Mods for touring

alright why do they make those dished out seats if they arent comfy? when you look at like goldwings and voyagers and such they all have wide dished out seats like that.
on my stock seat i dont really move around much. maybe shift my weight a little but never really scoot forward or backwards.
not trying to stir up an argument or anything just trying to get helpful advice before spending money on something that might not be the best for me.

wait.... 10,000 miles. just one of your 10,000 mile trips. how many where there?
that is more miles than a lot of riders put on in a lifetime let alone one trip.

Oldwolf wrote:

Something like this from the Factor?

I am setting up a Suzuki GS1100 shafty, which is Suzuki's version of the LTD, to look similar to this KZ1000. The Vetter bags are very reasonable on E-bay right now, and are period correct for your bike. I just picked up a Vetter Windjammer fairing with a CB/AM/FM combo radio for $50.00 on E-bay Saturday. I have air shocks front and rear, but would like some highway bars extended forward as much as possible for the long hauls. I will agree on the comfortable seat, which is one of the most important things when touring. I have never had a bike with a fairing before, but I like the protection from the elements. I am turning this bike the total opposite of my Z1, which is my hellraising superbike.

I rode the MKII as pictured basically from 1984 to 1991 on trips. I just lived to ride back then. I started on the KZ650 in 1980 and rode 2000 miles, then in 1981 3200 miles on a trip. As mentioned KZ650s are no good on trips so in 1982 I bought a new GPZ1100 and planned to ride from CO to Connecticut all stock as a 21 yr old kid. That was a fantasic motorcycle on the road. Next yr I thought I'd go one better and ride down to Jacksonville, FL and up to NJ and back. Unfortunately GPZ1100 was worn out after that, so got the 79 KZ1000MKII and rode my 4000-5000 mile trip each year down to Florida and around from 1984-88, then in 1989 I thought it would be fun to ride to Louden, NH for the motorcycle weekend, then out to Sonoma, CA from there for the Nascar roadrace the next weekend. That went smooth so in 1990 I thought I'd go all out and do the USA 4 corners tour, so off from CO to the tip of Maine, Key west florida, San Ysidro CA, then Blaine Wash and home. 10300 miles in 13 days. 1991 I thought I'd do a different routt, go to Key West first, then up to Maine, then stay in the USA and go up north all the way over to Wash, back to San Ysidro and home. 10800 miles. All went smooth as glass. I hit like 200 miles of rain in 21000 miles on those two trips. Fantastic and zero problems on the KZ1000MKII. I always did kind of have a feeling I'd die on the road pushing the way I did as I only got 2 weeks vacation a yr. Come 1992, my boss dies and I'm a one man show and my vacation days are done for good, but I had one heck of a ride.

:ohmy:
Im jealous.

wow...i guess thats some miles....great picture...beautiful mk 11RonKZ650 wrote:

I rode the MKII as pictured basically from 1984 to 1991 on trips. I just lived to ride back then. I started on the KZ650 in 1980 and rode 2000 miles, then in 1981 3200 miles on a trip. As mentioned KZ650s are no good on trips so in 1982 I bought a new GPZ1100 and planned to ride from CO to Connecticut all stock as a 21 yr old kid. That was a fantasic motorcycle on the road. Next yr I thought I'd go one better and ride down to Jacksonville, FL and up to NJ and back. Unfortunately GPZ1100 was worn out after that, so got the 79 KZ1000MKII and rode my 4000-5000 mile trip each year down to Florida and around from 1984-88, then in 1989 I thought it would be fun to ride to Louden, NH for the motorcycle weekend, then out to Sonoma, CA from there for the Nascar roadrace the next weekend. That went smooth so in 1990 I thought I'd go all out and do the USA 4 corners tour, so off from CO to the tip of Maine, Key west florida, San Ysidro CA, then Blaine Wash and home. 10300 miles in 13 days. 1991 I thought I'd do a different routt, go to Key West first, then up to Maine, then stay in the USA and go up north all the way over to Wash, back to San Ysidro and home. 10800 miles. All went smooth as glass. I hit like 200 miles of rain in 21000 miles on those two trips. Fantastic and zero problems on the KZ1000MKII. I always did kind of have a feeling I'd die on the road pushing the way I did as I only got 2 weeks vacation a yr. Come 1992, my boss dies and I'm a one man show and my vacation days are done for good, but I had one heck of a ride.

im kinda sidetracking my own thread here but what did you do for oil changes and stuff like tires and chains. you must have put in some pretty long days to do those kinda miles.

I just got a set of floorboards that were made by M/C Enterprises. I was told they came off of a KZ1100 Shaft drive. I had to make a mount to go from the old foot peg position to the rear mount of the floorboards. Other than that they bolt right up. They take some getting used to, but I think I'm going to like them. They let your feet move several inches forward, which helps when my old hip gets a catch in it.

I put a police solo seat on my bike as a temporary seat while I redo the original seat, but I like it so much, I may just keep it.

I have a National Cycle windshield which helps with the wind blast, but it is a little small. I'm looking for a Harley type windshield that I can adapt. The spacing on the forks is 7.5 inches and the fork diameter is 38 mm. It's kinda hard to get those specs out of the windshield catalog. I need to find one that I can physically look at and see if I can make it fit.

88alltrac wrote:

im kinda sidetracking my own thread here but what did you do for oil changes and stuff like tires and chains. you must have put in some pretty long days to do those kinda miles.

I get 50-60,000 miles out of a chain, so that was never a problem. Tires need to be brand new before a 10000 mile trip, after the trip they are completely worn out. I used Golden Spectro synthetic blend oil and I don't know for sure if it was any better than regular oil, but went the entire trips without changing oil and had no problems. I would get up at 2:00 AM every morning and head out and after 800 miles start looking for a Motel 6 or the like. Strange thing for me was the farther I went I really never got tired. About 7 in the morning I'd start getting tired, by then I'd have 300-350 miles covered, stop at Mcdonalds and get a cheap breakfast and back on the road no longer tired. About 11 I'd start getting tired again at probably 550-600 mile mark and stop for lunch. After that the miles would just roll by and I would never get tired rolling up 900-1000 miles some days. We also have the 1000 in 24hr endurance rides here in CO each summer that were a good ride too. The Goldwing guys would ride the 1000 miles and be all tired just like they ran the marathon. Just another days ride for me.