Hello, hello!

A few years ago when I was in college, I had a Yamaha Vino 125 scooter. I loved zipping around on that thing, even taking it on rural highways and getting up to a heady 55-60 miles per hour (being like 115 pounds does have its advantages). Eventually I sold it when I moved out to the west coast for work, but I always missed having the wind in my hair and the scenery around, even if I knew I wanted something with just a bit more power. Of course, real life meant that I either didn't have the money, didn't have the space, didn't have the time to work on an older bike, or some kind of deal breaker like a bad title or major mechanical stuff came up when I went to look at one.

Well, a couple of weeks ago the stars finally aligned and I wound up with this!







It's a 1983 KZ750F with a little over 15000 miles on the odometer, and in pretty good shape for something that hasn't been gone over and fully restored! It was a little hard to start and idled rough when I bought it, which I fixed with the absolutely Herculean effort of, uh, reconnecting one vacuum line and replacing the spark plugs. Other than the front suspension seeming kind of squishy and one of the fuel tank brackets being broken, I've been amazed at how well a bike that's a few years older than I am runs. And I might be weird but I always liked the older UJM styling more than the newer hyper-aggressive looking bikes anyways.

Anyways, I have the Haynes manual and a PDF of the official Kawasaki documents. On the other hand I'm a bit dumb and not exactly mechanically experienced, so I'll probably pop back in here sometimes to ask incredibly trivial questions.

WElcome to KZRider
Our membership will be happy to assist you
Nice Bike
Dave

Nice bike; welcome aboard! Ed

Welcome. Nice bike!

No such thing as a trivial question. These old bikes need us as much as we "need" them and, the living knowledge base is shrinking as Riders of a certain *cough* age exit the pool of enthusiasts who gained experience when these bikes were new. We're heartened every time we see young Riders express enthusiasm in maintaining the toys of our youth.

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

Welcome! Nice bike Looks to be in pretty good nick.

Not sure if you have a service manual - maybe what you meant by 'official documents'? If not, the GPZ manual here will be fine for most engine related stuff: kzrider.com/modules/ServiceManuals/GPz750.pdf

I haven't seen a manual for the shaft drive models around. If you do have a pdf service manual maybe send it to one of the admins so they can add it to the downloads.

Welcome aboard! Nice looking ride. With a little regular maintenance, it should give you many happy memories.
I think that model has air adjustable forks, if so, a tiny squirt of air may be all they need. A hand pump with a built in gauge is just the ticket. A bicycle shop can fix you up.

Welcome, I agree with slmjim there are no wrong questions. I was told the only wrong question is the one your afraid to ask. Don’t be so fire away and I’m sure the members will help.

Might be the photo but it appears that #3 pipe is not the same color as the rest, and your clutch cable is suspect. The routing is incorrect, might just be a longer than required cable but it would be good to check the clutch adjustment.

Get to know your manual. Make up a fault, and find the repair procedures in the manual. Read that process as you sit next to your bike and identify the parts called out to complete your task. You will get to know the correct part names which will help the forum get you correct information.

Slow rides in vacant parking lots will get you familiar with the machine, please don’t stress the bike until you have preformed ALL items described in the maintenance section of the manual. Pay scrutinized attention to the brakes. Properly functional brakes save lives.

Mikaw wrote: ... and your clutch cable is suspect. The routing is incorrect, might just be a longer than required cable but it would be good to check the clutch adjustment.

It's probably the correct clutch cable. The handlebars aren't stock, they're a lot lower. The 750F has handlebars that are just a bit lower than the H.

Thank you for the correction Calum. I’m not familiar with the 750 family.