KZ750H Restoration

I was just going to post, “finish this beauty so it can be suggested for BOM”. You beat me to it. Nice job!

That blacked-out engine looks so good with those highlight fins and polished covers! I am tempted to do the same to my H1 although my aesthetic sense says it would be even better suited to a non-LTD variant. I'm a big fan of the Honda CB700SC so the black engine combined with a sporty, or in the case of the 'base' KZ muscular, stance just rings my bells.
Your paintwork is amazing. Do you have a background in it? I see that you rented space so I assume it's not your day job.

Is it just me or do the LTDs look the best from behind, where you can see those gauges and the bighorn bars just begging you to vault on and go?

Thanks guys!

@Mikaw: I'll be heading out next week to take some more pics, then I'll send some off to Dave

@hammmy: Original plan was to keep the aluminium engine, but the crankcase had taken a beating up front and it would have been hell to keep clean. That's why I opted for the 750E paintwork. Quite happy with how it turned out, especially like the combination of the engine paint and the jet black tank.
No background in painting, only painted a couple of parts before this project. TBH I'm amazed how well it all turned out! Really surprised myself.

Here's a before and after I threw together:

That bike must be REALLY happy that you bought it because you made it look much better! Nice work! Ed

As my goal was to get this bike as close to original as possible (or rather reasonable with respect to taste, riding, maintenance), I thought I'd record the non-original parts etc. on the finished bike.

Non-original parts:

• The shocks are from Hagon. The style is in line with the rest of the bike and the shocks and fork springs were never going to be original (don't want to ride on 40 year old suspension!).
• The Delkevic exhaust was the best option I could find when I was looking at the start of the project. I still haven't found a decent exhaust here in Germany and I definitely wanted stainless or chrome pipes and not black ones. Still wondering about the megaphone option from Delkevic but quite happy with it as is. The bike had an aftermarket 4 in 1 on it when I got it.
• NGK plug caps and Dyna coils (the original coils died on me as can be read a couple of pages back).
• A lot of the connectors on the wiring harness I made are econseal connectors. I only used the original ones in the headlight housing as space was tight. All the wiring is correctly coloured.

Replica Parts:

• Headlight (the housing is still original, but the headlight is aftermarket).
• Tail/brake light
• Indicators (surprisingly hard to find these - most of the replica ones are the 650 version with the bigger lenses).
• Rear indicator mounts.
• Shift lever.

Changes:

• Seat was reupholstered in the same style as when I got the bike. This was more of a cost thing and I personally quite like it.
• No pinstripes on the tank as I couldn't find the original colours.
• Engine has the 750E paint scheme as I didn't want to be permanently trying to keep the crankcase clean behind the headers.
• Speedo and tacho bezels are black instead of aquamarine (really don't like the aquamarine for some reason).
• The stripes got sanded off the airbox as I quite like the look of it (like the airbox covers found on other models). If the stripes weren't so chewed up I may have kept them.
• The fork emblem is from an 81 model - the '80 one is black (I think...)

Damage/Missing stuff:

• Tank has a huge dent that has been 'expertly' bogged by me
• Left the side reflectors off as I'm not prepared to pay $100 for some NOS ones.
• Text on the ignition is missing as it was almost gone so it got painted over. Haven't found a decent decal for it yet.

Everything else is original except for maybe the cams - still haven't been able to confirm that.

I originally thought the engine paint combined with the exhaust would be a little out of sync with the Ltd style. As hammmy said, it is more of a sporty look. However, whenever I'm standing next to the bike with a big grin plastered all over my face, it is the furthest thing from my mind :laugh:

No criticism intended! I have the original look and it's such a mishmash of polished chrome, dull aluminum and yellowed lacquer that it is a disservice to its original aesthetic. I think you chose correctly.

What does your father think of how the restoration turned out?

hammmy wrote: No criticism intended!

No worries, it was just the exact same thing I was thinking as I was making the decision on the paint and exhaust.

hammmy wrote: I think you chose correctly.

Thanks, it's always good to hear this on a major (irreversible) decision

For the record, the old man is impressed and thinks I should be looking for the next project. My wife respectfully disagrees :laugh: :laugh:

Before I start the bike again on the weekend, I just wanted to check if I've adjusted the manual cam chain tensioner correctly. I don't want to put unnecessary stress on the cam chain.
After checking the valve clearance I tightened the tensioner until I felt resistance. Instead of using TDC for 1 & 4 I just turned the crank over a couple of times with very light pressure on the cam chain tensioner bolt. In a couple of spots it turned in a little bit, probably about 1/4 - 1/2 a turn (M10 X 1.5 bolt) in total before it wouldn't tighten anymore (under light pressure - just rested my finger on a short 8mm wrench). I then backed it off 1/6th of a turn and tightened the lock nut.
Sound OK, or should I have just tightened it at TDC then backed it off and locked it down?

I did adjust with very light pressure between two fingers on the cam chain tensioner bolt and tightened it at idle.
You can feel the cam chain gives you some force feedback .

Rode the bike for the first time in a year today. No number plate yet so just around the block (which means 1st and 2nd gear around here). Ran pretty well. I thought it was a bit rough down low, but then I looked at the revs and realised I was just being way to light on the throttle (hard to open it up around here). Need to look at the idle screws as it hung a couple of times before dropping back to idle. Didn't seem to be consistent so I will check the throttle cable again as well (once it only dropped to 2500 rpm and just stayed there until I dropped the idle back down with the idle adjust screw - it was pretty warm though and had been running on the stand for a while.
I will go through everything again (spark, timing, idle speed, throttle cable, ...) but overall it ran well. It felt like the bike was begging me to open up the throttle :laugh: I can't wait to get her out on the open road!


@Scirocco: Thanks. That should have about the same results as what I did (given that I backed off a bit whereas you probably wouldn't have tightened it as much as I did due to the speed of the chain). I'll double check it when I adjust the idle fuel screws.

Had another ride around the block today. It's going to be pretty hard waiting for the MOT so I can get it registered and out on the road!

Here's a video of the idle with the new coils. The bike was warn but not hot. I lowered the idle from about 1500 to 1100-1200 at about 0:24 in the video. Not sure how accurate the tacho is after I had the needle off. It sounds as though it's in the ball park but probably somewhere in the outfield. It's a bit noisier (rattles more) idling at lower revs but still seemed pretty stable. I couldn't really rev it as it was getting late and I didn't want to upset the neighbours but when I did give it some throttle it dropped back down nicely (IMO).

I'd really appreciate some trained ears on this one. At the moment I'm pretty happy and will probably not mess with it until I can get out for a proper ride. I do wonder if I should double-check the cam chain tensioner - thinking that may be the rattle at the lower idle setting.

The video seems to amplify the engine noises (high frequency). When it was idling for the first 20 seconds it sounded pretty good as I was standing next to the bike.