1978 KZ 1000 Saskatchewan

Hello there, Kelly Thiessen here from Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada. I picked up a 1978 KZ 1000 last week. I previously owned a 2001 Yamaha V-star 1100 (cruiser) which I loved and put many kms on. It was time to move on to something different and I'm very much looking forward to this. The bike is in very good shape overall. I plan to ride it stock for a year or two then slowly upgrade some things, forks, brakes, swing arm. Looking forward to getting advice on this forum.

Hello, Kelly, and WELCOME TO kzRIDER!

Handsome bike!! Looking forward to your participation on the forum!

Good Fortune!

welcome...i had one of those and it was a really good kz....nice one you got enjoy

Hey Kelly! Welcome to "The Madness"! Haha!

That bike looks amazing! Anytime you can pick up a ride-able bike for reasonable money... that's a good deal. Excellent choice!

It looks like it might have the smaller LTD front fender and possibly the LTD chrome gauges too. Mine has the black bodied gauges and bigger (longer) fender. Did you talk to the previous owner about the history of the bike?

There are literally dozens of ways to go with suspension and brake mods for the KZ. Roam around the various sections of this forum and you'll get lots of ideas and how-to info.

The previous owner had the bike for about 2 years and did paint, exhaust, jets, air filters, chain and tires. Any other part swaps would have been by someone before him. I'm not a big fan of chrome fenders and I think if I ever paint the bike I'd color match them

Welcome, nice looking Kaw!

Real nice looking bike thetrierace! You don't find to many for sale in that nice of shape. People like to hang on to them. Does it run well? The only thing I notice and wondered about was the discoloration on the exhaust. That is not really normal. You may be running lean. Do you get any popping on deceleration? Should check it out and make sure. Running an engine lean can damage it in long run.

Welcome aboard !!! Nice bike, enjoy the ride !!!!!!

The bike starts and runs well. It does pop a bit when idling cold but that stops when it Cwarms up. How can I check if it's running lean? The pipes are aftermarket Vance and Hines and have done only abou 500 kms. I know from the cruiser world, depending on the quality, aftermarket pipes can be subject to discoloring. I know the previous owner made a few attempts at jetting after putting the new pipes on befor getting it to run properly. I suppose it could have happened in that process.

thetrikerace wrote: The bike starts and runs well. It does pop a bit when idling cold but that stops when it Cwarms up. How can I check if it's running lean? The pipes are aftermarket Vance and Hines and have done only abou 500 kms. I know from the cruiser world, depending on the quality, aftermarket pipes can be subject to discoloring. I know the previous owner made a few attempts at jetting after putting the new pipes on befor getting it to run properly. I suppose it could have happened in that process.

I suppose if its not broken, don't fix it. That's the philosophy I adhere to. It may be just a quick mixture screw adjustment. I would get some more opinions before messing with it. I would hate to have you mess up a good running bike solely based on my observation. If you look at my avatar, the pipes are discolored on that bike. Jetted it myself when I didn't have much knowledge and money to spend on more than one set of jets. The bike use to pop all the time, sometimes backfire, lol. Never fixed it. Bike ran well enough for me while I had it, and stayed that way.

Edit: Yes, that is a good point about it discoloring during the jetting process by the PO. Especially if he put miles during the process. In that case I would polish the discoloration out as best you can. There are some products on the market for that. You may just find they may not discolor again. Good luck.

Call me crazy but I like the look of blued pipes, haha.

The Japanese bikes had double wall exhaust pipes, hiding any overheating/running lean from the factory. Aftermarket pipes are usually sigle wall. To see how the bike is running, install a new set of plugs, bring along the plug changing tools(3/8" ratchet,6" extension, and a 13/16" sparkplug socket) and go for a ride.

Find a seldom traveled road, and do a "Plug Chop" This is done by killing the engine about 1/2 throttle,pulling in the clutch, while using the "Kill Switch", coasting to a stop.

This way you can read how the engine is running out of the low speed and idle jet areas.

For additional front end stability, go to www.fastfromthepast.com and get one of their front fork braces.