Z1000R 1983. Worth saving?

Baldy

Your bike is very very neat. Well done it looks great! Shoot man hope I can do the same man.

Regards

Thanks and just take your time and do not get into a rush to finish. It took me 15 years to get mine to where it is today.

Absolutely worth the price for an ELR even if motor is pooched. Great find.. Oh it will cost some money to restore but you will have a real one for a good price when all said and done
Barney

. An easy and quick check to see if it's a real ELR is to take a look at the rear rim. It should be an 18X2.50, the standard size for KZ1000 is 18x2.15. Kawasaki used the 18x2.50 on the ELR's and Police bikes. ...and the GPz1100 B2and 1000j3 I think. An ELR must have an R in the vin. Beware there is a lot of lawson rep 'replicas' about, paint it green, scoop the seat and change the badges

Fire damaged bikes are difficult restorations , my ELR was fire damaged too. A lot of donor parts can come from the 1000J and GPz1100 but some genuine R parts are virtually impossible to find, genuine seats for example.

Fire will likely have destroyed all the difficult to find bits: wiring looms, plastics, electronics, clocks, fuel tank, seat etc etc etc, You'll be ebaying and searching for very rare parts for years to come.

I guess an ELR is worth £5000 plus in uk, maybe double for a minter but they don't often come up for sale.

The frame and yokes has different geometry, so there is more to an ELR than just marketing hype. They are probably among the most sought after later kawasaki collector's bikes and well worth having, just this will be much harder to restore.

Hi Barney

Thank you for your post, yes I am keeping her for sure. Kawasaki South Africa confirmed today that she is 1983 ELR. Like Baldy said just gonna take my time and enjoy restoring her. Got a lot of spares with the bike like bikini fairings seats tanks, but no gauges. If I have time tomorrow I will post more pics of the bike.
Regards

As Tyrell says. The plastic and wiring will pose a problem. Yahoo auctions Japan has a brand new wiring harness for your bike. However,you will need someone to read Japanese to deal with them though. A standard J wiring harness may work but wont have side stand switch . shouldn't be a deal breaker. Aftermarket seat cover using a J or GPZ seat base and modified foam takes care of that. Fuel tank can be tricky. Just be patient and check ebay daily.. PS. check out KZ1000R.com for additional details
cheers
Barney

Hi
Thanks for the info, yes it was confirmed to be a ELR 1983. I understand that it will take years and lots of money, at the end of the day its something that I would like my son to have(he is only 7 now). And I enjoy working on bikes so it might take me 5 or 10 years but Im in no hurry, thank you for all the info you posted, there aint to many ELR's in South Africa so I owe it to my country,(thats what I told the Mrs. Anyhow).-

Barney

Thank you for the info, Balls to the wall, im going for it! Thanks for the advice, will keep posting progress and questions if you guys dont mind.

Regards

The gpz' s and J models had the 18x2.15 rims.

Thx for the pics, they are the coolest bikes man. I also own a 1000 St and a 1000A4 (I think.

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configuration

baldy110 wrote: The gpz' s and J models had the 18x2.15 rims.

Are you sure? Mayeb the uk and euro models were a different spec.




Aftermarket seat cover using a J or GPZ seat base and modified foam takes care of that.

But sooo difficult to get 'just'right. I've been through around half a dozen different seats trying to get one that looks right from all angles, I even got a motorcyle seat maker to do a one off -total rubbish. (from Birmingham area uk, ryhmes with wagon...avoid)