ZZR600

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HISTORY

The day I discovered I had passed finals and had achieved the doctor bit, I went down to my local Kawasaki dealer in Cardiff to make enquiries to the newly updated ZZR 600 (the E - model range). I was torn between the more common all-rounder that was the Honda CBR 600 or the Kwak which had a more brutal engine with comfort to boot (for the trips I had in mind).
Eventually, what settled it was the Carnell mega-sale or something, where they were knocking off Ł1000 off the old coloured bike as the new colour was out (!) I preferred this colour anyway (teal green) - I was also pleased that since acquiring the 2 letters "D & R" in front of my name, people were happy to lend me money (in contrast to 1 month before when I was a mere "medical student").
So, I trundled down to Milton Keynes via coach in the middle of January to pick up new bike / helmet / gloves. I will never forget how bloody difficult it was to ride back in said new gear and on new 90bhp bike having not really ridden any bike for the past 18 months or so... the 50 mph run in speed was quite enough... I had no confidence whatsoever.. banking the bike around corners was a definitie no no.. !!"
However, I soon became more settled on having to ride the thing from Cardiff to Blackpool soon after (to take up my first House Officer post).. 300 miles at 50mph in the winter rain is no fun let me tell u, but it did help get me used to the beast.

Interestingly enough, despite its 600cc capacity, this was the biggest heaviest bike I have ever owned (195 Kg dry). However, because of this, once I had added panniers it was also the most comfortable and, I think, June's favourite so far..

We covered the most miles per year on this bike - 12,500 in 2 years. This included a trip to South Of France & Italy in the first year and to La Rochelle and West coast of France in the second.

South of France, 1994.

This had the potential to be a great trip but I had made 2 fundamental errors...

1). Don't try to travel too far in too short a space of time... if you are going to a big distance take time out to look around where you stop... pillions don't take kindly to just sitting on the back of a bike for hours on end for no apparent reason especially when below doesn't apply!

2). Make sure if you are travelling long distances you have PROPER LUGGAGE! We discovered that a rucksack or 2 is OK to travel 50 or so miles but anything more is just a pain. As we were travelling 2000 miles or so this was a BIG pain.. for June's back especially.

This trip saw us travelling from Blackpool to Dover to Calais to Dijon to Lyon to Nice (via Grenoble in the Alps) to Antibes with the odd trip across the Italian border via Monaco and Monte Carlo.
What with some of the fantastic places we went through and the scenery of the Alps, this trip would have been much better had we had time to stop and more comfortable had we had proper luggage.

We basically zoomed down south and spent 5 days in Antibes camping in a top class site with swimming pool etc. before travelling home the quickest way up the French Motorway system.

Oh dear, June forces a smile. After this we just bungied the luggage onto tail part of bike (and I think I bungied June on too, just to make sure.)

Just to prove we did do this trip , here are some photos, click for larger pics. Hold mouse over thumnail for brief description.

West of France, 1995.

Addressing the problems of the previous trip made a big difference...

1). We didn't atempt to travel so far and we made sure we stayed a t least a couple of nights in each place (except Cherbourg which we split by spending first nigh and last night there.)

2). We used Givi Luggage system which was a godsend for June. Also meant we could bring home more duty-free. Air seat was also tied to seat to, as US producing company put it, "prevent fanny fatigue" (hmmmm...).

We travelled down to our friends' (Mel & Gareth) house in Southampton where we spent the night before leaving early for Portsmouth... not early enough mind as we missed the ferry and had to wait a few hours for the next...oops !

We arrived in Cherbourg that evening where we camped. It was a magical evening. We sat on the beach drinking a bottle of the local vino between us whilst watching the sunset.

We Moved onto Ile De Noirmoutier wher we spent a couple of nights (June still has nightmares about the enourmous flying beetles by the beach being caught in her hair). We thern moved on to Ile de Re, an island opposite La Rochelle.
It was travelling between these destinations when the starter button fell off!! Arrrgghh!! Meant for the rest of the holiday I had to push start the damn thing everywhere (bearing in mind this was heaviest bike I ever owned fitted with fully laiden paniers and no kick start like my previous 2-stroke bikes). It was also at this point I realised the lady in Portsmouth had only given me 3 days AA Eurocover instead of the 10 I had asked for :-(

Despite this, it rankas as the best holiday June and I have had.

Click here to see thumbnails of the West Of France trip

CRASHES & NEAR MISSES

Pleased to say there was only one on this bike.. albeit a good one!

Had left home early one Sunday morning to attend an advanced hypnosis course in Birmingham, travelling from Birkenhead where I lived then. I was enjoying the twisty bits to join the M6 at Crewe until I came to a road sign before Nantwich which was placed before a not-too-difficult left hander. Not too difficult if you weren't half asleep and looking far too long at said roadsign (giving directions). Basically I didn't read the road far enough ahead and went across onto the opposite grass verge, effectively front-ending the bikea and causing the driver of an oncoming car from the opposite direction to have need of clean underwear.

Luckily I only sustained lacerations and bruising to my left forearm .. the bike did worse.. oh dear.. all my fault and only third party fire and theft insurance. Thus began me becoming very intimate with bike as it needed completely stripping down to the chassis almost, with fairing to be repaired and resprayed, and most of front end to be replaced (includin radiator, brake discs, forks etc..) All except fairing had to be done by me and involved lotsof phoning around breakers' yards (and lots of postage costs when they sent wrong / dodgy parts).

I was proud to have rebuilt the bike ready for our trip to the Weat of Franc (above) which was 3 months later although I did go round France with a bent front fork (I later discovered... again sent by dodgy breaker). I also managed to get full book value when I sold it on the next year...

I will always have fond memoies of this bike as the bike I rebuilt. As I say early, it was June's fave due to the comfort and panniers... But still, I was yearning for something more sporty to get me around those corners easier.. (or so I thought)...

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