79 KZ1000 winter build

Well, I'll start a thread on mine. Might as well. This is my 3rd bike, and the first time I've had a bare frame in the garage. I was originally going to hardtail it, but decided not to go that route. I rode this bike for about 10 minutes total before I tore it down, and man I want to ride this thing. I bought it with almost 40K on the odo. Compression test cold was in the a little low, in the low 100s. After pulling the head and checking it out, to me it looks like a 40K motor that's been run, could definitely use a refresh, but is solid enough for another season or so. Going to replace a few timing chain components, valve seals, and that's that for now. Anything more and I might as well rebuild the whole motor. All 5 gears hit, and it definitely had some balls. For reference my main bike is an 08 Softail making about 90-95 hp....and the KZ felt like it had more seat of pants. I gotta say I really like this site and all the builds posted. Basically the plans this winter are to clean up the motor a bit, paint the frame and new tank/fenders, rewire the bike, and spend a bit on new rear short shocks, forks, tires, maybe brakes.

My first bike was a CX500, and the second is my current harley. I'm not partial to anything, but I gotta say I'm really excited about my 1000 right now. It's gonna be a great winter with this project. I appreciate all you guys posting pics and info about your builds. It's hard to find good info about these bikes.

Good call on not hardtailing it. You will enjoy the ride much better with suspension between you and the road plus the bike will handle much better this way. Ed

solid foundation for a killer build.

welcome.

leon

Well, after some massive degreasing of the head, a few wonderful discoveries. One of the exhaust flanges is pitted something awful, one spark plug hole messed up, and the valves and seats look a lot worse after removing most of the carbon. So it's looking like a true durability test of a worn out motor this coming summer, and saving up for a badass rebuild next winter.

So back to the chassis...last swap meet of the year last Sunday. Picked up a few parts to keep me busy for awhile. Had a small issue with the steer bearings so I couldn't mount the forks, but I'm pretty happy with the initial. I'm sure a lot of die hard Harley guys would shit a brick about taking a sawsall to a '69 FLH fender.... :whistle:

Great start mate. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Build looks very interesting, will stay tuned!

4 months and no update....project it is. The frame is hacked and done but still at the painter. After taking the head off the motor i decided to just clean it up, replaced a few minor parts and am gonna run it one season as is. Was quoted $2000 for a complete rebuild, which it is about ready for. I ended up building a rear fender from scratch, still not completely done either. I'm thinking if I'm going to ride this thing at all this summer, I'm going to rebuild the carbs, brakes, and rewire the bike next. I can always finish fabricating and painting down the road. I'll try to get some pics as soon as a get the frame back, which will hopefully be this weekend.

unless ur rich WINTER BUILDS should always be started the summer before :woohoo: :woohoo:

This is true. I might have underestimated the work involved on a 33 year old bike. I spent too much time on the frame, fenders, and seat. I got into the carbs yesterday finally. Discovered they are VM29s so that was a plus. I just wish I'd get the damn frame back so I could throw the motor back in it. Seems like I have more motivation when there's something to look at...lol. Here's a pic of the seat and part of the battery box I'm working on.

Got the frame today.





Ready to put the 40k beast back in and ....slowly.... start turning this thing back into a bike.

Love the color of the frame that is awesome!

I'm on my second season of abused worn out motor, thank god these old things are strong as an OX

great build keep the pics coming

Started cleaning the mount bolts this afternoon, only to find 3/8 24 threads on the long ones.......amazing what gets replaced in 33 years. I have this problem of having to do things right, and really wanna kick the guy in the balls on ebay who wants $60 for the entire bolt kit. Guess I don't blame him, can't find them anywhere.....

On the positive side, I'm pretty happy with how the bike is turning out. New front tire. Rear tire will be replaced after it's smoked to the point of done...... :evil: