Greetings from new Z owner in the UK

Good evening everyone!

My name's Dom, and I'm from sunny England.

Now I must say, I'm a dubber at heart - it may not be to everyone's tastes, but this is my 4 wheeled pride and joy:



However, I love all things automotive, including bikes, which brings me here - I've just bought my latest, a 1980/81(?) KZ550:






I shall be picking it up on Friday, and figured that I'm get myself on here for the inevitable questions I'll be asking!

I get that this is a US forum and there will be differences, but you boys seem to know your stuff so it seems the place to be.

Look forwatd to talking to you all

Light with a great engine and transmission. What's not to like? What are your intentions with her?

At first, little more than sprucing it up, fixing any niggles and simply enjoying it over the next few months. I'll have to decide if I want to keep it burgundy and add some checker detail to match the golf/rabbit, or take it back to bare metal and gulf colour scheme it. I'm sure after a bit of time in the saddle the bike's character will come through and i'll know what to do.

Good answer. What Lola wants, Lola gets. No reference to the Kinks Lola. Nice bike! Welcome!

Welcome Dom! I think you'll enjoy this motorcycle. When you get the bike, remember to ask if the owner has the shop manual for it. If not, buy one as they are well written and Kawasaki has a reputation for excellent manuals. You will be able to find one on eBay and it will be reasonably priced. All or most of those myriad questions about the bike will be addressed in the manual.

WELCOME to KZr!

Some helpful links, courtesy of KZr member loudhvx

Shop Manual, click > home.comcast.net/~loudgpz/KZ5mnl.pdf

And More, click > home.comcast.net/~loudgpz/GPZweb/index.html#home

Good Fortune!

i had that same yr and model for a summer ,set up just like that with a pipe and super bike bars....i still smile when i see one of those and remember how much FUN it was..i had always had 900-1100 cc kawasaki bikes ,and was real shocked to find just how quick a guy could go on that 550 ...it never broke...never had any issues,was easy to correct if i had gone to fast into a corner,it was above all super fun.....it was crashed by a friend at the end of that summer , he almost snapped he foot clean off, and that was the last of it....

Your version looks great,you are gonna dig it!!!

welcome

Thank you all for the warm welcome, I can see I've unwittingly stumbled into a friendly family here!

Those links are brilliant - thank you Patton. I'll flick through that manual this afternoon.

trianglelaguna - I'm looking forward to the different feel of it. My first was a suzuki sv650s which a kind gentleman decided to relieve me of one July night, which I replaced with a honda cbr400rr. I loved both - the suzuki had torque by the bucket and a gearbox to die for, while the honda revved its tits off and went round corners like nobody's business.

Both were modern, though, and I've had hours of fun kicking about on friends' ancient 125s. I get the feeling I'll have all the occasion (not to mention comfort :lol:) of an older bike, but with more enough poke to have modern fun when required.

Proxy - yours is called Lola I presume?

Dom

you folks get the killer bike magazines imo...way above the classic stuff we get...we get euro classic stuff if that makes any sense... one is classic mechanics and one is classic racer....i buy em here at the book stores ,10$ u.s, a pop......

the classic mechanic has a writer who is fixing a z550 that he saved...it was down to the frame in the last write up...or the last i read at least...the classic mechanics is way above anything we get monthly on this side of the pond

What kind of stuff is typical over in the states then? I'd guess the home turf for classics is harleys and little else

$10 isn't too bad given it's roughly $5-6 for the magazine alone, then there's shipping on top.

If he's in the same boat as me it might be worth a read - I'll let him make all my mistakes first :laugh:

flames on skulls....chopper junk---touring the wide open stuff- and generic sport bike mags...we have a few decent cycle mags.....and there have been some attempts at rice burner classic stuff...

ten aint too bad but i buy three mags at a pop when i remember to hit the book store....the subscriptions are 70 i should just get em..

the write up is a young guy and he is just really stripping the bike and cleaning and playing with stuff...yours should go just fine the way it is....

new fork oil,some good progressive springs and good bled brakes and new or a good clean/scuff on the pads...

good chain and sprockets...good shocks...good oil and filter...good plugs...check the valves and timing....sync the cars and clean em good.....

and get some good sticky tires /avon road riders...you will be set for many moons..

those are strong motors and high miles is not as big a deal, if the thing runs good and the oil gets changed often...high miles or not they run and run and run...

it is not as fast as the bikes you had, but it will let you be faster, tire pressure and good tires and that thing will blow your mind...swingarm livot bolt takes grease and so do the steerign bearings...setting the steering nut a tad tight helps too.....hard to explain ,but ,you'll see...

Got brake pads and a new battery on order already, should be here during the week so I'll take them with me when I go to collect.

Other than that the lights aren't working so I'll have a pocketful of fuses and bulbs with me and some leccy tape in case it's something simple like a trapped wire under the seat or at a joint.

I get that it won't be as fast as the other two bikes, but it's not why I bought it or what I expect from it - it's going to be for tarting about town on at the weekends :lol:

Interesting about the steering nut. I'll give it a go when I get it.