This bike accelerates very quickly....though not for knees out men

A hybrid sports/cruiser manufactured in the USA, shipped to Japan then to UK. A four cylinder water cooled shaft driven machine, with rear view mirrors that hold clear images. I only ride it in warm dry weather!

I have had this bike since 1996, it was manufactured in the USA in 1985 (this info. from the bike frame) then it must have been shipped to Japan, before being imported to Uk by a dealer who specialises in, what we call, grey imports. These are bikes that are not officially imported by the manufacturers. The bike cost me £2800, it was in very good condition only having covered 16000km., bikes tend to cost 60% more here than in USA and there is a thriving trade in bringing in 70's Jap bikes from California, and cosmetically restoring them to sell to the "born again bikers". I have never seen another Zl900 in the Uk (only a few ZL1000 were imported in the mid '80s but they did not sell well) I have seen a good number of the smaller 600 eliminators which are officially imported, and there are also lots of "grey" 400 cc imports from Japan, where this model is supposed to have cult status. Likes...I like it because it is different, a head turner, looks good and sounds good, its very powerful, having terrific acceleration in all six gears. (some smaller Jap bikes that I have ridden, get up and go after 8000rpm, but this one... just open the throttle to zip past traffic. It seems to be well made too, and I expect it to last for a good number of years. I don't like its heavy weight when manoeuvring without power, such as getting it out of my garage. It is a point and squirt machine, not meant for leaning over! I don't know how fast it will go, the bike rockets up to 80mph after that it becomes uncomfortable trying to hang on and I don't take my eyes off the road, to look at the clock! The reason I like the bike, is for its rapid acceleration. I read some figures from the internet that gave top speed at 130mph and 0-60 as 3 seconds. The rear tyre size (English spelling) is 160/80 by 15, it does get warm and I expect that rapid acceleration will soon wear it out! The shaft drive is far better than I expected, no clonking gear changes and no torque effect when putting power on out of corners. Chains consume less power, but using the bike as it was meant to be used would soon stretch them. I found a Zl900 site from the Netherlands, zl eliminators. If you wan't to see some Uk bikes for sale try.... cars and bikes for sale , there are one or two eliminators there.

DJI

email biker@tuxford.force9.co.uk

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