Owned every option of these back in the day , Z1 , Z1A , Z1B , Z900A4 , Z1000A1 , Z100A2 , 1972 to 1978.
Even a 1983 Eddie Lawson replica in 1985 !
By the time I got into them it was 1983 onwards and none were 100% stock at the time. Came and went rapidly , sometimes 2 in a year.
Some well 'Mad Maxed" ( ie well scruffy !) and some of them very clean and original bar 4:1 exhausts
Yes I know , shoulda kept them all...
There is a bloke here in Perth who has/had 16 variants ( mostly "Mad Maxed" of course !) but he had kept every one he ever owned
same model as the one I had I think it was about $2300 new . love to have another
PS the example in the grainy photograph is a "yankee" model. ( By far the most of them always were !)
No seat strap , red rear reflectors on the shockies , shorty chrome rear guard
Had them in my mix as well, 1974 Z1A my brother bought for $900 in West coast USA and rode across the states to Baltimore on it.
nah mate , not the "chroming" dude. I met him also back in the late 90's and he had a coupla nice 900's.
The bloke with "16" or whatever it was lived in the northern suburbs of Perth one suburb north of me.
He had one original Z1 Jaffa ( which was a "survivor" ie scruffy but all there , 4 pipe system and all ! ) and a huge range of Bitzas
He had at least one Z1R fairly stock in colour and everything.
Strange thing about all of these bikes ( '72 Z1 to the '79 Z1R Mk2 ) is that the "enthusiastic admirer" is always 60+ in age !
Me included at 61 !
Question is , how can they keep going up in value when we are all ageing rapidly ??
I had a 1973 Kawasaki 750 H2B triple , bought it at 10 years old (1983) when I was 23 myself. Drag raced it,"proddy' raced it, a "survivor".
Kept it until 2011 and sold it here in Perth WA.
That bike sold for $14,500 with a ute load of spares , set tank and panels etc etc. BEST offer I could get for it at the time.
I had just had a melanoma health scare and sold all my classic collection , cars as well.
Is the H2B Kawasaki "worth more" today ? I often wonder of course but I am not sure.
A bit like Harley customers the pool is shrinking , HD have been aware of that impending doom for quite a few years already !
The Perth dude I know with the 16 x Z1/z900/Z1R collection used to call them his "Superannuation fund", I am not so sure of that now !
