1978 KZ200 Cafe Project

I am starting a cafe project on a 1978 KZ200. It is for my daughter who is turning 16 in March and will be her first bike. I am new to this site and new to building (which is why I am here). I picked up the bike for $750, it is 100% stock, yet came with a paint job that makes returning it to stock (which my daughter would appreciate) less attractive than striping it down into a cafe racer (which is more fun for me and since I am not an experienced builder it wouldn't be my most expensive mistake...but then again getting married to my now ex-wife will always top that). Later as I share all I will end up doing to this bike you will probably all be shaking your heads as to why I would put such work into a 200cc bike...and i am shaking my head with you all, my best answer right now, because when I was looking for a bike for her there weren't any 400 to 600cc bikes around in the small town I am from and I didn't want to haul anything.

I bought the bike this past summer and other than messing with the carb, jetting, and fouling a few spark plugs, (I think there was some water or bad gas) I have it running relatively decently. However in Flagstaff, AZ at about 7500 ft and in the cold I don't think I am getting the most power out of it. I think it has the stock jets on it.



Please feel free to make any suggestions on all of these ideas, your knowledge is very welcome

These are my initial thoughts on the project:
1) ditch the side covers and the intake box and put a pod filter on the carb, which I imagine will require me to jet the carb differently; any suggestions on pod filter and jetting kits?

2) make a new battery box that will hold the be centered and hanging from the top of the frame, probably fabricate this, but still try to keep the center of the bike clean. I have thought about batteryless, but not sure if my daughter would appreciate kickstarting the bike all the time.

3) pull all the fenders, I want to make or find a good mini fender for the front and a shorter rear fender for the back with a custom tail light and indicators and maybe even providing a small storage area accessible under the seat.

4) I would love to find a rearset kit that would work well for this bike, this may be a step 2 after she gets more used to riding, I do want to cut the bracket for the driver pegs off the frame something bad, any suggestions as to good bolt on rearsets?

5) I want to keep the original wheels, paint the hubs and spokes and polish the chrome on the rims.

6) the tires i would like to put on the bike will be the Kenda K761 Dual Sport, 110/80-18 front, 120/90/17 on the rear, I have to double check to see that the stock rims will hold these, I am pretty sure that the front will fit without the fender, but not sure about the rear. I am also wondering if a 1978 KZ650 or KZ750 swing arm would bolt right on the KZ200 frame, and by doing so give enough room for this rear tire; the width of the frame where the KZ200 swing arm bolts on is 8 1/4 inches, I am also worried about the torque link for the rear break rubbing on the wider tire, if just that I am wondering about modifying that.

7) ditch the old seat and fab a new one that is thinner more cafe, matched to the frame, rising some in the back and locking somewhere towards the back with a helmet lock.

I would like to lower the bike some as my daughter isn't too tall, with the front I think it would look rad if the fork tubes stuck out just far enough for some clip-ons.

9) I would like to ditch the tach, and center mount the speedo and mount the dummy lights somewhere else like
where the handlebar holders were, I saw this on a KZ cafe racer on here.

10) maybe a new headlight and maybe some aftermarket front blinkers, but I would rather not have any on the front, definitely new headlight brackets as this bike was dropped once and one of the brackets are bent causing the headlight to sit off center.

11) Naturally I am going to paint everything, I will check into the cost of powder coating the frame as opposed to painting it will an epoxy myself. I want the lower forks, frame, and most of the engine black, I will try to polish many of the covers and caps to see if I can get a good two tone thing going on the engine. I would rather just polish the gas tank than paint it, but my daughter loves the orange copper color it is. I may paint just the muffler and wrap the pipes or paint both.

12)I am not going to rebuild the engine, mostly because I am not a skilled mechanic, but really it is running fine. There is a small oil leak on the front side between the head and cylinder, so I will probably replace the head gasket.

In all I hope to make a really cool looking custom cafe that is light and not too fast for my daughter, for her to use to get to and from school in style and occasionally cruise around with her dad, but most importantly to always be the kind of lady that would ride along side some guy rather than on the back of his bike.

Sorry, but i don't understand. You state:

" ...I picked up the bike for $750, it is 100% stock, yet came with a paint job that makes returning it to stock (which my daughter would appreciate) less attractive than striping it down into a cafe racer (which is more fun for me and since I am not an experienced builder it wouldn't be my most expensive mistake...but then again getting married to my now ex-wife will always top that)....:

Are you building this for you or your daughter?? If you want a cafe type bike why not buy one for you and let your daughter decide on the stye she wants? After all, she will be riding it, not you. If you really wanted to you could paint it in a stock style to please your daughter rather than strip it down, put wider tires on it, etc. to please yourself. Not trying to bust your chops, but It sounds like you being selfish. Ed

+1 to what Ed says;

My father in law had a 67 galaxie and my wife wanted the same for a graduation present that they could work on together. Her mom found a 65 four door that SHE liked herself and wanted to do her own way. Car still sits years later stripped down sitting in a yard somewhere rotting. It was a nice running car to begin with, the person it was for didnt want it and didnt want the mods that were getting pushed onto her.

A new headlight and aftermarket brake/blinker setup makes a world of difference. I've done the chop and drop on a kz440 and its not worth it in my opinion. If it were mine and I was building this I would put a new headlight, tail light and take that seat to an upholstery shop and shave the seat foam or replace factory foam with newer/thinner foam (or do it yourself). That would get the lowered stance for her. Also clubman bars and new hand controls make a difference. (Become an amazon junkie).

It looks like you have a great motorcycle to start with.

leave it stock.....its a graet starter bike for your daughter

spdygon wrote: leave it stock.....its a graet starter bike for your daughter

I agree, just do a mild resto to it with your daughter's help and she will be proud of the new machine and of the work put into it.

And if she hasn't ridden or even has, but not the street then PLEASE teach her to watch out and be careful. That's a cool shot of her on the bike.

Thanks all for weighting in.

1st of all, yes not a 100% stock, due to the paint job, but everything else on the bike is original, with the exception of the seat cover, it needs a new seat altogether, the seat pan is rusted out including more than half of the pointy things to secure the cover to...I have already shaved the original cushion to so that I could rig the cushion on. It hasn't been treated the best, to the extent that it makes more sense and less cents to me to cafe it than to do a restoration my daughter and I have talked about restoration: taking the paint of the gauges, headlight, and fenders...I think if it were that simple it would make more sense, but really it would be quite a few OEM parts that are quite expensive, to get it clean to my liking. I sometimes worry that my standards are unrealistic when it may be something that she will drop it at some point. She is a cautious rider, much more so than when she drives a car if that makes sense. I think it is good to feel like the most vulnerable person on the road. Her older brother is/was a different story,..teenage boys and bikes are very different than teenage girls and bikes...and all the other idiots on the road are still idiots regardless. @sbc1320 I do appreciate you encouraging caution, she has to take both the basic and advanced (on her bike) safety courses ($400 right there) before she will be allowed to ride without me.

And she appreciates cafe racers, almost as much as she is an old soul and appreciates vintage.

@flint, good stuff: what hand controls did you go with, cause that is on the list regardless?

All good stuff, thanks.

What hand controls did you end up going with?

Welcome to KZR! Keep us posted on the build I look forward to it. It's a nice bike either way.

I pm'd you most of things I've purchased for my little bikes.

Welcome Tong, should make an interesting Ride for her I shall add your build to my watch list as i ran one of these years ago as a year round ride to work, very frugal with gas and tyres + quite good fun on back roads ...

Started the tear down yesterday, I was still flirting with just doing a restore as many described, while doing it I noticed that the engine and frame do not have matching numbers :huh: which has me thinking about how I missed that when buying the bike. :blush:



Thoughts so far...I need the right tools, an impact screw driver would be great and I definitely need to get a torque wrench before I start putting the engine back together. What I need to steal one from my gear head son, which does all his wrenching at at the shop he works for. Lucky 18 yo boy, wrenching on $250k to $500k sports cars, even as a low paid apprentice...if any of you also love high end sports cars, they do great stuff at Trophy Performance Las Vegas



The bike really is slow, slow. I am wondering if shedding some weight even help. Does anyone know of a good air pod filter and jetting kit that would work in high elevation areas (we are at 7500) and generally cooler. Definitely going to take apart and clean the carb.

I took the head off to switch the gasket and looking at this I am thinking I should just rebuild the entire engine. I stripped a number of screws taking off the different covers. I want to paint the engine black and replace all the old screws with some nice hex screws anyway. Love the look of those all black triumph engines. Everything on this bike is dirty, dirty. Even the inside of the engine.





In all though, we are excited about the build and some of the parts we are going to fab for it. The dual sport tires I want to put on the bike are going to require wider front forks, maybe a different triple tree and the same forks, but unlikely. I don't think I should put 110/80-18s on the stock rims which use to hold 2.75-18 or 90/90-18; and 120/90-17 on the rims which held a 3.25-17 or 110/90-18?