New KZ owner

Hi, just picked up a pretty sweet little kz200.





Its in great shape, I got a rebuild kit for the carb with it which I installed along with a new battery.

My only issue is its running super rich, I have to mess with the idle screw to get it to start and the choke just kills it.....I put the needle clip in the middle, im wondering if I need to adjust that or if it could be a timing issue and not a carb issue?

Nice! You don't see very many of the KZ200s. I'd love to have one so I can say I have a Kawasaki in every engine category: Single, twin, triple and Four.
The carb is probably the issue. have you checked the float level? Maybe the fuel needle is leaking...

ThatGPzGuy wrote: Nice! You don't see very many of the KZ200s. I'd love to have one so I can say I have a Kawasaki in every engine category: Single, twin, triple and Four............

Don't forget the 6 (KZ1300). Ed

Forgive me for being a bit of a noobie with carbs...ive been spoiled because most of my motorcycleing has been with an EFI sportster.

I have a manual id need to reference as far as float level but I know when I took the bowl off to check that the drain wasn't clogged it seemed very full.

It's absolutely KAWAII! :woohoo: :woohoo: and in such a super shape.
I am all in with thatgpzguy., just a little carburetor love and you will be fine.
/Anders

Im wondering if maybe something didn't get setup right when I rebuilt it....As far as I could see the only adjustable things are the needle clip height, air screw, and idle screw?

On a side note, is there some sort of sissy bar/backrest available for these? Ive been riding mostly with my son and think the extra safety measure would be nice,bit dont really want to go chopping up or messing with the stock components of the bike.

Extra safety measure? I'm not so sure about that.

When I was 17 I owned a BSA and rode it across town (Baltimore) to school every day. Along the way I passed a Baltimore City facility where they kept dump trucks used to spread salt on snowy roads. In the Winter the street in front of the entrance to the facility's yard always had a liberal dose of salt on it just from spillage even when there was no snow. One day as I approached that part of the road a big dump truck pulled out and crossed into my lane. I hit the brakes, but because of the salty road the bike didn't stop. I hit the beam under the truck's tailgate dead center with my helmeted head. The bike kept going until the front tire hit the truck's differential. As the bike traveled forward under me (with my helmeted head pinned firmly to the back of the truck) I was pushed off the back of the bike. I was stunned and nearly unconscious for a few seconds, but I was not seriously injured.

If that bike had a sissy bar on it the sissy bar would have hit me in the back and pushed me into the truck with the full momentum of the bike as the bike continued to travel forward. I suspect that would have caused serious injury; possibly a broken neck. That accident may have been unusual and/or atypical, but it convinced me not to ever want a sissy bar or other backrest on a bike. Ed

Yeah! In the early 70's I got center punched by a drunk driver in a big ass Mercury 4 door running a stop sign once on my old 750 Triumph.
I stood up and got off it as it happened and flipped into a barrow ditch... made it out OK.
Not so sure I could have done that with a sissy bar.
Safety aside....
I never ride solo with my sissy bar installed, they are just ugly on UJMs.... but my wife loves to go on "rides" with me and allows me ridiculous latitude with respect to riding anytime I want and is spooked without one (plus she falls asleep sometimes... :ohmy: ).... etc.... so I was forced to pull my grab bar and buy/install a luggage rack/sissy bar combo that satisfies us both. That was 36 years ago.
I just yank it off every time I go solo.

Well hes 6 so just having that extra in case a bump knocks him back a bit would be reassuring, its gonna look ugly no matter what, personally I think all standards look ugly but this is a bike to ride, you can se in the background of the picture I posted I already have projects for stuff that sucks to ride but looks cool, haha.

Fair and square.
For safety a Merc 560 or a Hummer is in place, why not wait a bit until you take the little champ for a ride? My best buddy's daughter had the bad habit of falling asleep while riding home from school on his Beemer GS1200, he still talks about it. . . . .

ps. I sincerely hope you are sinking a CB 750 engine in the Flintstone racer

I would raise that needle clip to the top and see if choke still kills it. Plus make sure that the fuel in the bowl sits right about the line where the bowl screws to the body of the carb ( I think that should be pretty close to right).