Testarossa's 78 KZ1000 Fighter Build

Primer wrote: Wow. What a fantastic build thread. I'm late to the party, but thanks for all of the info. Incredible amount of skill displayed on this forum...I don't know whether to be inspired or intimidated! :laugh:

Thanks Primer. I hope to be adding some to this build thread if I can ever get done with the car project that I am fooling with now. No promises. I have to travel a lot for business these days, and turning wrenches when I am only home for a couple of days at a time isn't usually on the agenda.

Well after my ill fated attempt at turning a KZ1000 into a makeshift artillary piece, I decided to to a bit of investigating.
Kaboom, Holy backfire Batman!

Last night I pulled the carbs, and I started tearing into things this evening. The bike has sat for about 4 months due to my business travel. Obviously this was not planned, so I did not use any form of fuel stabilizer. It looks to me like the ethanol laced fuel isn't too friendly with all the brass parts in the carbs. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

I got two of them cleaned out before quittin time tonight. Hopefully I'll be back in action by the weekend. It looks like anything brass that was below the fuel level got attacked by the green crud. When I attempted to start the bike, that stuff got sucked up through the pilot jets, and it wasn't running so good.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that these carbs were so clean that you could eat out of them when I put them on the bike.

For Sandy. My bike with Tony's pipe on it.




I had just started to harbor thoughts of replacing it with a shiny new pipe. I'll keep it on there for a bit longer now.

That's frikken awesome,Bud...thank you for posting that!

Why not just ceramic coat the pipe you got already?

CruisingRam wrote: Why not just ceramic coat the pipe you got already?

That would certainly be an option, but I have a very specific vision for what I want on this bike. There is a company called Motogpwerks that builds a Yosh replica out of stainless steel. That's what I wanted.

After a moment of reflection I have decided that when I do get another pipe this one will be donated to another member with a deserving project. I know for sure that is what Tony would have wanted. He was very slick about how he gave it to me. It was obvious to me that he must have done this many times before. He said he would rather give it away so that it would get used rather than hang it on the wall.

Have you had a chance to sort out your carbs and get out for a ride yet?

fitscott wrote: Have you had a chance to sort out your carbs and get out for a ride yet?

Well I got them all cleaned. Then I decided to purchase a set of K&N filters that notaduc had for sale here. He bought oversized filters an made some slick delrin velocity stacks that adapt the larger filters to the Mikuni carb throats. I have to open the counterbore a bit on the velocity stacks to fit the 29's. I got two of them done an then had to go to Connecticut for three weeks. Once I get caught up on honey-dos and fishing trips I'll get them finished and back on the bike.

Ok, I got back at it today for a little while. Carbs re-assembled with Notaduc's velocity stacks and K&N filters fitted.

Now with the carbs cleaned out the bike starts right up again. I went for a little spin around the neighborhood. Then I decided to start looking at the heel guards that I always wanted to cut down, but never did. Here are the stock heel guards:

Now here is my first idea about cutting them down. I traced the stockers on a piece of cardboard, and then sketched a few different ideas on there. Here is what I decided to try out. I had some silver paint in the garage so I sprayed them to get the full effect. What do you guys think?