The Search is Over

I was performing my search of the internet for a suitable bike for my project on the night of Saturday October 18th, 2008. While on my local Craig's list and perusing the motorcyle section, I found it. The bike I wanted, a 2001 Kawasaki ZRX1200R, with under 12,000 miles.
It was almost perfect for my project, sure it was only a five speed, it was carburated and not full injected, it had a rectangular headlight and bikini fairing, and was only technically made in the twenty-first century. Also what was the deal with all that fugly gold? However none of that was nothing I couldn't take care of. And check out that swingarm! That swingarm looks pretty trick and very late '70s. Those dual rear shocks with the remote reservoirs are pretty sweet looking too, but more gold, ugh!

There was only one problem, it was Saturday night, the next day was Sunday and Monday was Columbus Day, a holiday, and the banks were closed. There was no way I could get the $3,000 to buy the bike. So I wrote the guy an email to check and see if he still had the bike and if he got any offers. The guy was super nice and emailed me back with his phone number saying that he did have one offer but the guy was in Philadelphia and hasn't shown any effort in coming down for it yet. I explained my situation, I would not be able to get the money until Tuesday and wouldn't be able to pick the bike up until Tuesday night. I told the guy, "Hey, I don't expect you to hold the bike for me. If someone shows up with cash in hand, I snooze, I lose, but if it's not sold by Tuesday, I want it." He said "Don't worry, call me at my work Tuesday, and we'll set something up." Was this guy super cool or what? So I sweated the next couple of days until I got the money out of the bank and gave him a call Tuesday around lunchtime. He still had the bike, I said consider it sold. So around 6:30 that night, my partner, our son, and I all drove the 25 miles down to his house and made the deal. I used the license plate off of my Honda to get it home. I was totally blown away by the bike, it sure didn't need a sixth gear, and had a smooth, broad torque curve. It had instant power anywhere above 4,000 rpm and didn't redline until 11,000 rpm. It was a very easy bike to ride, but certainly not a beginners bike. I rode the bike home up I-95 and put it away dreaming about what modifications and changes I was going to make.