New KZ650 Owner

In that case use the stocker to finance your cafe. Not to cannibalize either is the trick. I thought the biggest point was one to ride while the other is being brought up to your needs. Then you could re-coop your investment or keep the two. There are a lot of multi-bike owners here and most will attest that having more than one greatly reduces down time and two of different let's say abilities just adds grin points. Some days you feel like a nut some days you don't. :dry: It IS your call but just to let you know if you decide to change the stocker there will be an audible groan from a lot of us. As for the paint (look away Ron!) I love a stock paint job but lets face it on 30 year old bikes it's a rarity. A nice aftermarket paint on a stocker still gives me the "nice" feeling. :blink: :huh: :ohmy:

I take your word for it on the paint, but it sure looks stock on the picture. In fact, the paint on both bikes looks to be the same color/pinstripes; if it was repainted they sure did a close copy. Since you're not interested in owning a stock bike, I would put the sock pipes on it and sell it. I believe you could get enough $$ from its sale to cover the cost of what you need for the other bike with a good bit of $$ left over. eBay has every concievable KZ650 part, and since you're not restoring to new/original condition you'll be able to find good used parts for peanuts. As far as the price you can expect from the stock bike, take a look at these eBay auction numbers of KZ650's that recently sold:


130289811311

220372128822

280317563583

110357028860

260371896705

I've been slowly cafe-ing my 78-650. Right now the engine/tranny is in pieces. Its killing me to hear all these bikes driving by outside my house. I dont have 2 bikes so when im working on her, thats it, i have to drive the car everywhere and we all know 2 wheels is better than 4 unless of course its 2 sets of 2!

You only have one bike you can ride too. Im not trying to discourage you from building a cafe racer, but do realize that there will be times when you cant ride because your rider is in pieces.

this of course is if u cafe the one that runs. the condition of the other one is up to you to decide and make a list of all it needs and determine how much of a black hole it will be.

as for resale value, well there wont be much of that with your cafe most likely, but as for me i build a bike to keep and ride not to sell. If you sell the one that runs, youre still going to be without a bike to ride and the whole point of having bikes is to ride them.

It kills me that i cant ride, and its not even great riding weather yet. Whatever you decide this place is one of the most valuable resources you have.

good luck

you will end up changing most of that stuff that has gone missing anyway ignition componets are an upgrade i would consider doing anyway the charging system the stock one would 30 years old anyway so it might need to be change as well i'd check to see what kind of shape the engine is in to begin with before i made my decision.

I'd also keep the stock one stock and work on the parts bike. I keep trying to find another one to work on because everytime I get the itch to do something to my bike I end up not being able to ride until it is complete. That is good in some cases, but other times I just want to ride and can't.

Why not just go with reversible mods?

Clubman bars, bar end mirrors, cafe tail section, rearset pegs, plastic or no front fender, smaller turn signals are all reversible.

S/S brake lines are a good idea anyway, same as gaitors, and you can really spice up your bike with Sun aluminum rims (while keeping the stockers, of course)paired with S/S spokes.

Nothing above will entail keeping off the bike for more than a day or two at most.

Just don't cut up anything stock, but if you have to, cut up the parts from the part bike and keep the stuff from the stock bike pristine.

Where in Socal are you located? Members here go on rides a couple times a year. We meet up for breakfast and then head for the hills! Bunch of great guys. We just went on a ride last weekend up to Idyllwild. Welcome to the site!!

I'm located in Ojai, north of Ventura and South of SB (and a bit inland). There's some great riding around here. You might know of the 33.

Well I'm long overdue for an update.

I have been riding the stocker lately, it's a great bike! Needs some carb work in the meantime but aside from that it's awesome.

I pulled the engine out of the project bike and it turns out it has nearly perfect compression! I still have yet to do too much with it with school and everything going on right now, but I plan on slowly restoring it. Another hurdle is a title, but that's another story...

I think that while I build it up, I will do some reversible mods to the stocker to get it how I want it for now. I am planning on painting the tank of the project bike, and removing it and using it on the stocker, as well as doing a different seat. Clubman bars, barend mirrors, integrated turn signals, and rearsets will come with it.

Thanks again for the help deciding about all this stuff so far!