New to Kawasaki and site!

Hey all,

My name is Victor and I am a proud owner of a 78-79? Kawasaki KZ650... The site looks great and looks like there are a lot of nice and knowledgeable folks here! I'm new in this whole "old" bike thing and have some questions... I want to make the bike into a track/race bike and i would like to simplify the wiring as much as possible. I've searched the forum and didn't find much about it... Basically I want to run the bike off the kick start, no key, no lights whatsoever, no battery, no kill switch (just gonna stall the thing to stop the engine)... So if anyone can help me, it would be greatly appreciated! I'm going for the cafe racer look so I will post some pictures of my progress! For now you can see my current bike that I have recently converted for the track.

i5.photobucket.com/albums/y151/victory80/23d034f2.jpg
i5.photobucket.com/albums/y151/victory80/572be46f.jpg
i5.photobucket.com/albums/y151/victory80/ebbce9e3.jpg

Victor

Post edited by: victory, at: 2006/02/14 00:59

Post edited by: victory, at: 2006/02/14 01:01

Hi Victor and welcome to the site. I'm new here too. Good luck with the wiring thing.. I'm not at all the person to advise you on wiring... what kind of track are you going to race the 650 on ? Hope you get your answers on here. there are a lot of helpful folks onboard.. good luck
Doug

Hey what's up dude. I'm new to the site also but just wanted to say good luck bro.:evil:

Welcome Victor.

Here's a post in the archives with some race set up info: Racing

Hi Victor, noticed the mountain bike, can't quite make out what it is though (Ventana?). There's a few others here into mountain bikes too, myself, I've slowed down a bit in the last 10 years, no more FR/DH bikes, just have an older Heckler for trails. There's a few Superlights and a smattering of other makes too. Welcome. By the way the track bike looks killer!

Fossil,

Nice to see there are still some manual propulsion folks out there! The bike is actually a Turner Burner, setup for mountain cross, dual slalom... I like it! Originally the frame is for XC but factory guys use it to race in, so it works for me... How do you like the Heckler? I am about to pick one of those up for my girlfriend... Here's a picture of the my bike.

i5.photobucket.com/albums/y151/victory80/turner3.jpg

Victor

Fossil wrote:

Hi Victor, noticed the mountain bike, can't quite make out what it is though (Ventana?). There's a few others here into mountain bikes too, myself, I've slowed down a bit in the last 10 years, no more FR/DH bikes, just have an older Heckler for trails. There's a few Superlights and a smattering of other makes too. Welcome. By the way the track bike looks killer!

You'll probably need to keep the kill switch, most track authorities require one. Depending on the tech inspector you might get bounced without one.

Removing the starter will pretty much involve removing the engine. You can pull the starter with the engine in the frame, but you can't really block off the hole that's left without pulling the motor and splitting the cases. It'll puke oil (or so I've been told) without a block off plate of some sort. I'm currently rebuilding my street bike and it's going to be kick only so I'm in the middle of this right now.

Pulling the lights is easy. Just take off the nuts and unscrew the turn signals, headlight etc. They all have easy to remove connectors. If you wnat to remove the wires from the harness that's a little more tricky but they are relatively easy to trace.

If your kick only, you can also perhaps remove your battery. Go to www.batpac.com for a 2 oz gizmo to replace it. This does require that you have a permanent magnet charging system. If your bike doesn't have one stock you swap out to a later (post 81 I think) charging system. I've got one in my bike and don't remember what if the original was permanent magnet.

As a pure track bike you might also want to remove the speedo and headlight mounting ears.

Good Luck!

One thing I can think of that may need to be addressed is replacing the battery powered coils with a magneto for starting. Until the engine is running at a sufficient RPM the stock alternator cannot provide the current needed to fire the engine.

Also, without a battery installed the system voltage will vary wildly. Of course this isn't much of an issue if you intend to remove the rest of the electrical components. The battery is required for the Regulator/Rectifier to function. In fact, the service manual warns that the R/R can be damaged if the battery is removed while the engine is running.

Basically, you need to replace the stock charging circuit with a magneto. Good luck!

- Nate >>

need a magneto?:whistle:

Has anyone fitted a magneto to a KZ? Can you post links? I'd be interested in getting more information.

The batpac thing (basically a big capacitor) is supposed to even out the fluctuations in the charging system without a batter. Setting the idle at 3000rpms for a track bike with no lights should resolve the charging issues!

look on page 3 of kz1000 gallery ive got a front view of 80ltd with beltdrive mag hanging on it .im not using it anymore if someone can use it ,let me know!:whistle:

wireman,

Is it the second to the last picture? If it is, it's not working. I currently took apart the 650 and building from the ground up; it probably would have been a better idea to see if the engine ran first... but yeah haha. Im really ignorant in the whole electrical wiring, the wiring diagrams look soo confusing! If i were to take your magneto off your hands, how would i wire that, and the whole bike? as SIMPLEST as possible! I have decided however to have a kill switch and possibly the electric starter. But other than that, no lights, no key, bla bla...

If anyone can be ever so generous and walk me through wiring my bike, it would be greatly appreciated! The bike is a 1980 kz650 f1. Thanks!

Victor
Victory80@aol.com