I hadn’t ridden this 1970 AJS Stormer in around 45 years. Flushed the tank, cleaned the Amal carb as best I could, mixed up fresh fuel and Bam! Fired up and runs half decent. I’d like to find a couple quarts of Castrol R for the full nostalgia experience.
Ethans first motorcycle ride when he was about 2 and a half. The other picture is of him sitting on the same old Shovelhead. The pictures are about 21 years apart.
After my dad passed at the end of 2024, I knew I'd end up with most of his motorcycle collection. I started bringing them home in June with the most meaningful one. His old Kawasaki KZ900 drag bike. It was 1170cc at one point and I believe it is now 1075. It ran 140 mph + in the mid 9s. It sat on my Uncle's farm in a dirt floor shed for the past 20 years, unfortunately. The engine is stuck right now, but I am determined to eventually get it running again. CLEANED UP -
The next one to come home was a Yamaha RD350. This doesn't run and my dad never rode it, but was collecting parts to make it a fun street bike. If you know anything about these bikes, they are a ton of fun in a small package. AKA the 'Giant Killer' because they could keep up with the bigger bikes of the day (mid '70s).
I picked up a couple baskets of what I think are Kawasaki (I still need to go through it) parts for $30 bucks. No idea what I'm going to do with it, but there's some neat stuff in there, chrome horseshoe, cat eye taillight, fenders, triple trees, disc brake setup, drum brakes setup etc etc
2008 sporty I bought used to get in the wind and had to accessorize for the old lady. I really need to finish my stroker shovelhead.
The Jalopy Journal
