Newbie with a 80 KZ750G - hoping to learn tons!

Hey guys - I am a newbie here. Just bought a 1980 KZ750G LTD (twin). It is a rather rough and butt ugly non-runner right now - but my hope is to get it back on the road and looking fine! It appears to be pretty much complete and stock overall.

A bit of my background - I am no newbie to bikes - been riding street and dirt for 34 years (yikes...that makes me feel really old now!) I have logged around 300,000 miles on the street. Did 12 years as a MSF instructor. Some of my favorite street rides were a Kawasaki Concours I put 100,000 miles on (50,000 of that with a sidehack attached!), and Honda VFR750 I put 50,000 miles on. I got out of street bikes about 5 years ago, as I was getting into off road racing quite a bit. I race AMA enduros here in Michigan.

Somewhere in there I got into restoring and riding vintage off road bikes - did several, then got out of that (the racing left no time or money to mess with that), except I have kept my favorite vintage off road bike - a 1976 Penton Cross Country 250 that I ride regularly, and have even done a couple enduros on.

One of my two sons decided he wanted a street bike last summer - though he would not be legal to ride it on road until this coming spring (he turns 16). So he ended up buying a 78 Honda CX500 project bike for us to work on. Then, I stumbled across this KZ750 last weekend. It is rather rough, but I have restored bikes much worse looking into looking brand spanking new. My thought was I wanted to have a bike so I can ride with him when he is starting out - it would ease me back into the street, get my wife hooked again on riding with me (she always loved the big bike trips we did), and next thing I know, I will end up with a new Concours 14 in the garage. (I can dream right?)

My work plan with the KZ, is to first make sure it will run! Address all the mechanical stuff, get it road worthy, with only basic attention to cosmetics initally - then as time and $ allow, start shaping it up cosmetically.

So - you can expect to see some stupid newbie questions here from me over the next several months. I have to wrap up the CX500 project first - then I can dive into the KZ. Some things I know I will be addressing so far are: seat - it has a nasty old aftermarket king queen sorta seat on it now - I want something more like the older non LTD's had - the old school flatter seats - I dont care for the stepped seats much. It will need typical stuff like rebuilding calipers, brakes, tires, and gotta get rid of the nasty flat black paint some idiot prior owner sprayed all over the motor, and I gotta get rid of the buckhorn cruiser bars - I guess I have spent to many hours behind the flatter off road bars, or flatter sport/sport touring type bars over the years! It will need new exhaust pipes as someone gutted one of the pipes (why just one? - I have NO clue!) and they painted flat black over the chrome! And...I may need to address the front wheel - seems a spoke style wheel got put on the front, while the rear has the stock Mag style.

No pics of the bike yet - I do hope to get some "before" shots. Oh - the bike has been named Barney - due to its paint having faded to this weird sorta purpleish redish color!

Anyhow - I look forward to learning tons from you KZ experts!

If you have any specific questions about your 80 KZ750G, just post in the appropriate forum

My daily driver is a more or less 79 KZ750B4, and I have a couple of 80 KZ750G's.

I'll probably part out one of the 80G's, don't remember if I still have the wheels for both though.

Steell - thanks - I already started some questions in the tech forum. I may need to hook up with some of your G parts - so let me know when you start partin! Are you located any place close to Michigan?

Around 100 miles South of the Michigan line, about 50-60 miles South of Fort Wayne.

I am oh, 300 miles north of the state line - but I do get down into Indiana once in a while. There are some races I usually go to each year in either Upland, (not far from you?) Roselawn or Goshen. Roselawn is typically in April, then another in July or August. Upland and Goshen are typically in October or early November. Dunno the schedule yet for 2009 but will within about 2 weeks. Let me know when you start parting it out - maybe we can work something out. Plus, good old UPS does run this far north to!