Since some friends were more on the road with street bikes, I looked around in this segment. My heart beat faster with the Kawasaki ZZR 500 and so I bought my first new motorcycle. With the color that was fashionable at the time and a rev range that most others could only dream of.

However, this also needed the in-line 4 cylinders. Below 7000 rpm not much happened and only from 10 000 rpm the bike came a live before the red zone started at 14 000 rpm.

Just for info for those who don’t know this model. The motorcycle was actually a ZZR 600 which was produced for Austria with a reduced displacement. The performance of 71hp (52kw) was of course significantly less than the almost 100hp (74kw) of the 600 and had a negative effect due to the same weight.

This could only be compensated with rev orgies, which encouraged a very brisk driving style. The fantastic brakes helped here, without ABS at the time but controlled with 2 fingers for perfect stutter braking.

On many tours alone and with friends I was able to gain many beautiful experiences. So it happened that I had already exceeded 20,000km in 2 seasons and it was clear to me that something bigger and therefore more durable had to be found.