About Me

To contact me regarding eBay please click HERE

From 1972 until the late 2010s my family owned a Kawasaki, Yamaha, Suzuki, Ski-Doo, Arctic Cat, and 'more' dealership which was located in Michigan, in the Detroit area. The dealership had been in business since 1967 and at one point also offered Moto Guzzi and Hodaka. I worked there from being a little kid emptying ashtrays and polishing bikes (maybe late 70s) until 2000 after which I moved to Florida. During my time at "the shop" I worked in every department. In the early days the staff consisted of our family of four and a mechanic/service manager. For a long time it was just the five of us. At other times we also had 1-2 other parts, and 1-2 other sales people. This meant most of us were covering different departments and it was just normal. When the staff was small we went between assembly & prep, sales, parts, and sometimes helped in service. This was the way it was until business grew enough to have dedicated people in place. The parts department was where I settled in through the 80s and early 90s. Sometime in the mid 90s one of our main mechanics moved on. Service needed a quick replacement so I decided to give it a try. I found a full-time job mainly doing insurance repairs and "other work" on sportbikes--mostly Ninjas and GSXRs but also other types of bikes too. While a lot of times people don't care for how particular I can be, people really seemed to appreciate the degree to which their crashed bikes were repaired.

Other brands we carried at one time or another included: Polini, Blata, the Fazer Faze II watercraft, Whizzer Motorbikes, Batavus mopeds, Trac mopeds, Italjet, Chrysyler Sno-Runners, and mini-bikes.

Over the years I have owned a variety of motorcycles. Well, a variety of Kaws anyway. In no particular order: 1992 ZX11, 1986 ZL600 Eliminator, 1972 S2 350, 1972 H2 750, 1967 A1SS, 1976 KH400, 1971 A7SS, 1993 KDX250, 1976 KE100, 197x KH100, and the bike I still have, a 1984 KZ700. I purchased the KZ700 in the early 90s off of the customer we had originally sold it to. Lucky for me he lost interest in it after getting his newer, larger GPZ. Full disclosure: I also had a VF500 Interceptor referred to as the "INT" that I got via a trade. Rode it pretty hard and then used it as a down payment on the Eliminator. Credit to the Honda though it took the abuse.

The main purpose of the blog is post images of my brochures and other dealer materials that I have gathered over the years. The only items that I might include, that I do not actually own, will be for models that I really, really like and for whatever reason never got a copy of my own (such as the 1972 H2). A lesser purpose is admittedly to occasionally link to eBay where I have some spare copies offered for sale. There are a lot more in my collection than in my spares so it will be mostly just normal posts.

Thanks for looking. Gary  /  kawasaki-yama-zuki.

Find me on eBay at https://www.ebay.com/usr/kawasaki-yama-zuki

To contact me regarding eBay please click HERE.

In case you are curious about the dealership. During the 90s and 2000s business grew quite a bit. We had as many as 15-18 employees. My family sold it the 2010s and retired. It is under new ownership and still operating. The name is different than the name that appears stamped on many of my posted brochures (or the green bus shown on the KZ1000-R1 post).