Renewing my introduction from The Netherlands

[Richard]

I'm really happy we're back online again. Thank you very much Steve for all the hard work building this new forum using phpBB software. As I'm the owner of another forum I know it takes a lot of effort setting things up and making it work.

Anyway, back to my renewal...

My name is Richard Schulting living in the Netherlands, age 58 (1959) employed at Citrix Systems as Network Systems Engineer. I own a Zephyr ZR750C1, bought it a year ago in an awfull condition (I know now after some serious restoration work).

Although I did ride motor bikes while being young in the previous century without any license it really started again for me when I passed my exam together with my son Rick back in March 2012 at age 53, call it my second live or not I really enjoyed riding ever since.

I started with a Kawasaki LTD 305 chopper model with 25kW so my son could ride it as well. The one below is not mine, lost my pictures at a hard disk crash...


Few years later when Rick had his own bike I bought this bigger Kawasaki 750 LTD


And last year July 2016 I decided to get a non chopper model as I started to dislike the steering. Looked around for a while as I wanted sort of the same engine also naked and then I found this Kawasaki Zephyr 750 for some 800 Euro


I started a new restoration topic where I will describe my experiences from beginning to end.
Click to visit Richard's ZR750C1 Restoration Project

[Stu]

Aaaah... beaten by the Dutchman. Seems you've been here by yourself for ten days!

Welcome back, all... and yes, thanks to Steve for all the hard work to get us back online.

[Richard]

Sorry Stu...

I'm running my own forum using the same software so I offered Steve some help in testing and so on.

But very happy we're online again

[Stu]

I guessed the clue may lie in "Network Systems Engineer"

[Richard]

Being technical would be enough I guess

[Stu]

I'm fairly technical, with a long career in Mechanical Engineering behind me in Aircraft, Mining and now Rail. I wouldn't have a clue about setting up a forum, though!

I'm a year older than you by the way; 1958 model.

My C1 looked remarkably similar to yours before I tore it apart, right down to the colour. Very tatty condition though. I planned to ride it for a while and see what needed doing to it, but the answer was "far too much to live with". I maybe rode it 30 miles before it was stripped.

[Richard]

Well yes, I should have been more precise I guess. I've been in Electronic Engineering for a few years but as soon as the first PC's appeared I changed into PC repairs. Somewhere around 2000 I made my last career change and became a Network Systems Engineer at Cisco and lately doing the same at Citrix.

Your bike was a bit lighter blue but sure I recognize the hand full while riding it
I mounted a couple of Öhlins shocks last week and boy what a difference that makes

[Stu]

That paint job was an aerosol job, done by a blind chap. it was thick and gooey; I stripped it right back to bare metal/plastic. Some Peugeot colour, I think.

I didn't feel the need to splash out on Ohlins... I bought a pair of these:

http://www.shock-factory.co.uk/2winshocks.html

Except they are made by Protech, a company literally 400m from my office, then shipped to Shock Factory in France. I bought them from the guy that makes them. Two advantages - firstly they were somewhat cheaper and best of all they didn't come with the stupid "2win" name on them! Badges read "Protech" instead. Very light aluminium construction, adjustable damping, and a promise to swap the springs if the rate is wrong...