Completely new.

I'm very new to the whole motorcycle game, although my old man is very helpful in this area. I've been lurking around for the past couple weeks and trying to find an answer to my question, but with no avail as of yet.

I am looking at picking up a KZ1000P, enough said I'm sure. Personally I like the minimal fairing that comes on the older 70's KZ bikes, and would like to be striping it down as such. I am curious what work, if any that is more than just swapping parts, would be required to mimic appearance wise of a Z1?

I would be doing a lot of other work on said bike, but this is something that I haven't found any answers about. If I missed it on the 17 pages of search results that this site popped up with, then if someone could guide me in that direction I would be thankful. I am looking forward to any and all help that could be given.

Thank you.

I've also attached a picture of what I am referring to fairing wise, and one that I think is gorgeous.

Hi Enna. Welcome to KZR. The KZ1000P is a very good bike with lots of parts support since it was made long after all other KZ1000's stopped being produced. Up until 2002 if my memory serves me. Anyway, it would not necessarily be easy to make a police bike look like a Z1. If you have lots of mechanical skills, time and money anything can be accomplished. Also, for the record, the Z1 that you pictured is far from stock.

I'm no police bike expert, but it seems to me that the frame is worlds different than a Z1. P bike has floorboards, while Z1 has regular footpeg mounts. P bike never had a back seat and so the subframe is totally different. It has no way of mounting the Z1 rear fenders without major mods. Also the engine in a P bike is the newer 998cc motor versus the old 903cc which look loosely similar to the un-initiated, but are quite different in many small details.

I'm sure that you can strip off the fairings, change handlebars, get a custom seat made up and be a long way toward looking like a Z1 or KZ, but a purist will spot you from a mile away. I'm not trying to deter you, and I don't know what you and your father's collective technical skills are. I'm a big never say never guy, so as soon as I tell you that it can't be done, I'm sure you'll bang away for a year in the garage and come out with a dead ringer for a Z1. Just trying to offer my realistic opinion. There are easier bikes to go for the Z1 look with. A 77 or 78 KZ1000A would be a lot easier than a police bike IMO.

Finally for searching tips. Yes, the search function on the site is not really useful. No way to drill down to specific results and not enough filters. You can put your search terms in google followed by "KZrider" and get many results from this site. I also like to look in the gallery for design inspiration from time to time. There are lots of KZ1000's in all shapes and sizes in there. Here's a link to our dear departed friend Sandracer's bike: kzrider.com/gallery/kz-1000/the-fat-kaw-102
It's one of my favorite converted police models, but as you can see, it doesn't look much like a Z1.

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That is the kind of answer I was looking for, just needed someone with more experience to nail it in. Thank you, I will start looking for one of the older ones as opposed to a police version. Thank you for your time.

There is absolutely nothing in common on the Z1 and the KZ1000P. Even if you ignore the diferent engines the rest of the bike is also completely different. The frame is completely different and you would have to do a lot of cutting and welding. The front end is much wider on the 1000P. The cosmetics also have a completely different shape. There would be no way to mount a Z1 stile seat or tail end without a lot of welding.