News

Bought a used Kawasaki Z900RS in Canada: My ownership experience

13th August 2024, 12:11 by Ananth Iyer

I am not sure how many more motorcycles I will buy in the future or how my garage will look like, but one thing is certain for now. I am never selling this one.

BHPian Sangwan recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hello everyone, today I am going to take you on my journey of buying an almost brand new USED 2022 Kawasaki Z900RS 50th Anniversary Edition. This thread will always remain updated, and we will see how the Z900RS fares in long term use.

The beginning:

In my last post (My Journey : From an International Student to a Permanent Resident in Canada) in my other thread I mentioned that I got my motorcycle license in Canada and there was this strong itch that I need to buy a motorcycle. I was without one since 2021, and driving an automatic everyday was super boring. Motorcycle was going to bring back some fun in my driving life. Back in India, I was lucky enough to experience the Triumph Street Twin (Time with my now-sold Triumph Street Twin) , so I was not going into these big bikes without experience. Street Twin was my first big bike and I remember when I decided that I will spend INR X amount on the purchase, I went through all the brands’ websites and checked all the models on the internet one by one. On the Kawasaki page, I saw for the first time Kawasaki Z900RS, what a beautiful machine! It was love in first sight; I had never seen this motorcycle in person (and I never did until last year) but the pics were enough to convince me that this is the bike I wanted. And then I saw the price and that was it, I was not going to spend INR 15-16 Lakhs which was only the ex-showroom price, so the dream of this beauty died then and there. Besides the Z900RS, there is another bike which remains close to my heart all the time, and it is the Triumph Tiger. BMW GS series could be great, but I don’t know I always found the Tiger very appealing. Especially the Tiger 1200 of the previous generation. Those LED lights stole my heart. So, now we have two motorcycles which always interested me. Due to the prices in India, I was happy with my Street Twin and thought if God willing I would buy another one later in life. And God willing I got one now!

Irritating my wife day in day out:

On the day I had my motorcycle license with me, my wife knew that I will be getting a bike soon. But we had (we still do, being an adult is such a pain!) a lot going on in our lives. We were switching jobs, had to take care of our son, had this mortgage to pay and the rest of the bills too. Canada is a great country but there are bills to pay every month and then you’re not left with much. Also, this year the weather sucked big time in British Columbia (BC). It was very cold and rainy in March, April and even in May. Somewhere in June, the summer really started for us. But this didn’t stop me from talking about motorcycles, I was always on the FB marketplace, checking local dealerships, their websites, their used inventory and also taking my wife and son on the weekends to the dealerships and checking their inventory in person. This constant obsession and me talking about motorcycles irritated my wife a lot and so she was also like get one and shut up.

The conditions:

After spending time with the Street Twin, I had a better understanding about what my next bike is going to be. The following were the priorities for me:

1. It must be an in-line 4 or a 3 cylinder. The V-twin in Street Twin was great, but I wanted to experience other engines as well. Twin cylinders would be considered only if the deal being offered is amazing.

2. Fuel tank capacity of 15 liters or more. This was very important to me as the Street Twin had only 12 Liters of fuel capacity and so after 200-220 Kms, it was time to fill up and it was a little annoying. The bigger the tank the better.

3. It will not be a Harley-Davidson. Some of them are so good looking, but it never clicked for me. But Indian Motorcycles are great!

4. Open to all brands but preference to Japanese as I don’t have the time and money right now to deal with occasional breakdowns if any.

5. It must be good looking. No matter what sort of bike it is.

6. Something in range of CAD 15000 as I didn’t want to drown in debt.

7. Preference would be given to used ones instead of new ones.

Overall, it was a tough situation for me because the choices available were astonishing. I could buy a Hayabusa or a R1 or a Fireblade or a Triumph Tiger. I could buy a Ducati or an Indian or Aprilia or BMWs or something which I only saw on car magazines while growing up.

Another lover at first sight: The MV Augusta Superveloce:

I only knew that MV Augusta is a motorcycle company. That’s it. I never actually bothered to look into them, and one day just like I did in India, I again went through each and every brand’s webpage and saw Superveloce for the first time. It is the most beautiful bike I have ever seen on the internet and in person, even more than the Z900RS. There may and might be many in the future more beautiful motorcycles, but this is going to be in the list always. I never found a used Superveloce and the local dealerships had stock, were offering decent discounts too but it was still going to be super expensive. It is almost CAD 30,000 motorcycle and when I am spending this much, I would rather spend a little bit more and buy something special in Used Cars. So, for now MV Augusta Superveloce would be only a dream, might become reality someday but I don’t see it happening anytime soon.

My new nemesis, Motorcycle Insurance:

If you had followed my car ownership thread (paste link here), you would know that there is only one Insurance company in BC, known as Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC). ICBC has made 4 categories for motorcycles as per engine size and so the greater the engine size, the greater the insurance is going to be. If I am thinking correct, it is:

Below 400 CC.
Between 400 to 750 CC.
Between 750 to 1150 CC.
Above 1150 CC.

Just for curiosity, I went into ICBC office and asked for the monthly insurance of a 2007 Suzuki Sport Tourer, which was having 1250 cc, listed at CAD 5500 and it came out CAD 175/month. This is more than my car! And I understand the reasoning behind it but still it is not fair and the way how life is for me right now, I don’t think I would be able to insure both motorcycle and car at the same time as it would be too much of a waste. Also, ICBC charges a premium if you insure for less than 6 months, called short term fees, and you must give the whole premium in one go, you can’t get monthly payments if you’re insuring for less than 6 months. So, what is the plan for long term and short term?

Short-term: Use the motorcycle on weekends for now, I could get insurance for one day for CAD 36 and for two days I think it is CAD 56/57.

Long-term: Being part of different motorcycle groups on Facebook helped me to understand that getting basic coverage from ICBC and additional coverage from private insurance could be a great way to save some money enjoy riding more. I will be looking into it more in the coming weeks and sharing details with you. As ICBC is the sole corporation when it comes to vehicle insurance, I would need basic coverage from them so that I can ride and have a license plate.

Let the games begin:

Like I mentioned earlier, I was checking dealerships and their inventory in person on the weekends, I came to the realization that currently I would be happy with something costing less than CAD 15,000. When I was visiting dealerships, the salespeople would come over and talk about different financing options and I realized I could easily do this and so I narrowed down my search to motorcycles who fit these criteria. I was interested in the following motorcycles:

1. MV Augusta Superveloce: I loved it in person, it is so beautiful but it was out of my budget and also my younger brother said to me over the phone after looking at pics of this bike, “bhai, iss ki tanki par toh tera pet tikega, ye bike ke liye fit hona jaruri hai (brother, your tummy will cover the tank of this motorcycle and these bikes are for people who are slim”). I watched all the reviews available on YouTube for this motorcycle and realized that even though it is exceptionally beautiful, it can’t be an everyday bike for me.

2. Kawasaki Z900RS: Apart from Kawasaki 1000SX, none of the Kawasaki interested me. The interest in the 1000SX was also due to TeamBhp, after reading so many wonderful ownership logs of this machine I was very interested in it but my heart was like if its going to be a Kawasaki, it is going to be the Z900RS. I was not going to go for anything apart from this motorcycle from the Kawasaki Stable. I have no complaints against Z900RS, well one actually, I wish they remove that Yellow color paint scheme, it doesn’t sit well with this machine and yes you could get used to it but still it doesn’t look pretty at first.

3. Suzuki Hayabusa: Every boy’s dream. What a bike this is, beautiful, ferociously fast and it just oozes personality. The newer ones start around CAD 22,000 and I didn’t find many used ones. Also, by this time I had started realizing that even though I am not old or anything, but I didn’t wanted to be in a committed posture, I wanted to be upright and relaxed. Maybe someday I will have a Hayabusa with me.

4. Suzuki V Strom 650: Robust engine, fuss free ownership, less insurance amount and go anywhere capability. Well, that’s about it for this Suzuki. There was no flare, it is a great bike, but I wanted something special.

5. Indian Sport Chief: My wife loves the Indian motorcycles; I showed her the Indian Scout because it fell in our “budget” but she was not interested in it. She went around and found The Indian Chief, very beautiful and macho but I didn’t want the cruiser kind and it was costed CAD 18,000 plus other fees and taxes, so it was rejected.

6. Honda CBR 650: This was the motorcycle which planted the finance way in my brain. It costs around CAD 11,000 and it’s a Honda so really nothing was going to go wrong, it was a committed posture and I thought well maybe I could give it a go. I went online, read everything about it and checked many reviews on YouTube. You really need to wring this one to feel the power and then I realized that maybe I should look for something which has more torque.

7. The Triumph Bonneville line up: Speed Twin, Thruxton and T120 are the ones which I really like but they are not in-line 4 and their tanks are also of only 14.5 Liters and so I didn’t think about them much.

8. Triumph Tiger 1200: This is the motorcycle which really makes me think twice about the Kawasaki. When I was about to pull trigger for the Z900RS, I found two listings of the Tiger 1200 and they were both 2019 models, one had 33k on odometer and other had 27k. They were costing similar to the Z900RS and this made me think so much because look at that behemoth! It is so cool and those LED Lights, those LED lights! I wasn’t getting good deal on it and then at the end of the day they were now 5 years old and had so many electronic gadgets on them that it was giving me cold feat, so I dropped the idea.

9. Yamaha Stable: Maybe they are making great bike but they are certainly not beautiful. I checked the newer models and none of them appealed to me. Of course this R1 in the pic is drop dead gorgeous, but look at XSR lineup and you'll know what I mean.

10. Fireblade/R1/Aprilia/Suzuki GSX 750R/Street Triple/Speed Triple: Once I realized I am not really into committed posture, I gave up on these, otherwise they are all great motorcycles, and I would have lived an experience if I had bought one.