First hello and question about KZ440 as first bike

Hello
New to the site but not new to bikes. Been riding about 40 years and have had a couple of Kawi's (a 1973 250 enduro & a 1978 Z1-R) and currently ride a GL1500 Goldwing.

I'm looking at a friends bike for my 18 year old son as his first bike. It is a 1980 KZ440 LTD and looks in great shape. Haven't seen in person so still need to start it up and test it out, but I was wondering what you all thought of this as a first bike. Hoping this will be small enough to learn on but big enough to be able to go on rides with us. An thoughts or feedback apreciated!

Sure, its a decent sized bike to start on. I had a kz400 when i was younger and rode it all over, even double. Im sure the 440 has more power than a 400.. Good Luck..

I think it will be just what you desire.It is a great starter bike I never owned one but have rode one and its strong enough to ride with you. You will get lots of comments has many member have these bikes. Welcome to the forum...Chance

My first bike was a 400 and it was great to learn to ride and wrench on. It wasn't very fun on the highway 'cause it is pretty light, but I could keep up with my friends on rides on the backroads.

Good Luck.

One of my younger brothers had a red 78...he loved it...he rode it all over timbuktoo...dropped it a bunch of times...took it to college...lost it at a drunken keg party...Meet a guy a week later who told him about finding a red motorcycle in his front bushes, headlight on, keys still in it. Dude was cool and gave my brother back his bike. He rode it the rest of his time at college and then sold it to a neighborhood kid who drove it around 'til he smacked it into a pole...he didn't get hurt, but he sold the engine to a friend, who put it on a go cart...radical ride, wish I had pictures... and drove the shit out of it...you can't kill these engines...

Thanks for the replies everyone!
This looks like it might be perfect for him. Will also work for my wife with short legs too as the seat seems fairly low. Might be kind of fun for buzzing around town instead of taking the Goldwing out.
Ride on,
1-Shot

Make sure the bike has the stock airbox & airbox cap.
It has been mentioned often that the KZ440 w stock carbs needs to have the airbox to run right.

My first motorcycle was a 79 KZ400 - that was a fun bike.

My daily driver is a 1981 440. I ride around town with bigger bikes no problem.
I used to ride mine about 100 miles round trip on nice days to work and back.
Like JMKZHI said.. make sure the bike has airbox. I have spent countless hours tuning my carbs for the open filters and exhaust, but with tuning they can run better than stock.
I'm sure he will enjoy riding it.

Thanks JMKZHI & aaron3874. I believe that is stock. The PO mentioned he had to get some carburator parts in from Germany (and that they were expensive!) but I'm not sure what they were. Will know better in next couple of days.

Well we picked up the 440. Generally pretty good shape. Took it for a short ride down the alley as it is not insured yet and did not want to go out on the main road. What a fun little bike! Very easy to handle and seems quite solid on the road.

PO gave me a box of parts and both a Hayes and Clymer manual. Looking forward to getting my son and wife out to give 'er a try.:woohoo:

Neato.
Does the bike have the Owner's Manual?
FYI: it's usually located in a pull down compartment located on the underside of the seat. I'll suggest going ahead & getting a Kawasaki factory service manual, just in case one of the others is in error.

Strongly concur with JMKZHI on the factory manual. It contains a lot more information than Haynes and Clymers.