New guy from Los Angeles, CA, USA

Hello everyone,

I'm not new to riding motorcycles, but I just bought my first bike/project a few weeks ago. I picked up a 1980 KZ440 with a seized motor. Owner was desperate to sell so I took her home for $200.



Pro's:
-Clean title
-New tires
-Cafe loop rear section
-Clubman bars
-UNI filter in the airbox
-New battery
-Rebuilt stock carburetors
-New clutch and clutch cable
-Cat eye turn signals (I like the style)

Con's:
-Seized motor (found out left rod was seized when taken apart)
-Blown front forks leaking fluid everywhere
-Rusted,seized front brake cable
-Busted rear turn signal
-Messy wiring causing brake light issues
-Good amount of dents on tank
-A rainbow range of different colored zip-ties holding wiring and other things together.
-Burnt front turn signal bulb

I found a running motor three days later and picked that up for another $200.



Picked up motor oil, oil filter, fork seals, fork oil, cat eye turn signals to match the fronts, front turn signal bulb for $50

Had a brand new front brake cable made by a local shop for $30.

Got the running motor in, changed the oil and filter, got her started, rebuilt the forks, installed the new signals, and finished the wiring to get me on the road exactly one week after picking the bike up!

Had the bike up and running for under $500!

I put a few hundred miles on her and I've done a few things since I got her like cleaning up the wiring, removing the stock muffler and welding in a new muffler with the muffler packing removed, installing home made clip-ons that my buddy that gave me the muffler made, and putting on the Renthal grips my girlfriend got me for my birthday. Everything was free other than the $3 for the grade-8 bolts I bought to clamp the clip-ons down to the fork tubes.

Looking forward to the next mods I have lined up!

Wish I had more time between, work, school, family and everything else, but I'm having fun with this first bike!

Welcome! That's a hell of an entrance. Nice score on the bike and what a great job getting her up and running so quickly. Here at KZ Rider we are all picture whores so do be shy about loading them up.

Thanks, man!

I've been trying to add more pictures, but I'm getting a "Server Error."

I even tried loading just one to see if I was just trying to load too many at one time, but still getting an error message.

I'll try again in a few hours or something.

Ok. Got the pictures up. This forum's file uploading doesn't seem to work well so I had to use photobucket.

I also got myself some motorcycle gear that fit the bike better than my road-race helmet.

Picked up a Biltwell Gringo lid with goggles and some tan leather gloves for that old-school style.

Welcome Philip...nice intro. Welcome to KZR

Thanks, Michael. I appreciate it.

Welcome Philip.
Nice work on the KZ.
Might consider adding a front fender if your going to ride in the rain.
Also adds stability to the front end.

Thanks for the welcome and compliment, man.

The bike came without a fender (which I like), but I have gone through some puddles and getting water in the face sucks. I couldn't imagine riding in the rain with this bike.