Bike of the Month.

I've been offline for a while and only just noticed June's bike of the month. Thanks for all the comments! 15,000km later and still going strong.

A couple of nice bikes since then as well. Nice work guys!

It's that time again, staying stateside this month for a real nice 550 Zephyr from Paul (stereordinary) I think this is a fantastic example of another old bike saved from the "crusher" and turned into a sweet unique ride without "blowing the kids college fund"Bike: 1990 Kawasaki ZR550 Zephyr w/Wiseco 615cc Big Bore Kit - Nickname: Goldie BrownIn March of last year I found this bike for sale on Craig's List in Seattle for the princely sum of $100, clean title included. It was listed as a parts/project bike, and I thought I could use it as such for the Zephyr 550 I already had. A friend of mine happened to be headed to Seattle the very next day, so I contacted the seller, handled the bill of sale via email, and late in the evening took delivery of the bike. It looked pretty rough, and at first I was pretty sure it was just going to be used for spare parts. But there were some interesting signs, such as how clean the carbs were (they came neatly rolled in a towel in a plastic bin with a bunch of other parts), and how clean the inside of the tank was (despite the outside being very bad), amongst other things. I started wiping it down, reassembling a few things, and pretty soon felt fairly confident that the bike had potential to come back together and be ridden again.As hard as I tried to focus on the mechanical stuff, the part of me that likes shiny objects took over at some point, and I refinished it. The tank and all of the fairings were sanded down to raw metal/plastic, and shot with an epoxy sealer, then high-build primer, blocked until flat, more epoxy sealer, then the first color (gold), a thin layer of clear, flattened again, then masked, the second color (brown), and finally a bunch of clear on top of that. Everything was wet-sanded to 2000 grit, and hand polished with a rubbing compound and microfiber towel. Yes, I do have some painting experience, but this was very DIY and my equipment was very minimal. There was sort of two stages in the effort to get it running. At first it was getting the top end back together while checking cam timing and valve clearances, picking up a few replacement parts such as OEM handlebars, petcock, and an ignition key, and repairing some things like the gauge/meter plastics and a shorted-out turn signal relay. At this point I was ready to start it up. The seller told me it had been ten years since the bike last ran, but three months after purchasing her, she was ready to ride.After a couple hundred miles though, I was increasingly concerned about a leak that appeared to be coming from one of the cylinder head gaskets. Doing any kind of engine rebuilding work was a completely new thing to me, but I excited to try. And it just so happened that a good deal on a Wiseco big bore kit with an already bored out cylinder block from an '82 GPZ550 fell into my hands. I had originally intended to install it on my other bike, but since this one had to come apart anyway, I let a friend convince me to go for it. The culprit of the leak turned out to be a low quality non-OEM cylinder base gasket. Everything besides the big bore kit parts was replaced with OEM, and I fixed a few other things while I was doing the job, including a loose output sprocket plate, a broken off oil pan bolt, and some missing exhaust collars. Additionally, I removed the resonance chamber and "derestricted" the exhaust. All along the way at various stages some other things happened like rebuilding the rear brake calliper with new seals and pads, rebuilding and painting the front forks, swapping the front brake from my other bike over (it had been fully rebuilt with new lines a few years ago), installing a fender delete kit, a European-spec cam cover (no emissions ports), and a bunch of other little details. The airbox has been modified, and the carbs re-jetted as well.It's a great bike. Top speed is definitely higher than my stock 550, and it's a ton of fun. After all that work though, I'm actually selling it. In fact by the time this gets to BOTM it may already be gone, I have an interested party coming to see it tomorrow. Everyone keeps saying it's worth more than I'm asking, and I don't know if that's true, but it's nice to hear. They always ask me why I would sell this one and not my other bike, and all I can say is that I'm more emotionally bonded to the other one. Arguably this is the better bike of the two, but I guess in that way it's also worth more, and I've overspent on too many things this past year. Funny how that works. 

Nice save stereordinary! That could have easily just rusted away in the corner of someones shed. 

Thanks guys! It's an honor. 

Nice save. I always loved the zephyr line up. Retro style.  Well done.

One of the best bike re-birth, from the junk yard back on to the street again!
The paint job and color design is brilliant!!!

Well done!  Great color scheme.

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

Excellent results!

Beautiful job—well deserved honors!

Great Job bring a bike back from the grave.
What's next ?
Dave