1976 KZ900 "old school Superbike"

alberta is closer than the lower 48 if that z1-r needs a new home.pictures please

Bitchin' bike, man!

Looks like a interesting project you've got,any photos of it from when it was raced?
Ian do you think his will be finished before mine

Sorry - no racing pics available of this bike as a stocker.
All the mods were made to the frame in 1980. The bike was never made to run again and has been in storage, since then.

wireguy49 wrote:

I'm brand new to this site and to the world of KZ900/1000's.
I recently found this bike in Fairbanks, Alaska where it had been in storage for over 20 years. The guy I got it from raced the bike in the late '70's at a track in Las Vegas. He then stripped the bike in '80 to have the frame bracing done and never put the bike back together. im still trying to figure out those triple trees,maybe its just me but i dont see them being any stronger that way.:blink: and the way the steering head is braced doesnt seem like it really ties the steering head and backbone tubes together,maybe its just me

I'm going to guess the triples are like that to improve the clamping on the forks, otherwise I don't see any strength improvement over the stock setup. Looks like a good start though.

It would seem to me that double clamping would help stiffen the front end.
Another method "back in the day" was to carve triple clamps out of solid alum. and use double pinch bolts top and bottom. Of course, all that clamping doesn't do a thing for the skinny fork tubes below the lower triple clamp.
But, I suppose framemaker Rob North had his reasons for doing it this way. I gotta believe it all helped to tame the evil handling of these bikes, back then.
Myself, coming from a dirtbike background and seeing these bikes thrown into a 2 wheel drift on asphalt, with smoke boiling off both tires is something that I will never forget. Only m/c racing gods could do what those guys did on the orig. superbikes.
I suspect 99.9% of the riders out there could never feel the difference between single or double clamps, but I'm sure the top racers could.

Yes indeedy, the triple clamp set up is a poor man's way of stiffening up the front end. He probably also had a fork brace down on the lowers would be my guess. The frame bracing is interesting. Certainly that cross bar between the down tubes helps, and he's tied in the top to that cross bar, but not sure how that helps with lateral flex, although I bet it helps when dropping off a wheelie!:laugh:

Great project, btw!

I like the extra brace between the seat area and tank area (under the horizontal frame rail, were it starts to go vertical).U dont see that in many frame mods. When u see picks of gpz's and such u can see the areas where Kawi has added strength over the old z1's. This area (but on top)and the neck get some extra steel as well as the spine and front down tubes.
Why have u desided to go with 12:1 pistons?
Nice bike.

Thanks for the input, guys.
I decided to run 12:1 pistons based on a friends experience, so I thought I'd give it a try. He ran a set-up similar to what I'll be using; 1075, stock cams and head, 29mm CR's, Kerker and ran high 10's with it. I figure that's good enough for this project.

Just in case u didnt know, u cant run pump gas with 12:1's.

Mark, "u cant run pump gas with 12:1's"...
I assume this is due to the high compression and pump gas
in the combustion just won't burn hot enough...

I can see this not being an issue on a drag strip or race pit stop but on a weekend rider this would have to be a royal pain in the ass... Unless your within a full tank distance from home.

Just for knowledge (educating my mind), what fuel mixture do you guys use then?

OMR