VOL. 56 ISSUE 6 FEBRUARY 12, 2019 P87
Sure, it's racing, and everybody entered wants
to win, but really, it's all about the bikes and the
stories behind them. It was all front and center at
Sonoma where plenty of curious spectators were
treated to the largest contingent of classic super-
bikes in years. In all, 19 lined up on Sunday and
all but a few finished. The brands represented
included Kawasaki, Honda, Suzuki, Moto Guzzi
(my favorite), with a lone BMW and Ducati.
RACING DINOSAURS
The OEM Brown, Kosman modified, 1974 Kawa-
saki Z1 900 I was riding turned out to be quite
good considering what it was. I had my reserva-
tions at first, though, due to a problem with the
front brake reservoirs, which limited me to only
three laps of practice.
The rest of the weekend was much better. I'm
familiar enough with the riding style of these old
beasts but it had been some time since I threw a
leg over one.
Once I figured it out I realized the Z1 chassis
worked pretty good. The Yoshimura-spec engine,
from back in the day, delivered great midrange
pull and had some decent top-end to fight with
some more modern bikes on the grid.
