Newest Project with pics

Congrats on both scores - the bike and the wife!

The Gringo wrote:

Can any of you tell from that first pic what brand of header that is?

Looks like an old Bassani to me.
Ugly as all get out, but what an exhaust note they put out!

Great score! That is a rare bike. I have a new tank for an L3, with the black with red/orange stripes paint scheme. I have been looking for an L3 frame to build a bike around. I saw that ebay listing, but it was geographically undesireable, since I am in Northern Cal. I am happy that a fellow KZr member got it.

I think all Kzr members should score these bikes. Why? Because being on this site, it makes me appreciate my bikes better and possibly the same for all of you guys like RetroRice...., Steell, Ambergrismoon, Wiregeorge and Wireman, Kwakagoose, Neilage66, Pumps,OKC, Sandy, Duck and many more I have not mentioned but are still important, lets not forget Jeff and my fellow Coloradans Ronkz650 and Link14

apeman wrote:

Great score! That is a rare bike. I have a new tank for an L3, with the black with red/orange stripes paint scheme. I have been looking for an L3 frame to build a bike around. I saw that ebay listing, but it was geographically undesireable, since I am in Northern Cal. I am happy that a fellow KZr member got it.

Thanks, I was thinking that it is a somewhat rare bike since you don't see them for sale all that often. I also have never seen one with the blue and silver striping only the red/orange. Do you have any idea how many they produced? I could find no information on Zedders site. I think that the fairing is an accessory item that was sold thru the Kawasaki Accessory catalog. I don't know that it is real geographically desireable for me either, I'm looking at a 1000 mile round trip to go get it.:sick: I just hope it is as nice as I think it will be.

Now that I think about it I might be able to help you out with the frame. I have another one of these I bought a few months back as a parts bike. It is in Clovis, New Mexico and I don't think I am going to use the frame for anything. Let me know if you can use it and we can work something out.

After waiting 2 months I finally got off my butt and made the 1000 mile round trip to get this yesterday. The official parts count so far is pretty good the only things that seem to be MIA is the left side cover and the cam chain tensioner. I know where I can buy another cover and I have 3 different 750 motors around here that I can poach the tensioner off of.

The positive things I see are it has Dunlop V rated Elite SP tires on it that look very good. When I got home last night the first thing I did was pull one of the float bowls off the carbs. They look brand new inside so it does not look like I'm gonna have to do any cleaning the slides all move as does the choke linkage. It also has an original key with the number stamped on it. The bodywork seems to be all good and the fairing is a genuine Kawasaki accessory item so it mounts good and solid. The instrumentation is all there and intact and appears good as do the controls.

Now the negative, the turn signals are pretty much pooched, no big deal I planned on replacing them with small Lockhart Phillips units anyway. The Kerker header that it came with I was planning to have Jet Hot coated, but it is pretty banged up on the bottom side so I'll have to re-think that plan. Maybe I'll see if they can coat one of the old Chrome Kerkers I have. The paintjob is not Factory, I had been wondering about this because I had never seen an L-3 in anything other than black with red & orange striping. It is not that it looks bad but it could look better. I will probably keep it as is for now but I'm thinking that next winter I may do something like GPz750KS did with his bodywork

The aluminium on the cases, wheels etc is pretty decent but it still is gonna require some work to bring it up to my standards. It is too freaking cold here this morning to hit it with the power washer so I have been working on removing all the smurf blue silicone the PO used on the cam cover:sick: . All in all it looks pretty decent, it is just going to be more work than I had anticipated.

The Gringo wrote:

All in all it looks pretty decent, it is just going to be more work than I had anticipated.

Man, can I relate to that! In life, the only thing guaranteed to exceed our expectations is the amount of time, work and money it takes to do everything. When it is done, and you are riding it around you will appreciate everythin gyou put into it.

Hey Gringo, I just now noticed your mention of the extra KZ750L frame you have. I am very interested. Shoot me a PM with your business proposal, and I will get back to you ASAP.
/

I would have to agree with R4, that exhaust system looks a little on the Bassani-ish to me. There should be a plate on it, or there's usually a stamping of the type on the back bracket where it mounts to the bike.

CoreyClough wrote:

I would have to agree with R4, that exhaust system looks a little on the Bassani-ish to me. There should be a plate on it, or there's usually a stamping of the type on the back bracket where it mounts to the bike.

Well since I finally picked it up the mystery has been solved it is an old Kawasaki by Kerker pipe. It is just a little more banged up than I was hoping for. Time for plan B.

Since I am not by nature a patient person waiting on the exhaust system to arrive is gonna drive me nuts. I decided to do the next best thing....Photochop an exhaust onto the pic of the bike. I'm thinkin this thing is gonna look pretty decent and be nice and quiet. Hurry up UPS!

As to my thinking about the bike while on my honeymoon, I'm thinking that while the Gov. official is saying "Do you take this woman" I'll be standing there thinking "I wonder if the cam chain tensioner is in that box of parts?"

Hahahahaha...:laugh:
Yeah...I know what you're saying. I also was recently married overseas, but instead of thinking about my bike I was thinking about that evening :evil:

I was married in the southern Philippines, so I was also thinking about NPA, Abu Sayyaf, MNLF and other 'evil-doers'. di Ba?

Enjoy yourself, but be careful Gringo.

-Dave
Great Lake State

Post edited by: davenkids2001, at: 2007/03/23 10:28

It's back in action, yesterday I finished up putting this thing back together after fighting with the airbox boots in the morning. I used the Kerker it came with for the exhaust since the stainless system I bought from the 2002 Z7-S is going to require some mods to get it to work.

I took it for a maiden voyage, this thing screams and lord is it noisy, my one neighbor is really gonna hate me, he complains about the noise from my 650's and they both have stock exhaust:S . The throttle response is fantastic don't know if it is due to the CV carbs or what. The rubber mounting on the engine is nice as well, really smooths things out. The only thing that requires some immediate attention is an oil leak from the cam cover due to a stripped bolt hole. It is at the very outside so I'm hoping I can just use a longer bolt with a nut on the end. All in all not bad for only having picked it up 2 weeks ago. If I can talk somebody out of a digital camera I'll post some pics.

SOunds like it is coming along nicely. I feel bad for your neighbor though. He doesn't seem to appreciate good music when he hears it. That's just his loss i guess.