In 1988 I left home and moved into a scummy little flat in Como, just south of the city. All I had was a few homewares and a Honda CX500 motorcycle that was a piece of crap. It hadn't been my choice to buy it but, nonetheless, I had ended up with it and it had proved itself to very unrelieble and costly. Something had to be done!
What I did was go very deeply into debt for the fine piece of machinery in the photo opposite. It's a 1987 Kawasaki GPX750r and it only got me arrested once. I managed to evade the Police on every other occasion, which was none, of course! That's me on the front and a girl I used to date on the back. I think I remember her name but I won't put it in here in case she sees this page and I've got her name wrong (sorry Berit, it was the only good photo of the bike I had).
In seven years I did nearly 80,000 kms on this bike but whilst studying for my business degree I became so poor that I had to sell it to a local bike shop for a measly $3000. I nearly cried and to this day I wish I hadn't sold it. Whoever owns her now had darn well better be taking good care of her...
Here's one of her 'sisters'. Fabulous!! This shot must be from an American source. In Australia the bike is known simply as a GPx750r but in the States they're called 'Ninjas'. Notice the 'Ninja' sticker on the fairing.
Judging by the colour scheme this one is probably an '89 model. There are hardly any with this colour scheme in Australia. We all seem to like black bikes. At least as far as the GPx was concerned. I knew only one other person who owned a red/white GPx but at least three other guys who had black models.
Of course, when I graduated and got a paying job the first thing I did was go and buy another bike, a GPz900r. I love it!
I had to take the fairing lower off to replace a coolant hose that had come into contact with the exhaust and burned right through until coolant started spilling out onto the road. I was on my way to an appointment at the time and it had started to rain just before the hose gave. That was a fun day...
That's enough? Go somewhere else...
Now we're in