'78 KZ1000 Ugly Duckling

Those handle bars look like something closer to drag bars. A superbike bar will have about a 2.5" rise and more pull back. IMHO i think the superbike bars complement the stock footrests quite well, and the taller rise will help with your too long cable issue. Personally, I would try to get the bike running and driving with the minimal amount of work at this point since its not too far off. Something else could enter the picture and the bike could need a top end rebuild or something else. No point on spending money on frosting if you don't have the cake!

DoctoRot wrote: Those handle bars look like something closer to drag bars. A superbike bar will have about a 2.5" rise and more pull back. IMHO i think the superbike bars complement the stock footrests quite well, and the taller rise will help with your too long cable issue. Personally, I would try to get the bike running and driving with the minimal amount of work at this point since its not too far off. Something else could enter the picture and the bike could need a top end rebuild or something else. No point on spending money on frosting if you don't have the cake!

Amen to that!

I have 3 kz1000s If you are in need of some parts , I might have some extras I wont be needing and will be open to making you a real deal on and Im not that far away in Western Colorado . feel free to give a haller for some stock parts.

I'll definitely keep you posted. Thanks so much!

Buzz Nichols wrote: bluej,

I've already ordered up son 4 into 1's and feel fine about them, but I'd like to be enlightened.

The pipes where they are cut off are enormous—66 mm id. It seemed to me I'd have to go through a couple steps of reducers to get to a diameter where slip-ons would work. Am I missing something that should be painfully obvious to me? It wouldn't be the first time.

You should be happy with the Delkevic,
the pipes are cut off before they flair out, mine are cut 3 inches past the cross over , I wish they were a half inch longer but they work fine, I butter them up with silicone before I slide them on the mufflers (no exhaust leaks)

Still waiting for a whole bunch of parts to come in the mail, so I figured I'd clean the carbs. After all:
1. I ddidn't really know their condition, but could reasonably assume from the outsides that they could use it.
2. I'm going to be rejetting them anyway
3. If you look at CL listings, every bike just needs a new battery and carb cleaning

So...

I totally realize this is going to sound and look like one of those dumb Youtube videos with a title like "amazing life hacks," but I decided before I sacrifice a toothbrush (and hours of my life), I'd try to make a soda blaster out of household (shop-hold?) items. After a few minutes on the interwebs, this is what I came up with:

I stuck the end of the tubing with the pencil taped to it (for rigidity) in a box of baking soda and sprayed a float bowl. About a minute later I had this:

...and a giant mess all over the shop. I know; I really should have foreseen that. So, after a little light housekeeping, I raided the place for some more everyday household items and made this:

From a Rubbermaid tote with a window cut in the lid and a piece of clear Plexiglas taped on it. That not only mitigated the mess (not eliminated—I think in the future I might only use this outdoors), it also allowed me to reclaim most of the soda.
I've got no doubt this isn't as efficient as a store-bought soda blaster, and the culinary soda I used isn't as aggresive as the stuff intended as a blast medium, but it cut the time and effort of cleaning these parts exponentially. For a few minutes' screwing around with crap I had hanging around the shop, I'm totally happy with it.

And it kept me entertained for a minute while I wait for my parts.

Bluej,

In the immortal words of Ed McMahon (or at least Phil Hartman as Ed McMahon), "You are correct, sir!"
I am indeed quite happy with the Delkevic system. It shipped fast and free, and was lovingly packaged:


And the companies that make bike parts have discovered what elementary teachers have known for years. People like to get stickers:

(That might say something about the maturity of folks who like to wrench on bikes)

They were a breeze to install, and I think they look pretty sharp:



Now if I can just get the rest of my parts, I'll get to hear how they sound.

Is that your personal shop, or a business?

Skidmark wrote: Is that your personal shop, or a business?

School. I teach English and shop classes—pretty much a dream job for me.

If students don't want to come up with their own projects, they wind up fiddling with my machines (often my evenings are spent un-fiddling). You might have noticed an '83 Honda Sabre project in the background of some photos; when I want students to switch gears and pick their own projects, I'll have them install or uninstall the carbs on that thing.

Funny I should have mentioned un-fiddling students' work. This afternoon I had a student curious about the workings of carbs and I had him start installing the new jets in the carbs for this bike. When I came back around, he had mistakenly installed one of the stock pilot jets that came with the rebuild kit rather than the #20's I had given him. I asked him to swap them out and, when he backed off the pilot jet he'd just put in, only half came out. I guess he must have torqued it down excessively.
So here I sit with no little left hand drill bits...because all the ones I used to have wound up snapped off in sheared-off bolts.
These days, every time something like this happens I hear the echo of every machinist I've ever known saying "This would've been cheap if you'd brought it in to me before you had two drill bits and an easy-out busted off in it."
And yet...
It's already got a little hole in it, and that's the part that usually goes wrong. It seems like a left hand bit alone should spin it out.
Thoughts?

you might be able to get it with a pick now that the head is gone and there is no torque on the threads.

Tried that pretty extensively yesterday. I think today I'll start with a little flat head screwdriver and a few gentle taps from a small hammer to make a slot I can grab onto. Coupled with judicious application of heat, maybe...