Why did you get a KZ?

I sold my jeep when i moved to arizona, cause it wasn't in good shape for the drive. When i got here, my girlfriends brother in law said i could use this street bike which had just been sitting in his garage, which happened to be a 650SR. He asked me if i wanted to take it out for a spin and if i'd ever ridden a street bike... i said sure i'd ridden :S (a scooter in europe when i was like 10) but i remembered all the shifting and stuff. so arround the block i went... a few times :lol: and lo and behold it crapped out on me.

Now i'm about $500 into it with new coils, points, condensers, chain/sprockets, cables, and various other stuff, and if i mow his lawn a couple more times, i'll have a title to it :laugh:

Both times when I ended up buying a KZ, I wasn't specifically looking for a KZ, just a bike. Both times the KZ was the right bike in the right place at the right price, so I guess it's fate. That KZ400 was a real warhorse. Not only did it get me through college, but it taught me a lot about wrenching on bikes. Those lessons served me well when I bought a beater Honda CB500 after my divorce in '96 (wifey had convinced me to sell the 400 when we got married after college; you know the story). I got my KZ1100 only a few weeks ago on ebay at a very reasonable price. It had just 8700 miles on it when I got it. I didn't know it at the time, but I sure know it now: it's the bike of my dreams. I love my 1100 and can't imagine ever selling it.

Moved closer to the city (Washington, DC) and was afraid my new ZX10 would sooner or later get stolen. So, I decided to head retro -- KZ900 retro.

I like the looks, but am not hooked by the KZ yet.

Believe I have found that in my heart of hearts I am an engineering junky and '76 just doesn't trip the farout trigger. Now, the new R1 does f'sho.

Going to give the KZ until next summer to see if it doesn't grow on me a little more.

Because my choices were try to look young on a newer crotch rocket,try to look big and bad on a harley or try to be me on a KZ!!!Just somehow fit!!!

How I ended up with my 650C2 went kinda like this:
Three years ago at a bike parts swap meet I bought a factory KZ650 manual because the price was right and there's always new tricks to learn from ANY factory service manual, even if you don't own that particular bike. As well, the printed word is not subject to hard drive crashes or ISP outages, etc etc and of course, like a lotta guys, I'm an inveterate pack-rat....and proud of it.
I had no intention of searching out and buying ANY Kwakker four stroke, nice as they are. To me, the Big K is all about strokers...always has been, always will.
(My salad days were spent hanging with H1 and H2 riders....although my four-stroke "blinders" wouldn't allow me to see the advantages of strokers UNTIL I went to work turning wrenches at a Suzuki dealer in the Fall of 1972.)
However.....this past May, I made the deal on my KZ650C2 and now own the bike in the service manual I bought at the swap meet. Is life strange, or what!!??!! Coincidence, you say ?? Well, I'm going looking for a factory manual for an RG500 Walter Wolf Rep....just in case the coincidence wants to repeat itself.
Come to think of it, I also have the factory manual
for the A1/A7/early H1. Hmmmm.....could there be an A7SS in my future??? '69 H1 too ??
One never knows, do one ??!!??
The 650 has won my heart over after riding her for these past 4 months. Even with such low mileage (she had 1400 miles on the clock when I got her) she's still a Kawi and has definitely got her own personality. An absolute laff-riot to ride, I enjoy every minute I'm on her. It's been quite awhile since I've spent any amount of time on a mid-weight four cylinder four stroke so she really turns the clock back for me. As you can see from my sigline, I've got 4 bikes to choose from anytime I want to go riding...
but, darn it, it seems I pick the 650 about 75% of the time. Heck, I never even took the H2 out of storage this summer because I got the 650......and I'm a dedicated stroker nut....so the 650 MUST have cast some kind of spell over me.:laugh: :laugh:

because my dear departed dad bought a 74z1 off the showroom floor of kawasaki east in victor,ny and he hated it!
he always said it would never start and was the biggest pos he ever owned.
he is such a sob for trading it in!
today it would be worth bank!

but for real,

after dad died on his bike i swore i would never ride again.
i have more miles logged riding bitch then i do in the saddle.
11 years later, a friend was moving to florida and wanted $250 for the 650.
i filed the points and rode it home.
been hooked since.

now the 650 has been promised to my younger brother and will never leave the family.

i will never foresake my first bike or my love for the kz's

and a big thanks to all of you who taught me how to keep her going.

i could name the most important people but i don,t want them to get a swelled head.
plus, so many others helped me the list would be too long.

thanks everyone!

Why? Cause Harleys are oversized, underpowered, overpriced and sound like lawn mowers.

I bought my z650b2 in April '79, the ad campaign called it the 750 eater and when I saw the blue one in the shop window I had to have it.....
Bike has changed a bit since then and been all over Southern Africa and now in Australia.
Love this bike, I will never sell her...

I bought my KZ simply on luck ... I guess. On my way to work one day last winter I noticed a old bike sitting behind a house. I couldn't tell what it was exactly ... just that it appeared to be a mid-size bike and that it was black .... it sat there and sat there and sat there .... well one day early this past summer I decided to stop and see what it was and what condition it was in and if it was for sale .... turns out it was a 1980 KZ750 LTD H model. We got the old girl running ... I took a quicky test drive ... and $600 later I had my first KZ and several boxes of spare parts !!! The only other Kawi I've ever owned was a KLR200.

This pic was taken the first day I stoped to check it out behind the old fellas house ...


And now 3 months or so later ...


Hope to get a new set of chrome headers this winter ... don't like the crappy rattle can painted rust pitted MAC that's on it now. Hey it's only money right ???

Post edited by: KZCSI, at: 2007/09/26 09:19

in 78 my dad took me for my first night ride on the back of his 750 mach 4 with a few of his mates, to the local drive-in to see mad max. I thought the gosling one was the coolest bike i had ever seen and decided I had to have one. In 88 I bought my z1000a and me and my dad fixed it up and its been my everyday ride ever since. I have put it down the road 3 times and each time me and my dad have fixed it up. I still ride with my dad, we work at the same place and we clock up a 100miles a day on the round trip. What other bike can you do that for twenty years on? Nothing!!

Lapse of judgement. :evil:
I must have fell and hit my head :silly:

Nah,calm down people, just rattling your cages a little!!

I'm a cheap whore when it comes to cheap motorcycles. I bought my 76 900 for $100. It was one of the best finds I have yet to come across.
Fish

my KZ was my first vehicle... i got kicked out at 16, and my parents wouldn't sign for my driver's lisence... so i had to drive illegally until i was 18 - on my 18th birthday I bought my ex GF's dad's 77kz1000 for a grand - paid him cash. rode that bitch so damn hard, laid it down a bunch of times, fixed it, painted it... rode it 100 mi to work every day all the way through the winter. still have it, never will get rid of it. don't care if I'm starving, haha!