Z200 Project / Lost cause??

Evening from snowy England, not been about for a few years since I sold my z500. Well
I got a new Z today, a tiddler.

Collected my Z200 today, not as good as it looked in the photos (actually it looked crap in the photos too!!)

Had to drive down to snowy Somerset, then across to Devon and back up to Aylesbury, it's still on the truck cos its too bloody cold to unload it into the factory!!

I'll unload it tomorrow and get some photos of it loosely assembled with the tank panels etc

But here's a sneak preview.

Snow/salt/grit covered wheel (hides the rusty rims!)




Watch this space for a very slow and probably fairly unsuccessful rebuild/project, no idea what I'm going to do with it yet

IanD

You can probably save the fork legs by grinding them down with an oily, very fine sand/emerald stone until nothing no peaks remain - pits doesn't hurt seals in my experience. Rubber gaiters will hide the ugliness.

The 200 engine was infamous for overheating and rapid wear, but I think the KL250 and Z250C engines will fit. May be worth doing since the 200 looks like a real Kawasaki of the era, like a downsized Z650. It will most likely be a money pit, meaning you probably never will get much of your money back. So it's only worth doing if you really want the bike - or the practice.

Thanks for the fork tip, would 1200 grit wet and dry paper be ok?

I've heard araldite (2 part epoxy resin) is good to fill any pits??

IanD

I've never bothered filling the pits as they've never hurt any of my seals. The paper is too soft to get rid of the minute peaks in my experience, and you need to get them all out. In the end, you shouldn't be able to scratch butter I have a very soft stone that I use in the end - dry - and if it snags the least I grind some more.

Unloaded her into the 'bike shed' at work, I loosely assembled all the parts out of the box just to see what's there and whats missing.
I'm thinking I'd like to build a cafe racer, modelled on the small Ducati and Honda racers of the 60's.

Here's how I've left her;







I think I'll need to do a bit more work than the sticker under the seats implies!!



IanD

She's actually in good shape....

I agree, it does seem like a decent starting point. Your idea for the build sounds like a good'un

I got a tiny 200 that i'm in the throws of cafinating
I say do it,parts a pretty cheap and can be found with a bit of searching.
Kawasaki did a klt200 three wheeled atv which shares the engine so pistons a springs can be had..
I'll try to post up some pics tonight if i get a chance.

I like it!

I am doing a kz250 single right now. The klx off road bikes share the platform with the kz250 single and even the mojave quad, and they come in 200cc... parts should not be an issue if you do your "seuthing"...

Keep posting pics! Matt.

Cheers guys, I don't suppose you know what bikes share the front brake calliper do you? I bought one for a z250 not noticing its for the wrong side!

I started cleaning her up today and found some wildlife;

Snails under the number plate light,



And a spiders web in the speedo,



I'll see what else I can find tomorrow when I get stuck into it!

IanD

Before.

Rear hoop and seat mounts

Cb750 seat,too small for frame and wrong shape

Pinched seat in to make it narrower and fit rear hoop, extended down and lengthened.

Bars are just to get the idea. Got some billet clip ons.
Frames now finished and at the powder coaters
Hated the idea of a cable front brake so i bought a caliper and lever from a kh125 and made a bracket.
Flipped the forks round to fit the caliper behind fork (I think its probably safer).
Only problem is the speedo drive running backwards so I'm going to make a space to take its place and run a digital speedo.

Looks good, have you got a projects thread on here? When you say flipped the forks round how do you mean side for side or just turned each leg through 180 degrees?

Cheers
IanD