TOPIC:

In early 2006 a neighbor and high school classmate dragged home 1 1/2 KZ650s. I say that as while this one was mostly complete, the other lacked bodywork, a front wheel, and other assorted bits. The interesting thing was that both were claimed to have titles that were to be mailed "any day". He really had no plans for them and with a weather front moving in I called him and he agreed to take $200 for the pair. How could I go wrong? Surprisingly, about a month later he called and said the titles were here! As things could be done legitimately, I wheeled the complete bike out to take a few pics.

April 2006:





Around mid summer I took on the challenge. A kick start compression test revealed that #2 was at 0 while the rest were somewhere between 100 and 120 PSI as I recall. Valve shimming was in order and a SWAG got me good clearance on the #2 intake which was tight. Once that was done and after a carb cleaning, I set about firing it up. It took a few tries but when it finally caught, a number of years of crud came billowing out of the headers.

One word described that, loud!

I bought bits and did more work on it the rest of the summer of '06 and continued in '07. I finally did the title transfer and tagged in mid '07, replaced that square rear tire, bought a decent stock exhaust and sold the headers. Other fixes included sealing the tank, replacing the chain and sprockets, replacing the fork seals, replacing the ignition coils and replacing the points with a Dyna S, and did a lot of cleaning.

I really fell in love with the old girl and it became my primary rider for the past several years. There is something about the way it handles that I much prefer over the SR. I reasoned that if this was going to be my keeper, then I ought to get the correct body pieces and badges as the set it had was for the B1 to B2A models. I collected the needed bits including a new seat through 2008 and 2009 with the intention of having them painted.

During this time, 2007 to mid 2012, it looked like this:





I opted against going back to a stock color as none of the options for a B3 really appealed to me. What I had noticed were a fair number of Chevrolet vehicles sporting a near violet blue that really appealed to me. Procrastinating for a couple more years I let the idea simmer until this spring I made up my mind to "do it" and made arrangements with and sent the B3 bits to Mark Wing for painting.

Here is how it looks as of July 30, 2012:









The complete gallery can be seen at:

www.n0nb.us/gallery/index.php/1979-KZ650

This has been a fun project and a long time in coming. I am very pleased with the results and hope to complete my portion of the KZR relay with this fine motorcycle.

All I can say is stick to it, take your time, and you can see your project through.

Okay, so the project isn't fully complete! There is a spacer to install in the drive hub that now consists of two washers and three sealed bearing inner races. One center stand mount is broken off and I may get those bits, strip it to the bare frame and have some one fix it. Tapered steering head bearings would be a nice upgrade.

Nice job!! That bike must thank you every day for saving it! Ed

I think it does, Ed. So far so good and it's an excellent ride.

Your Bike looks Great!!
I bet it turns alot of heads and gets plenty of attention from the Old School crowd.
Beautiful!!

Very nice!

Boy it looks great, nice save.
Mark