CraigT wrote:the club needs to be clear where, in the Z ranges history the cutoff point is for acceptability to the club. Taking the club name literally, the last Z1 was the Z1B !!! ......just saying !
The club is perfectly clear where the cut off is. As it says on the home page the club is “dedicated to the upkeep, preservation and/or improvement of Big K's iconoclastic Z1 and it's air-cooled progeny.”(It’s called Z1Owners Club because all that would be too long…) To be more specific first generation which means essentially twin shock which technically takes out the A1A2 GPzs but they are common cause so they’re not specifically excluded. Zephyrs are different, the 1100 is quite Zedlike but the 750 is more like a big Z650 - which is a cousin but not true bloodline.
Many years ago when the club founded it was only Z1s (to the Z900 at the time because a Z1B cutoff would be have been silly even then) then thous were admitted as long as they had round cam covers (don’t even go there…) finally all big air cooled fours simply for the reason that the club needed more than 100 members if it wasn’t going to die off - which it nearly did anyway. Don’t forget there are many more Zeds on the road in the UK now than there were in the late eighties due to a huge number of imports from the US in the late nineties and since so only allowing (UK) Z1+A+Bs in the late eighties/early nineties it would have been a very small club….
Most members like all big Kawasakis and triples and Rexes and other bikes but from the point of view of the way we are represented at the Stafford etc. it has to be about the founding principles of the club, we’re not a general club like the VJMC.
As far as the RS900 goes I can see why it might be worth including for the 50th anniversary I have no strong feelings either way. I can also see where Buzzard is coming from as the club has always said been about modding Zeds since the start, but undoubtedly the specials will be back next year.