Bought a 1988 KZ1000P

Got it home...

First impression... Geeze I thought my KZ750 was a real bike but this beautiful beast makes my KZ750 look like a child's toy... This isn't an iron pony, it's not even an iron horse... THIS is an iron stallion!

Setton wrote: ThatGPzGuy, i jyst noticed that you're in Atlanta. I'm not far from there. I'm in Barrow County and work in Gwinnet County.
I met a guy at a bike meet at Victory Sandwiches, in i think it was Decatur, who has a KZ1000P. Don't suppose that could have been you?

No That was not me. I'm further north near Lake Lanier. Your KZP looks pretty good. I don't think I've seen the Kawasaki Police star decal on the tank before.

I'm in Winder, and work in Dacula, so I'm not far from Lake Lanier.

I bought some CHP replica stars (that say Kawasaki Police 1000 instead of California Highway Patrol) and i plan on replacing the stars on the tank with the new ones. I've shown it to a number of Gwinett and Barrow county cops, and one GA state trooper, and they don't have a problem with the stars, as long as it doesn't say police in big enough letters to read from a distance, and as long as I don't go installing illegal equipment. Also the fact that the stars can't be seen from the front helps.

One also told me to do what I'm already doing, deny being a cop when asked, and don't act like I am one... I don't really plan on doing anything beyond the stars and keeping the paint stock. Also maybe riding in parades. I've also considered looking into doing funeral escorts, but I think I want a lot more practice and maybe go to police academy before I do that (and this bike is seriously inspiring me to go do that, but I need to get myself in shape first).

Just need to find a way to remove the old Tennessee stars without damaging the paint.

I've got some better pics now that I got it home



and also a better pic of the star on the left side. There's a dent just forward of the left star.



Also the rear bars are bent to the right (one of the reasons I got it so cheap) and it's throwing off the floating carrier for the radio box, making it shift to the left. I'm going to see if I can't replace the rear bars with ones that aren't bent. Most people don't notice but it's driving me batty.



The above photo showing the bent frame is at a friend's house in Knoxville the day I bought the bike. We went over it with a fine tooth comb... tire pressure, chain slack, wheel alignment, triple tree and fork alignment, went over every switch and electrical bit, and found some electrical glitches. When I can, I'm going to try to find some NOS hand controls because I have rather dorky, but perfectly legal plans for the siren and pursuit switches. Basically gonna hook up speakers so the siren switch plays the CHiPs theme song on demand.

It rides straight and I can find no evidence of a bent frame (and I checked very thoroughly). I'm fairly certain the PO bent them by dropping it hard. He said he hurt his hip right after buying it and tried to take the radio box off and ride it sitting on that, then had to ride it side saddle... That sounds like "and then I dropped it and never rode it again" is left unspoken.