Goodbye LTD, Hello MKII !

Hello fellow KZ riders; I’m Terry. I’ve been a member here for a while, and I am finally ready to start a build thread of my own. I’m excited to be sharing my vision here, and I’m also looking forward to all the advice, comments, and critiques that I hope will be coming my way over upcoming weeks and months.

I’ll start with a little history, and with what I have planned for my bike. This is the first bike that I ever bought, back in the spring of ’93. It’s a 1980 KZ1000 LTD, and except for some cosmetic changes has remained recognizable as one over the years. I’ve been on several trips through the Southwest (New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona) on it, it has been my sole means of transportation a few times, and owning it led to my employment at a motorcycle dealership for a while. It has been moved in boxes more times than as a complete bike, rebuilt it in a mini-warehouse and in my apartment bedroom, and through this old KZ I’ve made lifelong friends that are some of the best people I know. To say that this bike has shaped my life in more ways than I can count is an understatement.

As you will see in the pictures, I’m planning a thorough, but not extremely radical, transformation. At this point, I’ve got a traditional Suzuki GS1100 swingarm swap lined up, 1990 ZX-7H complete front end and rear wheel, and I’m doing a complete changeover to KZ1000 MKII bodywork. While I really admire the over-the-top conversions that I’ve seen a lot of you do on this site, I have decided to try to keep mine simple. My available time and budget don’t allow for anything extreme. Also, I’ve always liked the look of the KZ and want to retain some of the iconic visual cues of these bikes, such as the big round headlight, twin pod instruments, and twin shocks.

I’m sure that you are ready for a break from my misty-eyed reminiscing, so enough talking, here are a few pics.......

The early days, just trying to get it to run. It looks like I'm installing the Accel supercoils.

This is after the first paint job. It still has the LTD "rocket pipes" (and the oil leak that I've never been able to get rid of).

With green paint job, daytona bars, V&H megaphone, and homemade rear fender eliminator. Still waiting on ELR stripes and KAWASAKI emblem.

Loaded up in Red River, NM, ready to pull out. This is at the start of a week-long ride through four states, about 2000 miles, and lots of roadside repairs!!

Me (on the right) with Gene (middle) and Lee (left) in Southfork Colorado. At the time, Gene was riding an FJ1200 (I bought it from him later) and Lee was on a Buell. The fastest riding week I ever had!!

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very cool

+ 1, nice bike.

I’ve been planning this build for several years. The earliest mock-up pics that I’m posting here are in a folder on my drive labeled October 2003. I got a great deal on a Z1-R tank on Ebay, but decided that I didn’t really like that look. I replaced that with a shaft drive tank. I liked the look of the MKII tank, and got a good deal on a shaft tank next. I learned the “Shaft drive and MKII frames aren’t the same” lesson there, and that’s when life intruded and the bike got shelved.

This is the first mock-up with body panels, tank, suspension and wheels. To me, the Z1-R tank doesn't look right without the fairing. I'd had small fairing on this bike before and didn't like it, so I decided not to go down that path again. Too bad, the Z1-R tank was in REALLY great shape.

Even though I wasn't planning on using them, I put the LTD parts on just to see how it looked. Selling them on Ebay financed other parts of this project, but now I wish I'd kept them. I have wondered if a KZ rider member bought them. Do any of you have them on your bike right now ?

FINALLY, the big reveal!! Here's how it sits right now. I got some junk tires out of the big pile behind the KAWASAKI shop down the road just to have something to roll it around on. I love the look with the slightly longer swingarm and big rear tire. I'm either going to trim down the big Ninja front fender or replace it with something smaller. I might try to adapt a stock KZ fender, but it might be too narrow.

There's that big 'ol rear tire. I'll get into it in a later post, but you can see in this pic how the sprocket studs and nuts interfere with the swingarm. I have a plan........

I'll get into this in a later post too, but for now the instrument cluster and headlight are held up by a couple of hardware store brackets and a piece of plywood, just to start planning where they will eventually fit. The spot where I hack-sawed off the stock ZX-7 ignition key on the upper triple is REALLY ugly too. I also have a plan........


As soon as it warms up a little bit this morning here, I'm heading for the garage. More detail pics and thoughts coming soon.

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what year is the front end off of?

It's either a 1989 or '90 ZX-7H, they're the same.

guy down the rd is supposed to have a complete 93 front end with wheels for 50.00 nut i am thinking i want USD front end. I really like the front fender on yours I wouldn't touch it!

Thanks for the thumbs-up y'all. I got out in the garage for a while this afternoon, but it's still pretty chilly here. Snapped a few more pics, and I'll try to get another good sized post up today. Doing this build out in public is going to help keep me motivated. I have a deadline, so I need to keep on it.

The biggest hurdle that I’m going to have to overcome is fitting the tire and wheel in the swingarm. I want the GS1100 swingarm. I want the 170 series rear tire and the ZX-7 wheel. They don’t want each other. I’m going to have to be a little creative to make sure we all get along.

With a little grinding to the weld between the upper and lower halves of the inner swingarm bracing, the outer edges of the tire will clear when it’s all the way forward in the adjusters. I don’t think that the tire will ever actually be that far forward in the swingarm anyway, as that is with the adjusters up almost far enough for the adjusting bolts to fall out. One friend said just ride it the way it is, and the swingarm will “adjust” the edges of the tire automatically. Don’t think so .

The real problem is at the sprocket. The studs protrude far enough to catch on the inner part of the main leg of the ‘arm. There’s no way to space it far enough to the right side for them to clear. After taking a few precision eyeball measurements, I believe that there is plenty of clearance to move the sprocket about half an inch closer to the wheel. I’m going to take the carrier to a machine shop and have it turned down, and then re-install the sprocket with the shortest studs and narrowest bolts that I can find. That should give me just enough clearance between the studs and swingarm. I’m also going to have to do a little machining on the left and right side spacers; I need just a little more space for it all to fit in the swingarm width-wise. That won’t present much of a problem.

There's plenty of room with the sprocket and studs out of the way.

The ZX-7 uses an upside-down rear caliper, so I’m going to have to fabricate a brake torque-arm bracket on the bottom of the swingarm. I’m not sure how that is going to work, the bottom isn’t flat.

What's up Scoot? Cool project. Really cool story. I used to live in Austin for almost 10 years. Still kinda miss it. Keep them pictures coming and we'll try to help out when we can.

I think you set the record for the most time between registering and the first post.

testarossa wrote: What's up Scoot? Cool project. Really cool story. I used to live in Austin for almost 10 years. Still kinda miss it. Keep them pictures coming and we'll try to help out when we can.

I think you set the record for the most time between registering and the first post.

I may very well have ! Your build has been one of my inspirations here on this site, maybe when the KZ is up and running we could get a little Texas ride together. I'm sure there must be other KZr members in the area.

As far as progress for this week, I want to get the sprocket hub to a machine shop and get it turned down. I need to get a 530 chain to check and see how much clearance I need near the tire. Anyone have a suggestion on what I should be shooting for? How much does the chain move side-to-side? Thanks again for the comments from everyone so far, keep 'em coming.

Thanks for the kind words. I'm up for a hill contry ride if some folks can find the right time. I still have family scattered all around that area. I also happen to know another member who lives in Comfort that might be interested.

You probably can get by with about 1/8" clearance. It's not so critical at the tire, more at the frame. I had to heat up the tubes with a torch and flatten out that tube for mine to work with a 1/2" offset sprocket. I also had to cut out the aluminum cover to clear the chain with the offset sprocket.