"J Jet" My KZ 650

This is the start of my story with the KZ 650. Named after the great Joan, she came to me in terrific shape with just shy of 30K on her.



The motor had a recent rebuild so we left that for now. My mechanic friends took about 3 hours going over her. Updated turn signals, rear tail light and front brake line. Changed fluids and cleaned up some of the wiring.



Pics of her now. At what i consider the start point.

Plans in the works:

Cafe fairing - on order
Drag bars - on order
Bar end mirrors - on order
Regular sized hand grips - on order. (I hate the fat grips)

Up next:

The case saver has road rash. Needs to be cleaned up and painted.

The pipe is badly painted. Considering a partial wrap, paint and a new end cone. Would love to hear some suggestions on that.

There is nothing between the back tire and the bottom of the seat. Battery etc is all exposed. Would like to seal that space up and maybe create a bit of storage.

Wouldn't mind some sort of under fender like a sport bike as well.

Then we'll see.

Now the cool news. On Monday i'll pick up a 79 KZ 650 complete and mostly assembled. Motor runs and sounds great. No title, so it may be just a parts bike for Joan. Or i may take a stab at the title process. I'll post that up separately when i have it in hand.

You have a nice looking 650 there. It would appear to be a F model.

I would suggest either sanding or blasting the pipe and repaint. I use Dupli-Color High Heat Paint with Ceramic Resins and have been very happy with it.

The stock 650s did have a under fender like device that you may be able to locate.

I think that you will find some very helpful folks here that can and will answer many of your questions. But I do want to pass on this link to a site that is just for the KZ650s you may want to check out.

www.kz650.info/

Hey thanks, i'll check it out.

Well buying a 30 year old bike i was worried about parts availability.

So - My parts store.....

A year older than my first one, and with laces not mags and no title...
But it runs and everything is there. (More in boxes in the garage)

Video of it running. (And yes that's the tank from my "rider" providing fuel)
[youtube][/youtube]

When i went to buy my first bike from the guy he made ma a great offer on this parts one. Had been trying to sell it on CL with no takers. So this week i borrowed a truck and now i have 2!

So do i try to get a title and finish the "Bobber"? (checked the vin and it seems to be clean.)

Anyone ever gotten an "abandoned vehicle" title? Or something called a "bonded" title?

wait, was that a video, or a shaky picture? how about a walk around, or a throttle turn?

Sorry didn't mean to imply i shot that video. It was one posted by the guy i got the bike from. I don't want to keep switching the tanks back and forth so my first order of work is to get the leak fixed in the tank (the raw one in the pic above." Then i'll fire it up again.

He did start it for me before i picked it up.

u did good buddy.

Hey thanks. I'm horrible with a wrench and i've got myself way over my head but i'm having fun.

For my "rider" i got all the parts in that i mentioned above (bars, fairing, etc.) so should have a whole new look to post in the next few days. If the snow holds off i'll post up the first video.

Got the Cafe fairing, drag bars. new grips and bar end mirrors on.

Wish it was warmer than 15 with clear streets so i could ride it!

Only thing i'll probably still do is better shocks. But she should be ready for a good long ride now.

Thaaaaaaaaaaaat's good lookin'!

-KR

Bad Kaw wrote:

Thaaaaaaaaaaaat's good lookin'!

-KR

Hey thanks. Looking at your ride that is quite a compliment.

Went for a 60 mile run today with the new "Cafe" setup. Re-built forks and repacked steering head made a huge difference in stability. Specially since the head was actually a couple of bearings short...

I'll try to get some video up soon.

Video up in the rides section. I assume that is where pics and vids go...