my i wish i had a kz1000 project

I've been looking for ages and ages for a good 78 or so kz1000 and cannot find anything that hasn't already been hacked up or "finished" and priced WAY out of reach (seriously $1000 for a non-running bike? since when?). So, for now I'm settling at least

I took an 83 kz550 that was a bobber project, frame hoop cut off seat dropped 3 inches and welder her back mostly stock, slightly different seat angle and a little lower to and made a tail fin from fiberglass and fitted it to her and wound up with this.

Sorry for the crappy pictures. And yep, I still am looking for a bigger bike, not what I wanted but it does sort of have the look at least.

forgot to ask, what color stripes should I have on it with the red tank and covers? the bike was black with gold stripes on the tank and side covers.

I got my 81' KZ1000LTD for 800 bucks. No side covers, sounded like the motor had a thrown rod but it was the starter clutch. Obviously no guarantees either. These things are like muscles cars people like us cant get enough of them. I know EVERYBODY wants to do a black and red paint job so its not very original but i always liked the look of flat black with a flat red Checkerboard stripe down one side of the top of the tank, following into the duckbill. Maybe have it swoop down and go along the tops of the sidecovers and then back up to the duckbill
That would be cool as hell. Thats a nice bike man, might be smaller but it looks pretty damn cool. Also, if your looking for comfort but something that also looks better than stock, check out European handlebars or Euro bars. They have kind of a straight look to the and they are comfy as hell. The stock bars on these KZs always look dorky Ill be following your thread dude. Im sure more people will come along soon.

That was my bike when i first bought it. It came with KZ1100 carburetors that i had to replace. To give you an idea, that cost me 800 bucks. Alot of the time you can run into somebody on Craigslist with KZ1000 for cheap. They are fairly common bikes.

unfortunately for me, going rate around here must be about $3000 for ANY kz900 or 1000. I've got ads out in the paper, craigslist and the local radio station, along with a friend of mine that runs a local cycle repair shop looking and still bupkiss. closest I've gotten was $1200 for a title-less half-done bobber project with a rusted out tank and deleted front brakes, missing gauges and hacked up electrical. not to mention said bike hadnt been started for years and had no oil in the sight glass.

that's just my luck though thats the same price range i find for 650s to. $1200 that is, once again though that's usually for bobber projects or non-running bikes.

What about the Zephyr 550/750? Also, the standard Z500/550 as well as the early GPz550 will make respectable starting points for the poor man's Z1000R replica.

floivanus wrote: unfortunately for me, going rate around here must be about $3000 for ANY kz900 or 1000. I've got ads out in the paper, craigslist and the local radio station, along with a friend of mine that runs a local cycle repair shop looking and still bupkiss. closest I've gotten was $1200 for a title-less half-done bobber project with a rusted out tank and deleted front brakes, missing gauges and hacked up electrical. not to mention said bike hadnt been started for years and had no oil in the sight glass.

that's just my luck though thats the same price range i find for 650s to. $1200 that is, once again though that's usually for bobber projects or non-running bikes.

Where are you located?
You should come to Western New York State.
Lot of stuff around here.
I have had stuff for sale for years. Supply and demand? Not. It's Money. No one has it.
No one wants to spend it, if they have it! If you love these bikes then money should not matter!
Build a bike out of the love for it. Money should not matter. You never get your investment back, from what you put in to it! I have found that out several times over 35 years. I guess I'll let my kids call some cable or "Cybershow" show in 20 years after I'm gone and look through a bunch of Kaw parts and they remember them and buy them for a few coins!
Just my opinion.
Hope you read it before it is deleted?????

I'm in NW indiana, everyone around here (well for the most part) commutes to chicago for work and thinks everything they have is worth a premium because of it.

Money spent on a finished project isn't the issue, it's the initial investment, I basically want to have a near stock 78 or so kz1000, kickstart and all. I can get a cheap crotch rocket, ninja, concourse, etc that has had a mild wreck or whatever but finding the older stuff around for a decent price isn't worth it. everyone would rather take the $100 from the scrapyard then the $100 from me for a workable bike. So far in the two years I've been looking I haven't found a scrapper that'll sell a bike (just the parts only, we aren't a car dealer) to anyone.

Why am I so picky? the father in law had a 78 kz1000 bored out to 1200 and some odd cc that looked bone stock and was a purdy purdy bike... about four years ago I was trying to get into bikes and never had the money (still don't really) to get a decent kz and I just want a project, even if I want stock I'm doing it myself. Well fast forward to 2 years ago this coming may and the old man finds himself on the wrong end of an impala, bike's toast, old man is gone. Just wanting to find myself a piece of him to ride around seeing as the mother in law either sold off, scrapped or is destroying anything that is left of his.

Anyways, no pic now but I stripped the tail light and some other parts off the 650, the light fits better in the tailpiece than the 550's square light does so, some progress on my bike today.

here we go, a little better pictures, and a cleaned up work area.

got the tank and tail stripes put on, single on the tank (which needs re-done, stripe dissapears under seat) and double on the tail, looking like the kz900's do.


like I said, I cut down the turn signals and made posts for them to move them from the bars (stock 550 style) to the headlight, I feel this makes the bars look cleaner and less like a moose-rack


and the tail light off the kz650 I had, much better styling than the square 550 one.

Nice job unhacking that thing. Looks good

There's a '77 kz 1000 just down the road from me. It hasn't run in a few years. The last state inspection sticker on it's from 2003. Seller wants $750 obo. I've been considering making an offer but it's all I can manage to keep my 750 twin on the road.