Hi! I'm new to all this...

Hi everyone of the KZRiders forum! My name is Cory, I'm 20 years old, and I live in beautiful Northern California. I started my "gearhead" and "riding" obsession about 8 years ago. I bought a broken down 24cc gas standup scooter. I learned tons about it while fixing it, and realized there would never be anything like riding around on a nice summer day... even if I was only going ~20mph on a scooter. That scooter led to another, and next thing I know, I'm 17 and have a garage full of tricked out custom gas scooters (known as Go-Peds). I did progress to cars, I love working on my cars as much as I love driving them... but I've come to realize that driving isn't riding. Now to present time...

In the last week I have been looking into trading my ~$750 worth of Microsoft Xbox 360 game equipment for something "rideable." I was looking at the Go-Ped area again, as I haven't owned 1 in close to 2 years now, and I'm tired of sitting inside while the weather is so exquisite outside. I got a ton of people wanting to trade me half complete, broken down, piece of trash scooters/pocketbikes/mini bikes for my pristine video game system and accessories. Until...

I got an interesting email from a guy saying he had a 1982 Kawasaki KZ305 CSR motorcycle and he was interested in a trade. I immediately though "oh great, some broken, redneck, rust bucket, piece..." Well it turns out thats not the case. He sent me some pictures and details that went a little something like this:

1982 Kawasaki Kz305 CSR
~6k miles
Always stored in-doors
Brand new tires
Everything works *perfectly*
Includes repair manual

(pics to follow)

It instantly clicked in my head that I would rather ride this baby around than a Go-Ped. Once I saw the pics I instantly felt an attraction to the bike. I put in about 12 hours of research last night and found some decent parts sources, read some reviews, and realized that this would be a perfect candidate for a beginner bike. I have done some dirt bike trail riding, but have never ridden a street cruiser. We agree on the trade and today is the day I go see the bike and finalize the deal. Now for the part that almost made me cry...

The guy calls me late yesterday afternoon and tells me he just finished the tune-up on the bike. Well, in the process, he forgot to fill it back up with oil :blink: . He said he gently rode it for less than 1/2 mile in a residential never getting out of 2nd... but by the time he got back to his house it was "squeaking." As this is an old bike I realized the parts required for such a catastrophe would cost more than the bike's worth. I was literally heart-broken. But then I sourced a complete KZ305AE motor in my neighborhood for only $100!!!

I think now that I have found this KZ website, I think I'm going to take the plunge! It's unfortunate I won't get a perfectly running bike as expected, but it should be a great learning experience doing a top end rebuild. These motors seem pretty straight forward, and I'm confident in my mechanical ability.

Any of you who have or had this bike, or have knowledge of this bike, feel free to chime in any information you may have. Thanks, and I hope you all have a great day.

Welcome to the site. Have you tried putting oil in it and starting it up? It might be ok...Russ

The guy said that he put oil in it as soon as he got it back to his house... it still starts and runs, but I'm not sure how well. I'm going to check the bike out in about an hour.

How much was he selling it for and did the price go way down since he ran it without oil?...Russ

welcome...monterey ca..here....neat starter bike....nice pics too...keep it up cory....peace craig

Well, the bike is mine! It wasn't in near as bad of shape as I thought it would be. It starts right up and I can ride it just fine. Although, it makes a noise I don't like... Sounds like a really bad "lifter tap" on a car, and the bike feels like it should have more power, but maybe its just that small of a bike. I picked up a spare/parts motor for $100 as well. I'm still going to do the top end rebuild with fresh rings and gaskets. I can tell I'm going to have soooo much fun on this thing once I get the registration switched, M1 license, and insurance... and the rebuild of course.

Another pic I took about 15 minutes ago...

welcome to z-jungle

it has begun......oh fool...run away...forget you ever saw a bike....take up ice skating....or canoe building anything but kawasakis........beware.......it has begun...you have been warned....oh well

haha! well, I was looking at my bike thoroughly tonight, as well as my "parts motor." They are both the same with the model being KZ305AE. Only the "parts" motor has all black casing, where as the bike has stainless (i believe) casing... Also, the heads appear to different. I'm curious if the "parts" motor could be from a GPZ305? Since the GPZ is a sport bike, could that make for better cams, higher comp. pistons, or different gearing?

Welcome aboard, Cory.

Since you have a ready supply of parts with a spare engine, you might just take a chance on it. Changing the oil and filter after about 250 miles or so may be a good idea. These machines are pretty durned tough.

The noise you hear may well be the mechanical noise these engines naturally make.

Oil change every 250 miles? That is quite frequent. Do these bikes tend to take better to synthetic oils or dinosaur oil?

Also, the noise does not seem like a normal noise.