Saying hello From Michigan :-)

Hey Dave. It would be cool to meet up. I was a Zukey tavern for St. Patrick's day a while back. Had dinner there with some friends. I was pleased to find that they have designated motorcycle parking

will

Renthorin wrote: Hey all. My name is Will and I was pointed here by Rob (rstnick)from the other KZ forum I belong to. Nice to have multiple sources for info, yes?

I have a '77 KZ650 that I picked up last fall from the original owner. He parked it in 1988 and never found the time to get back on. She has 12k on the clock and runs great. I had to clean the carbs and put new rubber on her but that's all it took. Of course since then I've done a few changes of my own but that's how these things go.

My user name is Renthorin which breaks into two parts - Ren + Thorin. In another language it means "lone wolf". Some break it out into Rent + horin but that makes me feel like a prostitute for rent money...ha! I live in Dexter Michigan, a few miles west of Ann Arbor.

Here is the bike (MERP) sitting in one of the local parks:

caninesportsrec.com/Merp2.jpg

Looking to meet other KZ riders in the mid/se Michigan area.


Will

Welcome Will!

Sounds like My 77B1 except you forgot to tell how it was left out in a pasture for 15 years. :blink: Very nice bike man, She must have been stored inside while out of commision.

Kenny, the previous owner bought her new in 77. He put 11,000 and some miles on it between then and 88, riding to FLA from MI a few times. He moved to his current home and as he tells me, the story goes like this...

"I rode it one day, put her in the pole barn intending to ride the next day, that day never came." He just got busy I guess. Hi son was growing up, he is in a band, bought a fishing boat (that also sits in the pole barn)...

Flash forward to summer 2011. I was at their house for a party and his wife asked me to help get some chairs out of the barn. While in there I saw the bike and asked if he still rides. She said "hell no...he needs to get rid of that damn thing". Being in the mood for another bike, I asked if he would sell it to me. She said "you can just have it."

Well, I suggested she ask him before giving his bike away ; - )

She did...he said "you can just have it"...and now the bike is with me..(insert happy laugh)

I did have to do some cleaning up and such, not to mention it had ape bars, king/queen, and a HUGE sissy bar. He is a bigger guy than me so it was comfortable for him, but not me. I put it mostly back to stock and like it much more in its current form.

The only thing I left was the 16" rear wheel instead of the 18" that was stock. I like the fatter rear wheel as it reminds me of my CBR. He had performance exhaust on there and it was too loud, so I removed and put the V&H pipe on.

Will.

Wow Renthorin! That is an incredible story. What a beautiful bike to fall into your lap. How come I never get invited to those kind of parties? Good show!

Cool story and nice bike! Is the paint original too?

Chris

zoom zoom!!

When the PO bought the bike in 77, it had green plastic and tank. From what he tells me, these bikes were the hot ticket then and the dealership wasn't sure if/when they would get a red one in, which is what he wanted.

He bought the green one and took her home. A week later they called to say they had a red one come in so he took the bike back and they swapped the red tank and plastic to his bike.

So...it is original paint, just not the original parts, but close enough : - )

If you havent seen it already this will really make you feel better about your bike. My bike before I got it running this year. Still not road-worthy yet but I'm whittleing away at it.
( kzrider.com/forum/10-new-members/388538-...on-in-northestern-in )

Kenny, yeah I got really lucky with the condition of the bike after sitting for 23 years in the pole barn. The only real issue was that he parked it with fuel in the tank.

The tank itself had minor rust and I took care of that with "evaporust" and some nuts/bolts to slosh around in the liquid. The carbs were filled with resin, as was the petcock. I replaced the petcock with the vacuum Suzuki type and had the carbs hot tanked/rebuilt.

She fired up but the rings were not expanding. For a while, she blew quite a bit of smoke and fouled the plugs. Eventually, with a bit of seafoam in the gas and oil, the rings settled and compression came up to where it should be.

Tires were original so they were quite rotted, though holding air. And lastly, a mouse family was living in the airbox. Still...wiring and most everything else was/is in great condition, considering.

Will