BUYER BEWARE !!

The shot of the rear looks like the tail and the seat are cocked (seat has a rash as well as the muffler). Could just be the photo but I don't think so. Also, is that the European back fender (longer than USA). Maybe it just looks long cause there is no plate. I wouldn't kick it out of bed tho!

Nice bike, not sure about those bars.

It's not the euro rear fender - the euro fender has the rear reflector at the end of it. This bike is missing its grab rails though. Can't comment on the speedo as I have a '77 mph speedo and a '78 kph speedo on my bikes.

I'm going to look later at the speedos in more detail. I have 3 77s and one of them the speedo glass was broken on so I swapped on a 1978 speedo. That was 40,000 miles back. I'm sure I would have noticed the color different. I'm going to look.

Here's a shot of mine ('77 KZ650C1) for comparison. Ed

There's no doubt Ed's right and that's a 78 speedo. I looked at my 77s and sure enough they are black except for the one I swapped with a 78 speedo 13 yrs ago. Yes, I'm not too observant. 40,000 miles I never noticed they didn't match.
Ed? is you're redline really that red and not faded? If so that is quite an accomplishment after all these years.

RonKZ650 wrote: "Ed? is you're redline really that red and not faded? If so that is quite an accomplishment after all these years?"

It's really that red, but no real accomplishment on my part. It's a NOS tach that I snagged about 2 years ago. It's the same part as the original, but the red on the original tach faded to nearly white. I now keep it covered when not actually riding to try to prevent or at least slow the fading, but only time will tell. Ed

Question for you 650 guys...

Is that price ~ correct these days?

Or due to low mileage (odometer) this would enhance the sale.... I believe this is the topic but I'm more interested in what is considered a fair range for a KZ650 in decent shape....

NOTE: Nothing fancy, something similar in the image, stock configurations....

OMR asks: "Is that price ~ correct these days?"

The value of decent KZ650's seems to be escalating. Here are some that are in ok to very nice shape that recently sold on eBay:

130289811311

220372128822

280317563583

110357028860

260371896705

OMR, despite the speedo discrepancy and the Ltd bars, that one is about as good as they get. I think $2300 is too high right now. Around June of last year it may well have fetched that kind of money but with fuel prices having tumbled to less than half of last summer's high and seemingly staying low, I think the upper limit on it today is $1500 to $1800 tops.

I would guess that the going rate for a ready-to-ride 650 in decent, not exceptional, shape is in the $1.50 to $2/cc range tops. As much as I like the 650s, they'll never be in the Z1 collector class.

for a 73-75 Z1, no doubt, I get it and I understand their worth.... even for a 76 KZ900 or 77 plus KZ1000, have to give up a kidney any longer... :blink:

Here in Az it's ridiculous any longer and that's if your even lucky to find one...

Police special may be the way to go... strip her down...

650ed wrote:

Here are some that are in ok to very nice shape that recently sold on eBay:

Thats an interesting post - check out the gauge pics in the first four ads - especially the first two. It is then VERY clear that the gauges in the original post are mis-matched! The angle in the second link is very similar to that in the original.

Somebody is not being honest with us!

Not that it matters, but the deal with the part numbers is 1977 used the 25006-052 with black ring
1978 used the 25006-1012 with blue ring
1979 used the 25006-1037 blue ring and extra km/hr marks

1978 part was discontinued and replaced with 1979
1979 part was discontinued and replaced with 1977, so at this point all replacement speedos are 1977.
1977 part discontinued. So there's the story.