has loads of bonuses, but there are pitfalls too. As I'm 25 I now qualify for 'classic rider' policy with Footman James, which is cheaper than the 'junior rider classic policy' I was on. You need to be a member of the Vintage Motor Cycle Club (about £20/year) to be allowed the policy when under 25 and it still gives a discount on the policy now. My premium this year is £88.63 fully comp on an 83bhp bike! Other benefits include lack of regulations concerning the silencer, and indicators, etc, and if you get a pre Dec 72 bike (there are a handful of early z1s) you get free road tax and a black and white number plate. Tyres are cheap, and the mechanics are simple - it's easy to home fettle, and the zeds in particular are really reliable. You get a lot of friendly attention (whether you want it or not) and there are plenty of clubs to join. Perhaps one of the best aspects is that by riding a classic you 'opt out' of a lot of the crap that seems to go with the all hype of new super-bikes - but on a z you can still burn rubber!

The downers are things like quick-rot alloy, and some of the more annoying character traits. The other day I forgot to turn off the fuel tap and the next morning I opened the garage door to find about 2L of petrol on the floor! Fuel economy is about 40mpg at 70-80 mph, but the tank only lasts about 110 to reserve, which is a pain on big trips. A big worry was the braking, but that's nearly sorted now very cheaply, and there are companies like Pretech who make 6-pot callipers that bolt straight on if you are flush with cash. The biggy to watch out for though is what you're buying! I though I bought a z900, but it turns out that I got a kz900 US import, with a z1B paint job! It's the z1s that fetch the serious money, and a replacement 4-4 will set you back another grand (and that's only the mild steel version). Like UBG says, the z900s are only worth about half as much, but really they're same thing. A good clue towards identity is that z1s and US kz900s come with just a single front disc and the UK z900 has two, but they all have the mounting points for another disc and calliper (though they are not easily come by).

My kz900 was pretty original when I got it, even down to the brake hoses being stamped 1976! Needless to say they needed ditching. I've had a snapped throttle opening cable, lost (not broken) a couple of speedo drives (now I glue the nut) and the manifold rubbers have gone a bit brittle (cracks will make those pots run lean - which is bad). Periodically the battery loses water, and the points have only needed adjusting once in 16K miles. I've had a clutch cable snap 150 miles from home at night (improves your forward planning) and I've changed one exhaust shim (£5), as it was just out of spec at 20K.

As my bargain turned out to be a fair price I'm not that bothered, especially with the fun and good service I've had, but I've seen some ridiculously bloated asking prices in the ads, so if you're going to spend a few grand start by learning what's what off the net, or spending £20 on Dave Marsden's Z1 book ISBN:076030775X first - you've been warned!

From:   Phillip Jackson

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