1999 Kawasaki ZRX1100, $2500

Burien, WA

“This is a one owner garaged kept super clean machine. Two brothers pipe, good tires. Stock and unmolested.
No, not a squid boy crotch rocket. But a super street bike, with massive roll-on power. 20k +miles.
No trades, serious only will call before 10pm please. Gladly send larger pictures.Will not send bla bla bla over email. If it posted it is available.”

We love Zee Rexes. Why? Plenty of power, very comfortable, great retro throwback styling, very easy to live with motorcycle, and it’s very customizable. For being a one owner bike, it’s at a good offering price. I just don’t understand the owner’s refusal to send bla bla bla over email… what exactly is bla bla bla and why would he prefer to use a telephone to exchange said bla bla bla?

Anyway, if the link to this craigslist ad brings up nothing, then the bike obviously isn’t for sale any longer. 1) our economy still sucks and 2) it’s late October, there’s not as much motorcycle wheeling and dealing going on as, say, May.

If you’re pining for a newer year ZRX, more are probably available here:

A little rest stop to eat my Jenny Craig "Anytime Bar" so I wouldn't stop and gobble a Big Mac. It worked, I didn't.

It’s a lovely sunny day here in the Seattle area. I knew that I was going to hop on the viffer and go for a little ride. I decided upon a somewhat familiar little jaunt, up highway 522.

North Seattle to Monroe with a side mission to Canyon Park

Originally I planned to maybe get to Snohomish but I liked the vibe of 522 so I just continued on to Monroe.

I stopped at the quaint Country Village in Bothell. This is where I saw the biggest cock I’ve seen in a long time.

That's a big one.

Quaint, foofy stores await your money at Country Village in Bothell.

The ride up 522 was nice. This is my first time being in the saddle at speeds over 45 miles an hour for more than 5 minutes at one whack in about 3 years. The Interceptor was truly a terrific travel provider, but my arms/hands/back aren’t conditioned to it yet, so I kept my range close to home.

The lovely Monroe Correctional Facility is a large tenant in the town of Monroe, Washington. I checked in its online archives and found this interesting picture of an inmate. Okay, if you saw a guy dressed like this today, you’d feel compelled to call him “sir.” I stopped at a mega gasoline/convenience store establishment and bought a nice cold bottled water, a Lite Starbucks Frappaccino, and a pack of peanuts. Snacked whilst enjoying the sun at the curb. Then gazed at my red viffer and wondered if I could keep it for the rest of my life. Maybe in 20 years my 2002 VFR will be considered a quaint classic vintage ride.

I'm sorry, sir, but the window of the best prison cell we have for you this evening faces north. Dessert and coffee served at 8. Don't drop your soap.

If you’re riding your cycle about and you wave to a red Interceptor and its rider (which could be me) doesn’t wave back, please don’t take it personally. Must I remove my hand from the handle grips to wave to another cyclist as we pass going different directions? I’d prefer to stay vertical and in the forward-moving direction and keep my hands on my handlebars. Just a crazy safety thing I like to follow. Maybe it’s just me.

Yes! Finally! A deal was struck, and I am riding an awesome motorcycle.

I began looking through craigslist ads of private motorcycles for sale. My first spark of interest was a 1982 Kawsaki GPz 550 that was selling for $900… that was sold before I could see it. I checked out a 1986 Yamaha FJ1200, and a 1984 Honda V65 Sabre.

Then, I moved up the price bracket and found a very nice 2000 Kawasaki ZRX 1100.But, get this: I completed a credit application, and was notified that I was approved for credit. (I was putting $1,000 down and the bike cost $4,000 so I wasn’t financing too much, really.) I took most of Friday off from work to drive 35 miles to a dealership… I presented my pay stub… and was told there was a problem. The financing guys assumed that, given the monthly gross I make from my job, I’d have X dollars year-to-date. Well, I had earned about about one thousand bucks less than that amount, and they said that I would have to have my wife come in and cosign for the loan and have her income figured in.

1) one hour and forty five minutes in driving time round trip to and from the dealership

2) Took most of Friday off of work to go down there and fiddle around.

I therefore decided I’d stick within a 8 mile radius of dealerships from  my house. Luckily for me, RideWest BMW had a couple of good candidate bikes to check out.

I went in on Saturday morning expecting to make a deal on the 2005 Ducati Monster Dark 2SR, a lovely 800cc hooligan naked bike. Thing is, its seating position was way more aggressive and sporty than I liked.

Right next to it was a lovely blood red 2002 Honda Interceptor VFR800Fi. It was just $500 more than the Ducati. A set of hard luggage installed, just over 18k miles on the odometer.

Now, I’ve not kept up with Interceptors since 1987, when the Interceptors of that vintage were the motorcycle on the streets. Interceptors have changed since then to become more sport tourers than canyon carving sportbike kings.

Which was fine with me.

I made a little walk-around video and it can be seen here:

Try a different seller: Red Label Mot

What makes them stand out is the absolutely exhaustive descriptions and history of every bike they sell. Here’s a snippet from an Aprilia Futura they currently have:

“This bike has never tipped over, crashed or been damaged in any way. Unless you count the scuffs on the saddlebags as “damage”, which I will cover later. Always parked indoors and very well taken care of, this is a clean Aprilia sport-tourer.”

The seem to specialize in exotic, high quality, even vintage cycles. They may command a premium price, but you get what you pay for. Didn’t know that Laverdas still made motorcycles? Just recently, they’re selling a Laverda Ghost Strike.

Enjoy browsing their inventory. They’re located on Capitol Hill in Seattle if you want a closer look at that “I’ve never seen that bike before” bike.

I’ve put a new skin on Seattle-Motorcycles.com – I liked the previous look, but the theme and container didn’t allow for a cool new feature, the Featured Content Gallery at the top of the main page.

I’m also going to purge some older posts. As you may know, what I do here is look through Craigslist and eBay Seattle-area motorcycle listings and highlight street cycles that are affordable and decent. There are probably 12 dirtbikes for every street bike listing on Craigslist, and while dirt riding is a great sport, street motorcycles are a bit more practical (and popular, especially in today’s economic climate.)

Being the internet nerd that I am, I like to look at statistics. As of today, the top 10 most searched terms that result in traffic to this humble site since January 1, 2009 are:

1. triumph bobber for sale
2. honda bobber
3. suzuki bandit 400
4. bobbers for sale
5. triumph bobber
6. bank repo motorcycles
7. yamaha vision
8. rat bikes for sale
9. 1986 yamaha fazer
10. repo motorcycles

It’s an interesting list. I’m glad that my favorite motorcycle of all time, the do-it-all 1986 Yamaha Fazer is in the top 10. The Suzuki Bandit 400 is a very rare bike here in the States (much more popular in Europe). And I have an entire page devoted to finding repo motorcycles. I’m not a huge fan of riding bobber motorcycles, I’ll admit, but bobbers are some interesting cycles to look at and admire for their uniqueness and art. Finally, the interest in rat bikes completely baffles me.

I’ll use this list and keep an eye out for them in particular in my travels. I have some tools I can use to fetch such motorcycles and post them here.

So have a look around, subscribe to my RSS feed so you’ll receive updates immediately.

And thanks for visiting!  If this site got zero traffic, I’d have quit it a while ago – and kept the neat motorcycle sale finds to myself.

Lots of other updates to this bike build on a 1982 CB650 frame. Not for everyone, but there is something quite likable about it. While this particular Honda custom bobber motorcycle is no longer for sale, there are probably tons more available here.