KZ1000 Police conversion to cafe custom

Hey guys,

I recently picked up KZ1000 Police bike. I have stripped it completely of the police stuff (all parts are up for sale in the classifieds) and I am making it into a custom, cafe-ish bike. No work done yet, besides stripping it. Here is it to start.

Here is the bike:



Here are some bar options I am looking at.

1: I like this one, cause it isnt super low, I dont really want to go with the cafe bar, cause it is soooooo low.



2: I am thinking about taking this one, and turning it upside down. It would lower the bars alittle more than the one above, but not as much as the cafe



3: Cafe, I think these are too low



What are the opinions?

Hey,

Nice find. I have a KZ1000P I'm workining on to become a bobber. I have clubmans on, but not the traditional way. You can see how they look in my thread here .

Will be following your thread to see how it comes along.

V/R

Kev

Aha, ok. That bar height is a little too much for me. I will be watching yours too. Good luck!

For those running without the front fender, go to www.fastfromthepast.com and get one of their front fork braces for increased stability.

Ha, hello again Mike! You are all over the place!!!

Ok, sorry, to explain Mike, my name is Josh, you have been helping me tons over on kawasakimotorcycle.com

K, so I ordered both of the bars, and not the clubman bar. They are so cheap, I will just pick which one I like best. I also ordered cone filters so I can ditch the airbox. 2 quick questions, 1: Do I need to support the carbs some how? Now that they dont have the air box? 2: do I need to adjust the carbs, cause there is more air now? Lemme know what you guys think.

Also, I have a KZ650 I am working on. It is way further behind than this bike. Seeing as I dont have a headlight for this bike, I am gonna use the 650 headlight for now, but what do you guys recommend for a headlight? I am open to anything. I think a plain round one looks good, but I would be down for something custom and different as well. Lemme know if you have any clever ideas!

-Josh

There is always a discussion about whether to go with pods or with the standard air box. To be honest, if you ride with pods, the weather can be a limiting factor in how much you ride. Think about it, if you ride in rain, and the pods get wet and suck in water, it's not so good for the engine. If you don't ride in the rain, it should be fine. Also, you will have to rejet your carbs. And depending on how you ride, after rejetting, you may be tinkering with them for a bit.
I was thinking about changing to pods till I read up on it, now I'm going to stick with my airbox. The pros of the airbox outweigh the cons of the pods for me. Feel free to do a forum search on here and make up your own mind though.

As for the light, Otakar (a member on here) makes a great headlight conversion kit. I'm going to get one myself when I actually have money to order it. Here's a link to an article he wrote: www.kzrider.com/forum/4-electrical/34865...nversion-hid-halogen
Lots of information.

Ok, cool! Thanks for the info. I am in southern california and I dont think I was old enough to drive last time it rained! Ha. K, maybe a little exageration, but weather is no issue.

I will check out that headlight.

THanks

-Josh

BTW, in an earlier post you had pictures of different bars, showing their pull back, rise and so on. Did you mock that up yourself, or is there a site that shows it that way? I was looking for some different bars for my bike, and trying to imagine them in place would be a lot easier if I could see the measurements like that.

They are just from ebay. search "cafe race bars" and you will see it.

Going to run the electrical wiring for the bars inside or out? If inside, read this:

Pulling Wire Bundles Inside Handlebars

Before running any wiring inside the bars, take time to see if any sharp "Burrs" are there, otherwise they will quickly strip any insulation away from the wire's conductors, resulting in an electrical short.

A Dremel tool with a small stone grinding bit will smooth most burrs away. If a Dremel is not available, a small round rat tail file works just as good.

When preparing to pull the wire bundle through the bars, carefully taper the bundles end with masking tape as this makes for a better pulling situation.

I use aircraft 0.032" diameter safety wire secured to the wire bundle as a pulling medium, Nylon string or small diameter cord will work for this too.

Silicone spray or electricians pulling lubricant should be applied to the end of the wires to ease the operation. It's best to have a helper while doing this to avoid problems of possible pinched or damaged wires. Have your helper apply a steady pulling effort while you carefully feed the wire bundle into the handlebars.

After the job of pulling is done, get a multimeter, set it on the lowest ohm setting, open up the switch housings to access the wire ends and then see if a wire of two has shorted out.

Put one probe on the handlebar and the other on any soldered wire ends on the switches and see if the meter indicates continuity by either making a buzz(some meters have built in buzzers) or a display on the meter face.

An analog meter(the type with the needle indicator) will act similar (except no buzzer) by showing usually a full deflection(needle movement)if there is a short by again, checking with the lowest setting on the ohm scale of the meter.

Finding a short now is a whole lot better than when it's wired up & blowing fuses or possible stranding you on the road.....