1980 kz550ltd first timer

Just bought my first bike, a 1980 kz550 LTD from a friend of mine. It last ran back in 2014 and has sat since then.

My plans are to make it look a bit sportier and just enjoy it. Going for a cafe racer look but I know the LTD isn't the best frame to start with but I'm going to work with what I have.


I am completely new to bikes, I've only ridden one a couple times (this bike actually, back in 2014) so excuse my learning curve. This will be a winter project.

My plan (after maintenance)

Get rid of the mini apehangers and put some cafe style bars in place (clubmans?)

Possibly Rewire the bike to get rid of some stuff and clean it up a bit. No blinkers, etc

New seat and get rid of rear fender.

Rear tire?? I know LTDs have a 16"(?) rear tire and that's more cruiser than cafe racer. Can I put a taller rear tire to make it match up with the front a bit better?

Suspension? Suggestions please, don't know whether to lower, raise, etc.


My goal is to look something like the attached. It looks like he's running a taller rear tire on the stock 16" wheel? Any guess on the rear suspension setup? Are front forks/height stock?

I've also included a pic of my bike.

Welcome and congrats on your first bike.

I once had a 440 ltd similar to your bike, bit smaller and only 2 cylinders.

I never liked the LTD handlbars, I put "Euro" style bars on and found I liked that much better. It also changed the look of the bike. It requires replacing all of the control cables woth ones the proper length.



I would advise against modifing the bike too much as a beginner rider. Being comfotable is what's most important early on. Get her running and riding well and get some saddle time before changing around too much..

How do you determine the new length? Would they need to be custom made?

I've read that you can sometimes get awAy with just rerouting the stock lines?

Put the new handlebars on, mount your controls to them and then see how much longer the existing clutch and throttle cables are. You may want to reroute them a bit while your at it. You may have to replace the hydraulic break line too.

Then go to DennisKirk.com and look up your stock cables, the lengths will be given for them. Subtract what you think you need and order them in custom lengths. Its all done on their website. Easy peazy.

the break lines are done the same way, but you buy universal line of the correct length and the by threaded fittings for each end. Look up Speigler or Goodrich break lines.

No blinkers? Great, just what a new rider needs to remove. Why let cagers know which way you are turning when it's so much safer to surprise them?

I notice the bike in your picture is missing the front fender. That's good idea too. That fender only helps stiffen the front forks (as would a fork brace) to improve handling and keeps road slop off the rider and engine. You won't need it.

And for sure get rid of the rear fender. All it does is prevent road slop from being thrown onto your back, the engine, and into the carb intakes. Be sure to toss the air box too like the bike in the photo, otherwise the bike may run well.

Yes, if you can remove enough of that extraneous crap you should be able to ride safely for many miles. Oh, BTW, before removing all that silly stuff the factory installed you may want to check the local laws. Where I live one can be ticketed for not having a front fender, turn signals, headlight, etc. Guess how I found out? Yes, I was once young and stupid. Now I'm not young. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: Ed

Remember - steer left to go right; steer right to go left. Ed

1981 KZ650-CSR w Emgo Euro bars & KZ550-Ltd wheels.

As Ed stated above, dont go crazy changing stuff on a bike you have bearly ridden. Get the bike in good repair, make sure its running right and tires and brakes are good. Go over the the maintenence section in the factory manual or even the owners manual. Yoi can buy a shop manual from ebay and there are places to download ones for the 550's. Just make sure its a kawasaki factory manual not a Clymer or Haynes. Get used to the bike for a bit, then decide what you want to do with it.

Here is my 650 with "superbike" bars. I moved the tun signals to the head light mount and changed out the cables. You will also see the built up break line I was talking about.





These bars are a nice fit to the 650 IMO. F
The Euro bars will work to. Cafe racers usually have inverted bars... you may want to sit on your bike with your hands outstreched below the tripple tree and see if you think that is comfortable.... you may not like riding that way. But you need to drive it for a while and see what you like and dont like about it.

In this state they like to impound bikes for safety equipment violations. Not only do they, the towing people and the courts make money, You have to fit this stuff and have it signed off to ride it on the street again. Too many orphan bikes out there never to be on the road and loved again.
Steve

Thanks everyone for the advice. I will probably leave the turn signals on, at least until I find/make a set that don't look like alien eye stalks....

Front fender is probably staying, in just using the pic for reference. Atleast the inner rear fender will be staying, so the intake stays protected.

I figured I'd do pod filters since I need to rebuild the carbs anyway so I could do larger jets at the same time (98 main and 37 pilot?). Would it only be those two jets per carb that need to be drilled/replaced?



I started a bit of disassembly to get the carbs out and I found a couple things:

1. It's probably an 81 as that's what the old insurance card said, I went off what I'm assuming is the build date which is 80.

2. The battery exploded so everything is a nice powdery white under/around it.

3. Found a couple broken wires and about 100 butt connectors

4. Airbox had oil in it, about a shot glass worth or so. Guess I can do a compression test while everything is apart. From a quick search it seems it could be the valve seals, piston rings, or just overfilled oil.

5. 3 of the airbox side boots were rock hard and one was nice and soft, weird.

6. Engine side boots are still decently soft.


Questions:

Is the $28 carb kit on k1 all that's needed to rebuild each carb?

Oh and the chain has a ton of slack in it, its touching the frame. Yikes.

You can supposedly buy larger pilot jets now. I have a link on the TK22 website jet page. But I haven't actually bought any of those pilots.

The way to get a precise tune usually requires some fine needle adjustments. There is a page on that as well, describing the proper way to shim the needle.

You might get away with the 98/37 combo.

The rebuild kits don't include every single oring you might need, but they usually have the ones you are most likely to need.

Get some decent JIS screwdrivers or you will definitely mess up some screws on the carbs, and some of those are difficult to replace... most notably the throttle shaft screws.