Hello

Hi, I'm Bob, a retired flight nurse and new owner of a 1982 Kawasaki CSR 650. I've owned lots of Kawasakis, a 69 Mach3 500, a 70 750, and a lot of of ther bikes, RD359, Suzuki RE-5, Hodaka Combat Wombat 125, YZ 125, Rm 250, Cr125 Elsinore, and my fav, a Husquavarna CR430. My question is what do I need to do preventative maint wise and what issues should I be anticipating and looking for? The bike is a 2 owner, and has 13,400 miles on it. Prior to purchase the previous owner said he had the carbs rebuilt and there are brand new tires front and rear, everything else is original. I love the bike and want to take good care of her so she will last me a while. What is the life expectency of these before something financially not worth fixing occours? I appreciate and and all advice and humbly thank you for letting me into your forums!

Good morning and welcome. We have several extremely experienced members that know the 650 very well. I don’t think I have seen them stumped yet. First suggestion is a factory service manual. It will have a section on maintenance and also adjustments. Start there.

Mikaw wrote: Good morning and welcome. We have several extremely experienced members that know the 650 very well. I don’t think I have seen them stumped yet. First suggestion is a factory service manual. It will have a section on maintenance and also adjustments. Start there.

Exactly! Perform all the maintenance items as if the bike has never had any maintenance done to it at all. After doing those things you can follow the schedule in the manual confident that no items have been neglected. Ed

Howdy. I have a 1981 KZ650-CSR which is virtually identical to your model except for the carburetors. The only things I've had to do is replace the ignition coils & the rear brake shoes. That's it. Everything else I've done was kind of superfluous. hee.

Brake shoes. If you don't know the age of the rear brake shoes, replace them. The adhesive that binds the linings to the shoes becomes brittle over time & can fail, so a lining can separate then get jammed between the shoe & drum, locking the rear wheel. It happened to me when rolling the motorcycle off the center stand, so it does happen. at speed would be a real bummer. I installed Vesrah brand. VB-412, I think.