I'm missing my KZ550.

So where do I begin. I recently moved from Wichita to Kansas City, Mo. KC and where I grew up and 98% of my family lives here. I brought my KZ up here about 6 weeks ago in preparation for the move. Just so you all know I've only be riding since October. This bike is my first, and dear goodness I'm still in the honeymoon stage of it. I rode it from Wichita to KC (just over 3 hours) one evening, making it my first long distance ride. I was on cloud nine.

It's been 6 weeks since I've seen it. I miss it like all get out, but since I'm up here and now have a job and a place to keep it I thought I'd go pick it up. My brother in law and I took off Monday evening to pick it up. I was hoping to ride it back, but I was prepared to put it on the back of his truck. We showed up to my friends house and began to look over the bike.

I lost a little oil, that's normal. All the cables are working. Brakes, throttle, clutch, everything is in working order. I turn the key and nothing. No lights or dials or anything comes out. Dang it. Lucky for us my buddy has a jump pack. We hook it up and it fired up but wouldn't stay on. Knowing I needed to charge the battery we fired it up and held the idle to just above 2k rpms for a few minutes. It stayed on but the lights would dim every few seconds. Even after letting it run for 10 minutes the lights wouldn't stay on, and the brake light was fading on and off. Something wasn't right, my baby has something wrong with it

With the wisdom of my buddy who is housing my bike (life time motorcycle rider) and my brother in law we decide it would be best to leave it and work on it there. When I turned the motorcycle off I realized how wise of a move that was. Everything went off, the instruments, the lights, everything. The battery wasn't holding a charge...

So all in all, I still don't have my KZ back yet, and now I need to replace the output shaft seal, top off the oil, and replace the battery.

Dear goodness I miss my baby. I'm keeping my urges satisfied by youtube and reading the forums, but nothing beats the rubble of a KZ and the wind blowing by you as you cruise down the road.

Replace the battery. These rides barely have enough juice to keep themselves running... let alone charge the battery. You were just straining the charging system. Try a new battery and let us know if you have any other problems.

I will. I'll post when I get it up and running again. What sucks is that this is the second time I've replaced the battery in 6 months, but I've learned my lesson. Disconnect the battery if I can't put it on a battery tender before I store it.

i use a scorpion battery in my 81 550 hasnt given me any issues. i did warrenty it out because it wasnt holding a charge while i was still getting my bike road worthy. it was just dead for to long to bring back or something like that. i also just got a gopro and started to make some ride videos on youtube might help with the ride itch.

2 new batteries in 6 months! Then you have other problems. Next time you get it running measure if it is charging right and check for shorts. 6 month old battery should accept a charge.

Cruckel wrote: I will. I'll post when I get it up and running again. What sucks is that this is the second time I've replaced the battery in 6 months, but I've learned my lesson. Disconnect the battery if I can't put it on a battery tender before I store it.

What you should be doing is fixing the problem. The battery in my bike has been there going on three years now, with no battery tender and no disconnecting, and it fires right up every spring.

Lithium Iron battery love here

Oh that will happen too.