How far have you all ridden your old KZs (on 1 trip)

Damn, I feel like a light weight now. The longest one I did, was a 180 mile one last summer with kzwolf, and link up to northern colorado. It was a blast, and I hope to do a bunch this year too.

Thanks for all the replies, every one I read I get more pumped for the trip! Glad I did a good one over on the bike today though. I noticed it running kind of weird coming home from work (45 or so miles), so I did some poking around. The first thing I noticed is that I lost one of the seat pins....that could have been bad. Fixed that. Then, while I was pulling the right side cover off to fix the seat, I noticed that my IC igniter was just resting on the frame...both bolts had vibrated out. Buying a bottle of loctite tomorrow (old stuff leaked and dried up:( ). Then, I kept digging and found that the packing( or sealing, or gasket...the little fiberglass piece that seals it up) has come out of the right exhaust coupler. gonna fix that tomorrow when everything is nice and cool. I dont understand why my bike is falling apart all of a sudden, I do all of my regular maintenance. Oh well, better to find all of this out now than next week on the road.

From central South Dakota to Cedar Grove (near Jackson) Tenn. 1000 miles one way, ignition switch burned (from running with headlight on??) out about 300 miles from Cedar Grove. Sitting in the parking lot of a small Mom & Pop cafe we (wife and myself) pulled the switch and hot wired it to get to destination. Picked up a new one in Lexington Tenn. Switched the lock after we got home so that one key fit all the locks again. Two days on the road each way, that was the only road trip we took on the bike together.:laugh: Probably better that way!! :silly:

First off: dang, that's a big-ass picture! :laugh:

Since you're talking 550: I took my 82 GPz550 from L.A. to Lake Tahoe and took windy less-travelled roads and averaged just a tick less than 90mph...can you say "no police"? Anyway, I didn't experience any 'buzziness' and that was over 500 miles one way. It was a gas, the 550 mill has plenty of power and you'll be just fine.

Take LOTS of pics and have a good time!

-KR

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There's a guy on the Jeep website that's kind of the same thing as KZrider except it involves Jeeps that rode a scooter on a 10,000 mile trip from Alaska, all over the USA and back to Alaska. I guess scooters come in all shapes and sizes too, but who'd attempt that? KZ550 all the way.

If you are riding in the heat, make sure you stay well hydrated. I rode 600 miles in a day down the length of Spain (on a GT750)in 90 degree to 100 degree temperatures and didn't realize how dehydrated I became - I felt awful for a couple of days afterwards.

Yeah, I'm going buy a camelback for the trip, being a paramedic I know how much heat can screw you up. Heat exhaustion is not fun:( I'll defiantly take lots of pics and post a thread when I get back.

My longest 1 day ride was 450 miles; 315 should present no problem at all. Having made numerous 300+ mile one way trips, I found that earplugs help reduce fatigue. This has nothing to do with exhaust noise (my bike has stock exhaust and is fairly quiet at 70 mph), but the noise associated with wind on the helmet (I have no fairing). The helmet/wind noise is not obvious during normal trips, (I don't normally wear earplugs) but on a long trip it the subtle noise works away in the background to tire you out. Try this, use the earplugs on the way to your destination, and don't use them on the way home. You will become a believer. Drive safe, and if you get tired take a rest! Ed

I rode with a group on this marathon trip a while back. We did 790 miles the first day. Very tired. Then about 500 the next and 300 the next. I have a windshield and have changed gearing for the highway. I find that ear plugs do reduce fatigue on the highway, but I do not use them in town. I use a camelback in warm or hot weather.

Your 317 mile trip should be good. Keep the bike well maintained. Stop every hour or two. Try to be well rested. These are wonderful old bikes. Hope your trip is great. Be safe.

Bill Baker
1982 KZ 650 CSR

The farthest I have managed to go was about 180 miles. My only problem was the damn bugs. The whole front of my riding jacket was covered in bug guts and I had to pull over a couple times to clean off the visor of my helmet (full face) cause I couldn't see out of it.

About 20 years ago my wife and I had to go check some apartments being built that we were goung to manage and we took my bike the 220 miles one way. Stayed a couple hours and came back. So 440 in one day for me...