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Greetings!

Hello!

(( massive wall o text follows, be warned ))

New Concours owner here! I just signed up for a year, because even browsing the forums as a guest was WELL worth the fee, for the knowledge I gained!
(This seems like a really awesome group of folks!)
About me: I'm 58, and new to the Concours but FAR from new to Kawasaki.
Got my first in 1978 In Punta Gorda FL, a KD100 dual range..
Later that year I bought a NEW 1980 KZ550. (The black one with the red and blue pinstripes not the LTD.) Rode it around in my Jr and Sr year in high school, In 1981 I stumbled upon a 1978 Z1-R TC in Englewood and I bought that. (I still have the turbo Z1 but it really truly needs a full restore..)
Lets see.. I left the 550 in my dads garage and took the TC up to Tallahassee for school, rode it until 1985 when my fiancee graduated and we moved out west to Utah. The TC kind of sat and atrophied, because I had found a 1977 Z900 with wire wheels I could mess around with and do silly/stupid things to. It was kind of a warthog with 4 cylinders, but fun.
Life got kind of hectic for us for a while... working, bills, the great Americoma of just existing day to day, so I sold the 900, and the TC still sat on the back patio of the condo under a tarp...
Later on we got better jobs, bought a big house and moved out of the condo. Life was much better and I stumbled upon a 1997 ZX1100 .. FUN bike!
Well.. in 04 my wife and I had basically drifted apart emotionally, and we got a divorce. It was VERY amicable and we are still great friends, but in that process I sold all the toys. (porsche 928, audi s4, zx1100, etc) I ended up with the house and for the first time ever, the buck stopped with ME, and ME alone.
I guess I kind of had written off ever having a bike again.
More years passed...
Fast forward to 2 months ago.. I have started to have health problems, (Spine and Blood Pressure) and ended up activating short term disability.
I will confess this hit me pretty hard emotionally. I hadn't really thought about eventual physical limitations and getting older and life slowing down, and eventually......
Anyway!
About a month ago I was moping around pretty hardcore, and my brain said "MAN, you used to go riding to get your head straight, sure wish you could now" ... well the OTHER side of my brain said "umm... why not? Get your back healed up, fix your BP and ride, fool!"
So I started looking at bikes with no real urgency, as it would be a bit before I could ride without pain anyway.
The first thing I looked at was a honda st1100.. 85k miles and I was not really feeling it...
The second bike was my Concours. The gent inherited it, knew a lot about bikes, and has several. He didn't want to keep this one tho. I didn't ask why, but I suspect memories.. but I'm not sure. I had promised myself I would not buy something unless it called to me, and this bike flat hollered!
Its a dark red 2003, literally ONE tiny scratch on it, on the top of the fender, 4580 miles on the odometer, no dirt ANYWHERE, no oil, no road dings, nothing..
Still has the sticker on the speedometer. :O

When we fired it up, that old familiar Kawasaki inline four sound rolled into my ears and directly into my veins.... I bought it on the spot. :)

I have mods I want to do to it, but there is NO rush, I can do small tasks as part of physical therapy and the motivation will be great!
I need to lower it a LOT, because I have a 27" inseam and am 5'3".
I want a nice trunk, color matched.
I need to decide if I want to swap wheels now or wait.
I need to decide where I want my hands positioned and address that.
I must fix the windshield situation, because I look DIRECTLY thru the upsweep and the distortion isn't working for me.

I sometimes go into the garage and just start it up.. the sound makes me happy! It also reminds me this physical situation I am in, is NOT permanent, and the more seriously I work on my health, the sooner I am back riding :)
I will get pictures up and my profile fixed soon!

Ken
 
Welcome Kenneth. Your gonna like it here.
Biggest question; Which Connie did you get? C-10 or C-14?

Ride safe, Ted

OOps, just saw that it is a 2003..
 
Last edited:
Ken,
Welcome to the group and thanks for sharing your story. Above all, we are all humans in this group and most of us can relate

I am positive you will love the C-10 and a nice clean gem you appear to have found.

Still out west?

Wayne
 
Hi Ken! Welcome. Very low mileage on that 2003. I've owned 3 C-10s and the current one had 11K miles on it (it must have sat in a garage a lot) I changed the fluids and tires and it's been great.
These motorcycles are everything I need; speed, comfort, easy to work on - but the best feature is the people.
 
Welcome aboard Ken, if the windscreen has the Concours emblem on it it is the stock windscreen and isn't that good with turbulence. So it would be a good candidate for cutting down.
 
Welcome aboard Ken, if the windscreen has the Concours emblem on it it is the stock windscreen and isn't that good with turbulence. So it would be a good candidate for cutting down.
It does.. bike is showroom new.. I wonder if anyone has a cad drawing or template for cutting it on here... Im not a fan of the fishbowl distortion. I also like air to hit halfway up my full face screen.. wind helps me ride and kinda feel whats going on :)
 
Hello!

(( massive wall o text follows, be warned ))

New Concours owner here! I just signed up for a year, because even browsing the forums as a guest was WELL worth the fee, for the knowledge I gained!
(This seems like a really awesome group of folks!)
About me: I'm 58, and new to the Concours but FAR from new to Kawasaki.
Got my first in 1978 In Punta Gorda FL, a KD100 dual range..
Later that year I bought a NEW 1980 KZ550. (The black one with the red and blue pinstripes not the LTD.) Rode it around in my Jr and Sr year in high school, In 1981 I stumbled upon a 1978 Z1-R TC in Englewood and I bought that. (I still have the turbo Z1 but it really truly needs a full restore..)
Lets see.. I left the 550 in my dads garage and took the TC up to Tallahassee for school, rode it until 1985 when my fiancee graduated and we moved out west to Utah. The TC kind of sat and atrophied, because I had found a 1977 Z900 with wire wheels I could mess around with and do silly/stupid things to. It was kind of a warthog with 4 cylinders, but fun.
Life got kind of hectic for us for a while... working, bills, the great Americoma of just existing day to day, so I sold the 900, and the TC still sat on the back patio of the condo under a tarp...
Later on we got better jobs, bought a big house and moved out of the condo. Life was much better and I stumbled upon a 1997 ZX1100 .. FUN bike!
Well.. in 04 my wife and I had basically drifted apart emotionally, and we got a divorce. It was VERY amicable and we are still great friends, but in that process I sold all the toys. (porsche 928, audi s4, zx1100, etc) I ended up with the house and for the first time ever, the buck stopped with ME, and ME alone.
I guess I kind of had written off ever having a bike again.
More years passed...
Fast forward to 2 months ago.. I have started to have health problems, (Spine and Blood Pressure) and ended up activating short term disability.
I will confess this hit me pretty hard emotionally. I hadn't really thought about eventual physical limitations and getting older and life slowing down, and eventually......
Anyway!
About a month ago I was moping around pretty hardcore, and my brain said "MAN, you used to go riding to get your head straight, sure wish you could now" ... well the OTHER side of my brain said "umm... why not? Get your back healed up, fix your BP and ride, fool!"
So I started looking at bikes with no real urgency, as it would be a bit before I could ride without pain anyway.
The first thing I looked at was a honda st1100.. 85k miles and I was not really feeling it...
The second bike was my Concours. The gent inherited it, knew a lot about bikes, and has several. He didn't want to keep this one tho. I didn't ask why, but I suspect memories.. but I'm not sure. I had promised myself I would not buy something unless it called to me, and this bike flat hollered!
Its a dark red 2003, literally ONE tiny scratch on it, on the top of the fender, 4580 miles on the odometer, no dirt ANYWHERE, no oil, no road dings, nothing..
Still has the sticker on the speedometer. :O

When we fired it up, that old familiar Kawasaki inline four sound rolled into my ears and directly into my veins.... I bought it on the spot. :)

I have mods I want to do to it, but there is NO rush, I can do small tasks as part of physical therapy and the motivation will be great!
I need to lower it a LOT, because I have a 27" inseam and am 5'3".
I want a nice trunk, color matched.
I need to decide if I want to swap wheels now or wait.
I need to decide where I want my hands positioned and address that.
I must fix the windshield situation, because I look DIRECTLY thru the upsweep and the distortion isn't working for me.

I sometimes go into the garage and just start it up.. the sound makes me happy! It also reminds me this physical situation I am in, is NOT permanent, and the more seriously I work on my health, the sooner I am back riding :)
I will get pictures up and my profile fixed soon!

Ken

"...the great Americoma..."
Well said! Kudos. I'm gonna borrow that!
 
Ken,
Welcome to the group and thanks for sharing your story. Above all, we are all humans in this group and most of us can relate

I am positive you will love the C-10 and a nice clean gem you appear to have found.

Still out west?

Wayne
Yessir! Utah, about 20mi north of Salt Lake City
 
I never saw a template for cutting down the screen as everyone has a different height in mind that would fit their riding position. I cut down a stock windscreen for summer riding and it is very low, so much that you get upper chest/shoulder airflow. If it is going to be your main windscreen you probably want to start with the top so that you are barely seeing over the top edge. You get used to disregarding the screen edge sort of like disregarding your nose when it is in plain sight all the time, lol.
I will try to find a pic with my cut down screen on.

The windscreen cuts easy with a bandsaw, jigsaw or probably a hacksaw if the other two aren't available.
Use the thought that you can always cut more off and you cant put some back on.
I put painters tape near the intended cut line marked the tape where I wanted to cut.
Using a string tied to something 3,4 or 5 feet away from the base of the windscreen and aligned so that it divides the windscreen in half running down the middle of the screen you can use that to guide your marker in a sweeping pattern to make a nice symetrical curve. Then using a large round container, coffee can, bleach bottle, etc. you can trace the radius on each side if you dont want the single curve of your string radius pattern.
 
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