Z1OwnersClub GB

Hello All,
I'm new to the club and looking to purchase an early Z1. There are quite a few on the market, including a fairly pricey early machine being sold by Motorcycles Unlimited. I did manage to find, but have since lost, a link in the forum going back to 2020 which talked about this bike and I think it was then sold. The reg. no. is PBJ 20M. Does anyone in the club have any knowledge about this bike? More generally, prices seem to be all over the place at the moment but hopefully the right machine is out there at the right price.
Thanks, Jim,

Hi Jim

welcome to the club !
Finding a Z1 for a fair price becomes difficult. Most of these bikes are owned by people who want to keep them.
Keep on searching for your dreambike. Good luck !
Greetings from Belgium.
Philippe

Prices are going down so I’d say bikes are becoming more realistic

Also I wouldn’t class an M reg bike as early. 72/early 73 I would. So L reg but check the build date.

A lot is down to chancing dealers , optimists and condition/ originality.

Morning Philippe and Chrisu,
Thanks for the greetings, encouragement and advice. It should be fun searching for the right bike. I'm looking forward to it.
All the best, Jim.

Jim M. wrote:Morning Philippe and Chrisu,
Thanks for the greetings, encouragement and advice. It should be fun searching for the right bike. I'm looking forward to it.
All the best, Jim.

If you see a bike you're interested in just post a link on here. The resident experts will be more than happy to tell you the good, Bad & ugly about it. It's getting a Buyers market now as more and more are getting too old to ride and looking to sell on their 'Investments' which in many cases are poorly restored Bitsa's that aren't worth half the asking price.

Good Luck with the search.

Welcome aboard Jim and good luck with finding your dream bike

As GaryL said. Lots of the bikes you see, especially at non classic dealers, are cobbled together bitsa and not worth half what they are asking for them.
That said any bike that's over 40 years old is likely to have had at least some paintwork/repop parts applied to it. Any 100% original model of any of the Z range is very scarce now and will sell at above average prices to serious collectors prepared to pay a premium for the "right" bike.
If you buying to ride and enjoy then buy from a enthusiast that knows what they are doing.
Very, very few dealers have mechanics that actually know these bikes as those they did have are now retired and have been replaced by inexperienced techs that generally make things worse.
This applies to specialist dealers also.

Jim M. wrote:Hello All,
I'm new to the club and looking to purchase an early Z1. There are quite a few on the market, including a fairly pricey early machine being sold by Motorcycles Unlimited. I did manage to find, but have since lost, a link in the forum going back to 2020 which talked about this bike and I think it was then sold. The reg. no. is PBJ 20M. Does anyone in the club have any knowledge about this bike? More generally, prices seem to be all over the place at the moment but hopefully the right machine is out there at the right price.
Thanks, Jim,

Welcome Jim,
PBJ 20M is a genuine UK bike, one of only 40 imported in 73 so I believe. It used to belong to my mate Dave Gilroy who sold it to a member of the club a few years back now. Dave bought from club member Chris Martin in Melton Mowbray. Chris restored it to concours condition and picked up several awards with it:
Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/115740825 ... 895422186/

Edit: I've just found my original post selling PBJ 20 for Dave as he doesn't do tech: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=47004

Thanks all for your replies and advice and thanks Andrew for the info. on PBJ 20M. All very much appreciated.

Welcome and good luck with your search

Hi Jim,

Welcome to the club.

So good luck with your search and as previously mentioned our regular experts will guide you through anything you see, just post the details onto the site.

The right one will come along, it's just a case of searching also check the auctions sites the likes of carandclassic.com. etc.

Good luck!

Kind regards,

Mark.