Hello from Virginia

Hello all. I just picked up a KZ1300-A3 ('81) that I should have on the  road by next week. My 1st bike was a 'KZ1300-A2 ('80) which I bought in '87 and I'm getting ready to restore it soon. I also have a KZ1300-A1 ('79) that I plan to restore over the winter.
my brother has also picked up some KZ1300's that we are going to get back on the road. All told, between us, we have 8 full bikes and 2 partial bikes. I'm sure this site will be a great resource for us, as we work get these great bikes running again.

Welcome to KZRider
Our site owner Bill  ( KZQ)   also runs a site dedicated to KZ1300"s
Any help you need can be found between the 2 sites 
Dave

Welcome from the UK, would love to see some pics

Thanks for the warm welcome. I tried registering at KZ1300.com (as StuB) but after I went to the confirmation link my account was not activated by the admin.
fortunately, I found this site 
 

StuB wrote:

Thanks for the warm welcome. I tried registering at KZ1300.com (as StuB) but after I went to the confirmation link my account was not activated by the admin.
fortunately, I found this site 

Give Bill a little time and I'm sure he will OK your membership at the  KZ1300 site

Dave

 

Wookie58 wrote:

Welcome from the UK, would love to see some pics

Thanks for the welcome. We have managed to get 8 complete KZ1300's (three '79's, two '80's, one '81 and two '80 B2's). Five of them have good titles, three of which are pretty much ready to run.
We checked the the VIN's on the three that don't have titles and they are coming up clear, so we have a good chance to get titles for them. We also have two incomplete bikes with no titles (an '80 that's about 50% complete and an '82 that's about 80% complete) and the VIN's for these appear to be clean as well.
We're going to try to get as many of them running as we can (hopefully all of them) and maybe sell a couple in order to help pay for everything.

[img]<a href="https://imgur.com/q0UpVE0"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/q0UpVE0.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>[/img]

 

Nice  Welcome

welcome to the fun!  That is a rather large herd, but they have always been of interest to me, not sure I have seen that many of them in one place before. 

Thanks. One of the eight is my first motorcycle, an '80 that I got it in 1987. It needs a full motor rebuild and I'm thinking about going with a big-bore kit. I was looking around for another one to ride while I restored mine and my brother and son decided that they each wanted one too. One thing led to another and now, about 5 weeks later, we have a pretty good bunch to work with.

The '81 will be the first one I get up and running. I got it from the original owner, who put 27k mile on it before storing it 20 years ago. It is Ebony and most of the chrome has faded or flaked off of the motor but the paint is pretty in decent shape for a bike with that kind of mileage. Before he put it in storage, he removed the battery, drained all the fluids and cleaned out the gas tank. Unfortunately, he lost the carb drain screws, so I need to find a set. I'll also get a new cam chain tensioner for it. Hopefully, I'll have it on the road in the next few weeks.
 

That's not just a collection that's an Addiction, Ha. At least parts are fairly easy to find and cheaper than the Z's. Question though. Do You find rear master cylinders/parts, Hard to find, come by? I had a bear of a time finding a decent examples so i had to ship what i had out to Karps in California to have it's bore sleeved.

asphalt900 wrote:

That's not just a collection that's an Addiction, Ha. At least parts are fairly easy to find and cheaper than the Z's. Question though. Do You find rear master cylinders/parts, Hard to find, come by? I had a bear of a time finding a decent examples so i had to ship what i had out to Karps in California to have it's bore sleeved.

I haven't really started trying to source any parts just yet, because I'm still trying to get the garage sorted out. We still need to install electrical infrastructure, so were using a generator for power right now.
We just installed a Max Jax M7K two post lift (made difficult due to a "perfectly placed" piece of #5 rebar on the last hole). It has a motorcycle adapter that's good for 1500 lbs, so it will be more than enough capability for the KZ's.
For the Ebony '81, I don't know if I need to rebuild the rear master cylinder, but I do know that I need to get a set of carb drain screws, a front master cylinder rebuild kit and a battery.
The seller included a new OEM cam chain tensioner, but after reading some things in the forums, I'm thinking I might install a ZX1100 tensioner instead. I'm hoping to have all the parts in hand within a week or so.
 

StuB wrote:

StuB post=903444 userid=79658

The seller included a new OEM cam chain tensioner, but after reading some things in the forums, I'm thinking I might install a ZX1100 tensioner instead. I'm hoping to have all the parts in hand within a week or so.

Interesting. Partzilla sez those are nla new, but I see that a whole lot of models use the same tensioner gasket. I wonder if a ZRX tensioner would work?