The start of the Journey

When I turned 40 I decided to buy a motorcycle.

After a good deal of shopping I found this 1981 KZ1000m CSR

The kid I had bought it from had done some shaddy things to it. But I set to work and got her up and running.

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I started riding and put on about 1,600 miles on total. I have always been drawn to Kawasakis. They sit very tall and I am 6’1″ so they fit me very well. When I was young my first motorcycle was a kz400.
After I that I actually bought a 1979 KZ1000
There is a picture of the old bike back in the day

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So it was very cool to reclaim that and have pretty much the same machine.

I suppose I knew it was coming the engine had never sounded right. On occasion it would make a horrible bang noise as well. The pictures above are from the weekend before she blew up. I had done a nice 200 mile jaunt around Utah.

I woke up and got ready for the commute to work. Moments into the ride I knew something was off and as I pulled onto I-80 and throttled up.

I saw a piece of metal fly forward and the bike slowed to the side of the road. I went around the front and was greeted with a large hole in the valve cover.

We got the bike home and I started to tear down to see where the problem stopped. But as you can see I just kept going the number one piston let go and shattered the whole inside of the bike.

Now I had a choice to make.....