The 13,500rpm red line, is..........neat.
I had a '78 KZ 750. My first brand new anything. I rode it for a week and traded it in for a KZ1000, like above, but maroon. I remember the upgrade was $99.
You were lucky! Shame about your bike but you walked away. Potentially dangerous machines for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is that in a crash you are the crumple zone ....... we can encounter , and often do , Bison on the highway. Right on the road. There are collisions fairly often. Bad enough in a car or truck. Can't imagine hitting one while on a bike ....
'53 Black Shadow.
I had a 69 Mach 3 Kawasaki. Whopping 60 hp and I recall having to hang on for dear life when you opened it up. Then came the KZ 900 and 1000. It scared me just looking at it, but nowhere near the crazy horse power available now.
My RD350 was pristine. Never even dropped in the grass. Sold it and assembled an XS650 in the shop. Wrote out a temp registration (you could do that back then). Insured it and took it for my first spin a few miles down the road to the gas station. Coming back on the road, a woman in a 4 door Toyota didn't even see me and made a left turn into a Red and White store 15 feet in front of me (I later measured the brake mark on the road). I hit her right behind the front door at 50 mph. I went over the car and was sliding down the asphalt thinking "wow.. I'm going to live through this one as I rolled into the ditch. The bike spun the Toyota around and tumbled after me and ended up landing on top of me in the ditch. I tried to get up and blacked out. Woke up in the hospital with a broken pelvis, broken collar bone and multiple stitches and road rash with my dad standing over me telling me how he always told me motorcycles were dangerous....The bike was wrote off with 4 miles showing on the speedometer. Then, fool that I was, bought a YZ250 and started motocross racing. That didn't last long as those guys were even crazier than I was. lol... That was my last motorcycle.
I had more than a few close calls, but never as serious as yours. The thrill was gone with the onset of a wife, kids and a mortgage. The upside is we lived to tell the tales and driving the vette is far more comfortable.
