Glen Stroud prefers his ‘New York Steak’ on the rare side

I have something extra special to share today. My father-in-law's Kawasaki Z1B is the Classic Motorcycle Club's Bike of the Month for June 2022. I wrote a piece for the club's magazine, Master Link, about the bike as an ode to Glen's father, Dick Stroud, who passed away in April this year.

Full story below:

The year was 1972. The VW Beetle overtook the Model T Ford as the world’s bestselling car. Don Mclean released the now-classic hit, 'American Pie'. And at Kawasaki’s Akashi factory in Hyogo, central Japan, a stylish brown-and-orange Kawasaki Z1 rolled off the assembly line for the first time.

Developed under the code name, ‘New York Steak’, the Z1 quickly became the most potent four-cylinder four-stroke motorcycle ever marketed. But it wasn’t just all brawn. Legendary Kawasaki designer Norimasa Tada made sure it followed his three S’s of style – ‘slim, sleek and sexy’ – giving it a generous dash of beauty, too.

Since it hit the streets in September 1972 at the Cologne Motorcycle Show in Germany, the Z1 dominated the international bike scene, breaking speed and endurance records, and charming riders and journalists alike.

It remained in production until 1973, followed by the Z1A in '74 and the Z1B in '75. Forty-three years later in Johannesburg, South Africa, bike enthusiast Glen Stroud bought a candy blue Z1B, complete with gold and white stripes and its signature teardrop tank.

“I was the second owner ever,” he tells you with pride and gets up to fetch the original registration documents. “It’s never been rebuilt, only refreshed, and only has 30,000 km on the clock!”

His 10-year-old grandson, Nicholas Melville, helped him with the touch-ups. “We put in a new exhaust system and gave it a new paint job and a seat cover,” Glen explains, “and I keep it clean and serviced.”

When he’s not making pizzas for the entire extended family, you can find him tinkering away at his bikes, making sure they’re spotless. A trait he no doubt picked up from his late father, Richard Victor Stroud, whom we all knew as Dick.

Dick passed away on 24 April 2022 at the age of 88. “That Glen, he was my shadow,” he used to say while sitting at the dining table showing you his photo albums. You never could get through a visit without him showing off his kids and his bikes. And if he hadn’t seen you in a while, he’d invariably ask, “Do you want to see my motorbikes?”

Glen’s mom, Maureen, remembers when Dick first started restoring bikes in earnest. “It was in the early sixties when we moved to 3 Churchill Avenue in Primrose. Glen was about three years old at the time. Dick never did stop tinkering.”

“The first bike he worked on was a BSA Gold Star and then a BSA Gold Flash,” she recalls. “He also worked on an Ivory Calthorpe and a Harley Davidson. Glen worked on quite a few with him.”

Glen's Kawasaki is the Classic Motorcycle Club's Bike of the Month for June 2022. “I definitely got my passion for bike restoration from my dad,” Glen says. “That’s why I want to dedicate this achievement to him.”

Dick would have beamed with pride at the news. He would have kept a copy of Master Link by the couch and the next time you visited, he would have asked, “Did you see what my son did? That Kawasaki of his is magic!”