Sunday, March 13, 2011

Zuki Fever

You've heard of Gold Fever, right?  Well, maybe not Zuki Fever, though,eh?  There is an interesting comment appended to the post below, to wit:  "Hey John - could you give us non-Zuki folks a brief account on why you love Zuki's? It seems you are always buying parts for them or repairing them. What's the attraction and what are the upsides of these strange vehicles?"

Yes, they are strange vehicles, indeed.  What's the attraction?  And what are the upsides?  Ah, VERY good questions and we're glad you asked.  It will take us some time to wax eloquent in reply and answer to those two fine questions.  When we explain Zuki Fever, all will be clear.

Today was a fine session of Zuki Fever.  Our drive to Surprise was splendid.  We met John, his wife, Kathy and their friend, Steve.  Zukis littered the yard and all three of our hosts chattered excitedly about their steeds.  We poked and prodded engines, springs and such.  Kathy fixed everyone a great lunch and we sat at their kitchen table chattering like old long lost friends.  Each of them had many great tips and much advice for us.  We swapped stories and probably even told a few tales too tall.  The trio were only came down with Zuki Fever a mere 5 years ago.  What they've done since then was an inspiring saga.  Steve had just rolled his Zuki up on Moab's toughest trail.  John just finished restoring it and you'd now never know is was practically totaled a short time ago.  Those Zuki critters are tough as nails and they can come back to life more often than a cat with 9 lives.  John and Kathy are really jazzed about their hot rod Sidekick. It can outperform the baddest, meanest Jeep Rubicon alive.  We don't know if we're going to go that route but it sure was nice to enjoy the warmth, hospitality and camaraderie of John, Kathy and Steve.

I don't often suffer from total information overload.  I did today.  My brain went completely numb at one point as the stream of technical data, mechanical tricks and trail tales simply overwhelmed my ability to comprehend or remember.  Episodes such as today's are just one of the many reasons we love having severe Zuki Fever.  Gold Fever would be so BORING compared to Zuki Fever, but it's basically the same psychological phenomena.  Once you get it, good luck finding a cure.

Cheers, jp

3 comments:

Marti Spudboater said...

I think obsessing over zuki's is kind of like obsessive kayaking. Once you're hooked, it is often a lifetime love affair.

I won't know if I have the zuki bug or not until I spend some time around them and you in them, anad then I'll know. Not being a mechanic, however, may not make them a wise idea for me.

The reason I owned a Suzuki SV650 V Strom motorcycle was it required ABOSLUTELY NO MAINTENANCE like, say, Harleys or any other number of motorcycles. I could spend my time riding the bike instead of fixing the damn thing. All I ever did was get the oil changed and the sparkplugs. I loved that bike.

The Goatherder said...

I can and have many times put three full sized goats in the back of my Sidekick. Just saying...

John Parsons said...

Like we said last week--you need to strap one goat into the passenger seat and then get a bumper sticker that sez:
"GOAT IS MY COPILOT"