'83 KZ550 LTD M1 (Shaftie) - Café Project Kickoff

Hi All!

I'm new to the bike world have fallen in love with the café racer style. I bought my first bike, a '74 CB200 already caféd out (pic attached), but just got my second bike basically completely stock. It's an '83 KZ550 LTD M1. It was in pristine condition when I got saw it, so it was hard to pass up. I think the seller forreal has OCD. He said the dude HE bought it from never even rode it in the rain.


Anyways... to make it MINE...

First order of business was to remove the rack, backrest, and windshield. (pic attached)

Next order of business is to lower the bars to clubmans. Any tricks I need to know or suggestions, in general?

I really just wanna ride it and keep it as a project bike for rainy days and winter.

In the future:
- I'd like to get an interchangeable café seat for quick switches so my wife can ride two up.
- Bring the tail light and rear fender in OR remove rear fender and attach tail light to seat.
- Change blinkers
- Change out the exhaust to make some noise! (although I've heard from a coworker that this is a touchy subject with this bike. He had a friend that changed out his exhaust and had a helluva time figuring out how to make his bike perform as well as it did prior)
- Pod filters? Any suggestions/tips?
- Slowly go from there... I'm in no real rush for this project. I'm just going to enjoy the journey!

All in all, I would like to make minor changes and keep close to original, for now... in case I decide to re-sell. If I fall in love and decide to really make it my own, all bets are off.

Here we go!!

love the 200 in yellow!

and your new bike does look in pristine condition, almost too good to mod it...lol

Thanks! I'm a very lucky Craigslister.

The I'm being very hesitant with the KZ550 (aka the Bruiser) since it IS in such great condition. I'm keeping all of the original parts and not doing any chopping. I plan to keep all changes completely interchangeable. (at least for now!).

That 200 looks fantastic. The 550 looks too good to mess with, really. If you are not going to chop the frame on it, it will be difficult to get into a cafe shape. It has cv carbs, so I would not mess with the airbox or any of the intake stuff, unless you want a lot of headaches tuning it. Going to pods would make it more difficult to ride with two people.

I would suggest finding a beater KZ550A1-A3 (not A4) or KZ550D or even a KZ550C, for dirt cheap and chop the heck out of it. Those bikes respond well to pod filters and intake and exhaust tuning. They are easier to deal with than trying to mod the shaft drivefor differnt stance/shocks, etc.

You already have a ridable cafe bike, and a really good bike for two-up riding with the wife, so you can really take your time to make a cafe exactly how you want.

Welcome!

Glad your plan is to keep the parts to be able to switch back to stock, though it is not one of the highly collectable models it is in awesome condition! Nice find!

I have an '84 F2 that I'll be selling next month that is in about the same condition and yes I'm OCD. :blush:

loudhvx wrote: That 200 looks fantastic. The 550 looks too good to mess with, really. If you are not going to chop the frame on it, it will be difficult to get into a cafe shape. It has cv carbs, so I would not mess with the airbox or any of the intake stuff, unless you want a lot of headaches tuning it. Going to pods would make it more difficult to ride with two people.

I would suggest finding a beater KZ550A1-A3 (not A4) or KZ550D or even a KZ550C, for dirt cheap and chop the heck out of it. Those bikes respond well to pod filters and intake and exhaust tuning. They are easier to deal with than trying to mod the shaft drivefor differnt stance/shocks, etc.

You already have a ridable cafe bike, and a really good bike for two-up riding with the wife, so you can really take your time to make a cafe exactly how you want.

Thanks for the advice! You're right... I definitely don't want to mess with the bike's performance. I still want to do a few cosmetic changes, just for my own peace of mind. I'm thinking dropped bars will make it feel and look right to me and an interchangeable café seat would be a bonus. I'll just make sure not to ride it out to any café rallies!

KZ_Rage wrote: Welcome!

Glad your plan is to keep the parts to be able to switch back to stock, though it is not one of the highly collectable models it is in awesome condition! Nice find!

I have an '84 F2 that I'll be selling next month that is in about the same condition and yes I'm OCD. :blush:

Thanks! I just happen to get lucky with finds. Both my bikes were actually within a 10min radius of my house and both previous owners were meticulous mechanics.

Good luck with your sale! That bike is literally spotless!!