kz400 consultation

im need some advice, my whole thought process on how long itd take to rebuild the engine on my 750 and get it on the road this summer obviously wasnt all there. so its in pieces and im still waiting on more parts to arrive to finish a little bit of this before even starting in on that. so i have a little spare cash lying around and its so hard to find something used cheap right now. i cruised over to iowa city motorsports the other day with my buddy to see what the dealer had and saw a little 76 kz400. the paint was badly sun faded and it had a huge ugly backrest sissy bar. i pointed and asked how much they wanted. $900!! doesnt this seem a little ridiculous?? i know it needs a new chain and sprockets. i live in a little rural town and commute about 40-50 miles a day if not more if i drive down to iowa city (which i do regularly) and am wondering if the 400 would be able to speed along at 70+ mph?? im also dickering with this guy on his 95 suzuki savage 650 and wonder if that would be too small to drive on the interstate at interstate traffic speeds, which is always 10 mph faster than the posted speed. anyone have any insight as far as the kz and savage go as to which one is more freeway friendly?

Hmmm, 70+ mph might be pushing it on a 400. My 400 will be up to 6500 rpms at 75 mph and it much prefers to go minus 65 mph. Plus if you have any hills along the route you can forget getting over 70 mph at all. I've heard others here saying they've had better performance...just my experience.

As far as price goes....I'm a litte biased. I paid $600 for my kz400, but I put over $600 getting it into shape and running good, so when I get to graduate to a 4 cylinder (when my wife lets me ) I'm probably going to be asking around $900.

I got my first, highly modified (cosmetically) 76 KZ400 from a member here for about 400 bucks and sold it to another member for the same price. My current 76 KZ400, also with an ugly sissy bar, was free. I'm sure I'll go close to a grand in before it's up and running, though.

I run my 400 between 60-665 on my commute, and haven't felt much need to get it higher. $900 seems high, but I got mine for free.

IIRC back in 76 a KZ400 S sold for about $999.00 brand new, the deluxe model with front disc brake, electric start, dual exhaust, chrome fenders and a tachometer was a few hundred more. So $900.00 for a bike that needs work is retarded. Also if you have ever spent any time riding your 750 you will hate every minute you spend on a KZ400. You might have some fun with a 550 though and I've seen decent ones sell for less than a grand.

The Gringo wrote:

the deluxe model with front disc brake, electric start, dual exhaust, chrome fenders and a tachometer was a few hundred more.

I didn't realize that there was a deluxe model...are those what distinguished the two? I have to check on a tach (obviously have done nothing with the bike since it was droped off) but I definitely have an electric start, dual exhaust (no longer stock, though) a front disk and chrome fenders. Deluxe...who knew? Now, if I had 35 cents to go along with it I could make a phone call.

Yep Talman I looked at your bike pic in the gallery and you have the D model with what appears to be original paint. They also came in metallic brown that year as well. The S model came with no electric start, a drum brake in the front, no tachometer, and a two into one exhaust. It also had silver gray painted fenders and the tank and side covers were a hideous shade of pink. It was pretty much meant to be a price leader to suck people in the door with a low price, once there most people opted to spend the extra money for the D model.

Gracias for the information.

I wouldn't say he will "hate" the bike. you just need to be in a "400" state of mind when your riding. they are not super fast or the greatest handling bikes, but when they are properly tuned they are very reliable and darn fun. as far as price i have never payed more than 100 dollars for one, but then again none of them ran when i got them. funny thing with these are they are "starter" bike, so the original owner would ride it for a few years then upgrade and the 400 would be back to the corner for a few decades. most of mine are under 10,000 miles and the 75' has less than 2,000. the carbs will get dirty from sitting, then of course it runs like crap and the prices drop. i would say 900 is too much, keep looking
oh! and i looked high and low to get a "S" model, god does it suck! kickstart only? whose bright idea was that one? ya you look cool kicking it, but a 5 year old could hand start it. and the front drum only works in theory.

Post edited by: flht1997, at: 2007/09/14 21:27

I was looking on ebay this morning and found a pic of an original condition 400S up for sale. Isn't that an attractive shade of pink guys? What was mother Kaw thinking?

cottoncandyninja wrote:

... i pointed and asked how much they wanted. $900!! doesnt this seem a little ridiculous?? i know it needs a new chain and sprockets.

That's high IMHO. Does it need tires? Get the date code off of them if they aren't already dry rotted. chain & sprockets aren't that bad but if the paint is badly faded then it has sat outside a lot and will probably have rust/electrical issues plus dry rotted rubber parts.

i live in a little rural town and commute about 40-50 miles a day if not more if i drive down to iowa city (which i do regularly) and am wondering if the 400 would be able to speed along at 70+ mph??

You may be able to address some of the high rpm's to speed issues by replacing the gear and sprockets with different tooth ratios but remember that a drop at the top means a drop at the bottom so it may be slow as heck when you twist the throttle.

Check out Ivar's KZ400 site if you want to know all there is to know about 400's.

www.kz400.com/

For a KZ400 to be worth $900 it should be in extremely good condition. I personally could never see myself paying that much for a 400 in the condition you have described. For that price (or even less) you should be able to get a decent rideable late '70s/early '80s 4-cylinder bike in the 500-650cc range that will let you cruise at your desired speed. In the late '90s I commuted 10 miles on the interstate on my '73 CB500 and it kept up with traffic just fine. Check ebay , your local CraigsList , and CycleTrader for bargains. The search engines at ebay & CycleTrader let you narrow the search to your geographic area.

In fact, here are 3 ads from your local CL that may be of interest:
85 Honda Shadow 500 - $1200
82 Yamaha Maxim 750 - $1000
81 gl1100 goldwing - $1100

There are plenty of good bikes at good prices out there, you just have to do a little digging to find them.