First Ride in Japan: Why I won't buy Kawasaki...

Just wanted to share about my first Touring trip in Japan;

First and foremost, it seems every time I do anything related to motorcycles it rains on me. I am not conceded or anything but you would swear mother Nature was out to snuff out any fun I am looking to have. The first day it really only sprinkled enough to annoy everyone, the second day it poured then moved to sprinkles and high winds. I of course was missing anything water proof outside of my Jacket :frown:

There were about 30 total with only 4 americans, and roughly 10 Japanese able to speak english. Our destination took us north of Nagano (Of Olympic Fame, 200KM from Tokyo) where we stayed at a kick ass Hotel that had awesome food, and a very awesome Hot Bath to relax in after a long day in the saddle.

Since the Ride is organized by a local Motorcycle shop, and everyone is Loyal to that shop, we had a Mechanic on hand to deal with all of the "failures"...
1. A Kawasaki shift rod broke- repaired with electrical wire, coat hanger, electrical tape.
2. Kawasaki front brake lever fell off, bolt nut lost, rider able to hold onto lever- Mechanic carries spare nuts and bolts, had perfect match to fix.
3. Kawasaki right front brake CALIPER breaks off! repair is to tape wrenckes between pas and then tape caliper onto handle bars so that left caliper is usable.
Since there was many different kinds of bikes there, and the Kawasaki's were the only ones to break, it is obvious why I don't spend my greenbacks on team green...

I was relegated to riding a rented ZRX1100, and thankfully it was one of the few Kawi's that didn't break....

If I weren't so damn tired from (nearly) getting Hypothermia I would post pics. But I barely have enough energy to wrestle my with (censored) out of my pants to take a piss, so I am off to bed to sleep like a bear in winter...

 

Oh, if it seems weird that I got Home at 6pm on sunday, and your looking at your clock and it's not even noon yet, it's 1AM on Monday here in Japan as I write this.....

 

your right... but its five o clock some where.....

 

Looking forward to the pictures! I wondering how many times you had to smack yourself to remember to ride on the LEFT side of the street...

 

Loved my 06 ZX-6R. Maybe you just had a couple bad ones in the group.

 

Howdy Goinphaster; Sounds like you had a great opportunity that few of us will ever have,anyway, how would you rate the riding skill level of the Japanese sport /tourng riders that you were riding with? What about their equipment and gear, were they using state of the art stuff or just a bunch of mis matched year and color stuff,like I do!
Anyway just curious about it and since you experienced it first hand your response should be interesting. eddie