Over at Iconic, we like to do a weekly from our shop to the Rock Store on Sunday mornings as an excuse to get out and see our friends! Here’s what I got to see this weekend…
If I have a free Sunday morning, I typically try to go on a longer ride – but this week the Iconic Sunday Ride was a perfect distance (roughly 60 miles) to perform a shakedown run on the MZ Mastiff I recently picked up. So I fired it up and thumped down the freeway early on a Sunday morning to start at the shop. Our first stop was at the Chevron on Sunset/PCH, where we typically meet with a few friends before heading north.
I was on my Mastiff, while my partner Adam was on a Ducati Panigale V4R – 50 hp vs over 200 hp!
The second usual stop is the Malibu Country Mart, and you can see that I was at a slight disadvantage with my riding group. It was tough to keep up in the straights, but the MZ definitely held its own in the corners. I was pleasantly surprised by how well it handled, especially considering how soft/old/in need of a rebuild the suspension is. If I had way more room in my garage, I’d probably keep this thing around for a few years, but I’ll put it up on the auction site in a month or so.
There were a few cars that caught my eye, including an Alpina B8 4.6 wagon that had been imported from Germany. Per Alpina, “the B8 4.6 is one of the most special cars ever built by Alpina. BMW had already tried to put a V8 in the E36 3-series, but didn’t succeed in designing a version which could be built on th-e regular E36 production line. Alpina did succeed, however the body had to undergo 42 modifications at the BMW factory before the V8 could fit.” It features a Getrag 6-speed manual transmission and just 221 examples (between sedans, coupes, wagons, and convertibles).
The Lotus Espirit is famous, though the HCi is worth a special mention as it’s one of the last models designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro. The “HC” stood for Higher Compression, and the HCi got Bosch fuel injection as well as a catalytic converter for markets with stricter emissions regulations (like America).
I’ve seen (and shared) this VW SP2 before. a Brazilian-market machine based on the VW Type 3 Variant. It was only built in Brazil, and very few examples were exported outside of the country. In total, approximately 10,500 SP2s were built.
They look cool and they weigh less than 2,000 pounds, but the Type 4 drivetrain made just 75 horsepower and 94 lb-ft of torque – meaning it took 16 seconds to go from 0-60!
Reason #4,368 that I am weird – I’d rather own the Rabbit GTI than the Porsche not-sure-which-911-it-is-cause-they-all-sort-of-look-the-same:
While we’re on the subject of interesting VWs, here’s the “Rat Bug”:
It was covered in a bunch of stickers I got a laugh out of, such as “Uber” and “Like New”.
This badge took the cake:
I’m a big fan of the Kawasaki ZRX, and this 1200 caught my eye due to the sheer amount of upgrades.
The owner ended up joining us for the next segment of our ride, and I can confirm it sounds absolutely fantastic!
My buddy Jay showed up on his Megamoto – he bought it about a month after I got mine and he’s starting to become a bad influence in terms of making me want to splurge on farkles. I realize that I still haven’t formally shared that I bought a Megamoto yet, though some of you guessed it based on the last entry in my RC30 ownership series. So I’ll write that post up in a couple of days…
We ended up at the Rock Store, and I was curious to see if people would notice the rare Mastiff. They did – and I was asked some variation of “what the f*** is this?” by all sort of riders. I don’t think anyone finds this bike attractive, though it does get attention from people in the know just because most of them haven’t seen one in person before.
A more traditionally interesting bike was this customized Yamaha RZ350. I walked over to the owner as soon as he pulled up to ask him what he had done to it, but as soon as he parked he immediately popped the seat off and I felt like he was addressing a mechanical concern so I let him be.
Harley’s don’t typically do it for me, but I loved the vintage look for the tank on this Sportster.
On the opposite side of the speed spectrum, the Kawasaki H2 (though not this specific example) is one of the most thrilling bikes I’ve ever ridden. The side fairings don’t appear to be stock, though – they should have a metallic finish that you seen in the tank and the tail. It’s also incredibly difficult to replicate and the OEM replacements are expensive, so this one may have gone down? Regardless, there’s a first-year example on eBay that’s calling to me right now…
My partner Vic took his MV Agusta Rush out for the day – the overall styling is too crazy for me but as a child of the 80s, I like the rear wheel cover as it makes me think of turbofan wheels from back in the day.
Adam and I swapped bikes for the ride back to the shop – he said that he had ‘just as much fun…if not more fun…on the $2k Mastiff then the $40k Ducati Panigale V4 R.’ I on the other hand, was wondering why the V4 was trying to cook my calves to roughly medium rare. Damn, that bike puts out a lot of heat!
Unfortunately, the Mastiff sprung a tiny coolant leak so I didn’t take it home and I hopped on my Megamoto instead. Until the next ride…