Gotta love a Rolling Stones reference occasionally.
Thought i'd introduce myself, as I will most definitely be very active on here in the next year.
I'm a 22 year old college student, and just received my first bike. I have almost no knowledge of motorbike technicalities, except for everything i've been studying since receiving the bike a week ago. My uncle, who's an avid rider, gave me a 1980 kz750-g1 ltd II that his neighbor couldn't take with during a move. I had to have it. When my dad was my age he had a '78 kz1000...so i've always been obsessed with Kawi bikes.
A little background on the bike...The last owner, who's currently moving, bought the bike from a gentleman who brought it over from Germany some 15+ years ago. The original owner took great care of the bike, which i'm happy about. He also had great taste (Notice the custom painted wood panels). After purchasing the bike, the most recent owner rode it briefly (to just over 12,000 on the odometer) and parked it in a shed sometime around 1999-2000, as the tags on it expired April of 2000, and it hadn't moved since I rolled her out. I'm lucky he still has the title, ignition key and service manual that he's giving to me in the coming week, hopefully. Big thing here is that this bike was running perfectly when parked. We opened up the cap on the top of the engine (forgive my newbish terms, i'm learning here) and it is spotless. I'm sure the Carbs are completely gummed up, but just a quick look inside proved what I had read about the bullet proof engines on these bikes.
I know these bikes aren't worth a whole lot, and parts may be fairly difficult to find...but she's my pride and joy and i'm going to spend the next year during my spare time outside work and college to rebuild her. First, back to working order. Get her running and then fully functional. However, my goal is to go the Cafe Racer route. I believe these bikes are 55hp? Not the most powerful, especially with the weight of these things. I had back surgery two months ago for a herniated disc, and I thought i was gonna blow it out just getting it onto and off of the truck today when transporting it! But I digress...The beauty of this bike is it's a great candidate for a Cafe Racer. Experiment with cutting the weight down and getting the most possible power...It'll be fun, and i'll be doing a LOT of learning. But it's always something I've wanted to do.
Unfortunately, i'll be doing a lot of this work by myself. If there are any people on this site who have undertaken this project whether it be anything from just getting the engine running, turning it to a Cafe Racer, or just someone who's owned this bike and knows her deepest and darkest secrets, I would greatly appreciate your guidance along the way. Shoot, i'm pretty sure just about everyone on this site has some piece of knowledge that would be useful to me. After all, I just want to learn everything I can. Being my first bike, she's going to be taken care of. I'm big on care and attention to detail...so hopefully soon i'll have brought her back to life and be riding a mean, classic KZ.
With my uncle in the shed...love at first sight.
Getting her first wash in at least 14 years. Cleans up nice.
My Cafe inspirations. I know the second picture is a custom Harley and not a kz750 cafe like the first, but it's beautiful and wonder if it's possible to incorporate some aspects of it into my racer. First picture though...definitely want to incorporate the exhaust/muffler style they have here. I'm a sucker for a nice silencer/wrap combo.
Finally, just for kicks. The bike that turned me onto bikes as a kid...an almost identical kz1000 my dad had, without his Kerker exhaust and header. Also, minus the ugly handle bars this one has (his words not mine....but I agree).
Thank you all for reading...looking forward to speaking to some of you soon!
God speed