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Please allow me to introduce myself 25 Jul 2014 23:16 #641460

  • nthompson10
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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
1980 KZ750 G1-LTD II

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Please allow me to introduce myself 26 Jul 2014 00:13 #641464

  • LineArtist
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Welcome aboard, you have certainly come to the right place.

I started here in November 2013 with my bike project (79, KZ650, barn find parked since 1999-2002 ), that looks similar to yours before and after it was washed. Although mine did have more cleaning up to do. There is a tremendous amount of wealth in knowledge here on the forum (not necessarily me) and plenty of amazing people. I learned everything I needed to know by running searches and then asking specific questions. If you look semi-hard enough you will find answers. It took me a solid 4 months to make my bike road worthy, 2 months of vacation from the garage and another 2 months of fine tuning, registration and obtaining a license.

Just want to wish you "good fortune" and make it clear you are not alone. Primarily having the service manual is VERY IMPORTANT (I'm only getting mine on Monday).

some initial advice from my experience

Any bike sitting long enough has varnish in the carb. It's not difficult work, take it off the bike and take it ALL apart, clean it part by part and get to know your carbs very well. Use the appropriate cleaners and having an air compressor to dry out your work is helpful. Getting the carbs out requires some patience, those 4 black boots coming off the air box should be rubber soft, however after sitting they turn hard (I used a warm towel and a heat gun to bring them back to life). Read up on how to remove the carbs first.

New battery, new plugs
Check for compression, spark and fuel

Don't second guess, just buy a new set of points and condensers for a few bucks and save yourself much time and effort later on. After that engine wants to roll over, adjust the timing.

Leave that old gas in the tank until you are ready to start the engine - with fresh fuel (my lawnmower seems to like the old gas just fine).

Check out Z1enterprises.com for parts, they have everything. And eBay is loaded, sometimes craigslist - plenty of old Kawasaki parts out there.
'79 KZ650B3 (stock)
'79 KZ650B3 (parts bike)
'06 HD 883R

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Please allow me to introduce myself 27 Jul 2014 06:33 #641592

  • riturbo
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Welcome My advise would be to get her running ride it for awhile Get to know her a little bit and learn how to ride Think long and hard before you take the sawzall to it . You might find that she rides real nice just the way she is. But if you decide to cut her up you can get plenty of ideas and help here . Enjoy.
Gpz 750 turbo The one I ride
Gpz 750 turbo Not finished
Gpz 750 turbo Not started
Gpz 550 1981
Gpz 550 1983
Bunch of other junk

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Please allow me to introduce myself 27 Jul 2014 08:45 #641598

  • Wosmo
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riturbo wrote: Welcome My advise would be to get her running ride it for awhile Get to know her a little bit and learn how to ride Think long and hard before you take the sawzall to it . You might find that she rides real nice just the way she is. But if you decide to cut her up you can get plenty of ideas and help here . Enjoy.

Great advice! Let your 'eye' and your butt get to know the bike. A lot of times, once you get to know the bike, it'll 'tell' you what it wants to be. B)
Building a happy home, one bike at a time...

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Please allow me to introduce myself 01 Aug 2014 19:26 #642405

  • Schwarzer Tod
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Got one just like it. I just found this site myself. I traded for one kz 750 ltd and I got two in the deal. First night home she saw the sawzall. This bike will be my first bobber build. That's a nice bike you got there though
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