my life as a gearhead part IV - KING REX

anyway.
after I swapped motor on the zephyr, went to corsica, THEN changed chain because the *s*h*ole that swapped engine left the old spoket on the engine (and by the way, than spocket was NOT 9000km old as mentionned when they sold it to me) I decided to sell the bike for half its price, borrowed the other half, sold, no, gave away the big german coupe and bought the rex.

there was a typo in the newspaper that said zxr1100. zxr1100 do not exist, so the guy on the phone took a very tired voice to repeat "there was a typo in the news paper, it's a roadster" and I said "yeah I know, it's the roadster I want".
it was in a shop, asking 240.000, the guys asked 180.000, I got it for 160.000. turn signals where in a box, no mirrors "who needs those on THAT bike?!" he said, it was champagne grey but the repaint after a crash had failled so it had turned pink on some places.
who needs paint on THAT bike!?

1998 ZRX 1100
inline 4, liquid cooled, carbutrators
106Hp/221Kg
power to weight ratio 1/2
YOZAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

suspensions made out of wood, legs bent as much as possible, saddle hard as a rock, it looked like a truck but never let any other bike get away. the thing was tuned for o to 100, kept above 5000rpm it would eat any superbike for breakfast, I just loved the look on people's face when their over expensive over designed overpowered bike would be humiliated by a naked truck with a topcase on acceleration or mountain roads.
ok, passenger seat sucked but why spil my fun for the very rare times she would go down to come with me on a ride, that just happened less and less. I rode the thing 12 hours a day through europe at supernatural speed in a sound of fury and enjoyed every second. she got discouraged by the rate and the increasingly uncomfortable seat and position.

my butt hurt too tho.
liquid cooled engines are so quiet. so modern !

after a few dents and scratches I had the thing painted black, gradually.

alternated square and round headlight untill I crashed in a dumb kid in his mother's opel. then went for a ratbike dual headlights I always wanted.

of course I had to change sparks every 9 or 10.000 km or it would just stop running. I lost the exhaust one day and had to change a few seals here and there, and the front fork kept blowing, but I kept the idea that I would write 100.000km on the clock, city riding and moutain roads dogfights.

the bike was rare, brutal, beautifully ugly and surprisingly mighty. a force from another planet, unsuspecting chassis, great brakes, power all the way, width of the tires was the only limits, and I used all of it.

I loved my king rex, even tho it was quickly gettint old.
so I began to put money aside, just in case, and one day stopped invest on mainteance and fixing.