81 KZ1000 CSR resurrection

Hi there,

New member to the kz club, I'm actually from the Suzuki GS dark side but I'm going to be helping a friend get an 81 KZ1000 CSR back on the road over the next month or so

No photos yet, we're in Vancouver BC with the bike currently stored out of town. The bike's been sitting in a barn for two years now so the carbs are going to have to come off and be cleaned, its iffy whether the battery will be able to be resurrected but I hear the tires were relatively new when parked. I hope we don't find rust in the tank!

Unfortunately while it was stored a vandal made off with the fuse cover and removed all of the fuses... I'm hoping that is the extent of the damage but we'll see

We're going to head out there in a couple weeks so in the meantime I am putting together a list of what to bring parts-wise in order to get this thing going.
Since its out of town we'd like to get it to a riding state over a long weekend and ride it out of there (we're prepared for failure, but would prefer to succeed!)

Anyway, I'll post my technical questions in the appropriate forum and I appreciate any advice or input that people have on this bike (common problems, general things to look out for etc.)

Thanks in advance
Steve P

Hi Steve, Welcome to kzr. You'll find all the info you need here. Good luck with your bike.

I was in Vancouver this weekend for the sun run and Lenard Cohen. Nice city you live in.

Welcome friend, good year

Thanks guys!

welcome hey and you know what some of us even like suzi's in fact i won a wally on one and a championship with it that same year as well in fact if truth be known they are my second favorite motorcycle. the gs's that is.

This resurrection was pretty successful for the time available:

With one and a half days we pulled the carbs, separated them, soaked them, cleaned thoroughly, new o-rings, changed oil, topped up the fluid in the old battery and charged it up, lubed the chain, took apart and cleaned the petcock, flushed out the gas tank and cleaned up the bike in general.

There's still a fair amount of work to do but in the short time we worked on it we got it started, got it to idle and rode it (short ride as a reward!)

It needs:

- new tires - rear desperately
- valve adjustment, carb sync
- fork seals
- speedo cable
- mirrors and signal lights
- front fender

I've attached a couple photos (tried to anyway)

Here's the before photo, was supposed to be the last post