Kawasaki Z900
Rod Kerr has been writing about bikes for more years than he cares to remember, and takes a recently restored Kawasaki 2900 to re-live a certain photograph. Is it as good as he remembers?
CAN IT REALLY BE 40 YEARS SINCE my youthful self and old school pal, Pete, borrowed a sparkling Kawasaki Z900 and terrorised the Midlands, taking photos along the way? Yes, I'm afraid it can, which makes me feel older than Methuselah's grandfather.
The black & white photographic masterpiece of bike reflected in a large puddle was shot in 1979, using a primitive device called a 35mm film camera. For younger readers, perhaps I need to explain that in those days the only digitals we had were the things attached to our hands and feet (or not, if you rode a BSA 650).
Taking photos was an involved business then, starting with buying a roll of film for the equivalent of about £25 in 2020 terms, then paying about the same again to have the images developed and printed, which took a week. After a second visit to Boots, you handed over another £10 in return for up to 36 glossy pieces of paper (or a bijou box of transparencies, aka 'slides').
It was quite likely that a significant proportion of these would be overexposed, or under-exposed, or out of focus, or be pictures of someone's nostrils that had strayed into the frame. You get the picture (or often didn't).
‘A plan was hatched.
