KZ750LTD project.

So I picked up this 1980 LTD a few months ago so I would have something to ride this summer. All of my other bikes are not far enough along to make it this season and I don't want to miss yet another year of riding. I have always wanted to find out how an LTD model would handle with a few modifications while still retaining the LTD parts: 16" rear wheel, leading axle forks and all. I am going to be leaving the engine internals stock for now. Once some of my other projects are back on the road I will tear into this one. The only horsepower improvements will be pod filters, jetting, port matched manifolds and a 4 into 1 Vance and Hines header with one of my own aluminum canister mufflers. Here is the bike as I bought it.

Stock exhaust removed

Clip-ons installed, headlight and instrument cluster are getting lowered so they look right with the lower bars. Headlight bucket has been cut out to make room for the HID conversion and lower triple clamp clearence.

Machined and beadblasted upper triple clamp.

The front end has been lowered 1" and the rear has been raised over 2" using Progressive shocks 12-1206B and springs 03-1367B. Tires are Bridgestone BT45V. New EBC pads and freshly surface ground rotors.

New Daytona fork brace.

HID headlight test in a KZ1000 bucket

And on!

Next up will be fabricating the rearsets, seat and tailsection. I am considering changing the fuel tank with something that has a less teardrop shape. Perhaps a standard KZ750 tank. Any suggestions?

Please don't take this as criticism, but it would be interesting to see what compels a person to disassemble a perfectly good street worthy bike that was purchased to ride because that person's 9 other motorcycles are disassembled. Could this actually be some deep rooted subconscious fear of riding a motorcycle?

All of the bikes I ride have been modified in the same way. The only difference is this one will have a stock powertrain to speed up the process so I can ride it. My other engines have major internal work underway and I don't want to cut corners just to finish them. Some of my others are for racing and not street legal. My work schedule has been hectic so progress on my more amitious projects has been slow. This one will be easy to complete. I rode it around stock when I bought it but wanted to make these changes to see how the handling would respond.

i was really wondering how you think some of the ltd features changed the handling of the bike