Handlebar mods

I just bought a 1980 KZ440ltd and it's in great shape. I would love to fix it up a bit, so I've been looking at different parts for it.

Does anyone have a bike like mine with different handlebars? I'm not sure what kind I would want to get, if any. Seeing others would make the decision a lot easier.

del

Cheap Euro bars from ebay. Z1 Enterprizes sells them too. They work well, I like them better than the LTD bars I had.

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that this bike had turn signals mounted on the handlebars. I hate that, as a matter of preference. I mounted the lights on stems and installed them on the headlight mount, a factory location on other bikes but not the LTD. It is pretty eazy to do and makes the bars look a lot cleaner. If I recall the rubber mounts that were in the headlight bracket could accept the plastic sleeve on the turn signal stems, so it looks factory when your done.

i have superbike bars on both of my kz's. It makes the bike handle alot better. Body weight distrubution is much better allowing to take turns better.

I assume that the bar-mounted lights on kz650 sr would need to be stem mounted to fit on the superbike bars?

Also (and this seems dumb) I'm looking at my master cylinder, and trying to figure out if it will work on the new bars. Any hint?

I have drag bars on mine, and like JMKZHI said be aware of the Brake caliper, but not only to keep it level, but make sure the bars are long enough!

I had to keep my Tachometer OFF because my bars were too short even with removing the turn signals. Problem was the fitting that comes out of the master cylinder was still in the way.

I am lengthening my handlebars during this rebuild to fix the problem.

Dude, i like the yellow frame! different..

violentvintagecycles wrote:

Dude, i like the yellow frame! different..

It's on it's way out...
kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...w&id=207902&catid=11

Superbike bars are great. I did this conversion a few weeks ago on my LTD. No trouble fitting the MC or anything, but the turn signals had to be moved to the headlight.
I know a lot of people use brackets to mount theres, but I found some short stems from a 73 Z1 and they fit like a dream, you have to ground the signal inside the headlight somewhere, and remove plastic flanges from stems. I then used a bench grinder to remove the texturing under the flanges, and the new stems fit right where the headlight bolts were, it looks great, and I couldn't be happier with it now.

Other issues youw ill need to address, sooner or later, are a shorter clutch cable, and throttle cable, which I ordered from Motion pro, also, the new bars will not have an alignment pinhole in them, so you will either need to drill one, or remove the pin and use shims to tighten the throttle and killswitch assembly, I would recommend drilling.

Longer mirrors will also be needed, or bar end mirrors, as you will only be able to see yourself in the old ones.

Best of Luck,
Email me for pictures, will have them thursday.
MicPotte@indiana.edu

Superbike bars are great

I second that. A few weeks back I switched from the stock bars to drag bars on the 650, but didn't like the riding position. I found a set of black superbike bars from a Canadian distributer (Motovan), and love 'em. A nice median between the stock and drag bars, everything fit well with a little re-routing of cables etc.. Just have to find what works for you.

Since this was 5 1/2 years ago, can you share what you ened up doing about swapping out the pull-back handlebars for something else. Do you have any photos?
thx.