De-tune my KZ1000?

I bought a KZ1000 15 years ago for $800 from a friend who bought it , non-running, from a guy who drag raced it. I was told it was bored to a 1200 and I should run premium gas in it. I got it running(bad starter) and drove the bike about 500 miles and then it holed a piston. I took the top end apart and cicumstances forced me to put it in storage in a friends barn. Yesterday I went and picked it up, it hadn't been touched in 14 years and the tires still held air. In the last 15 years I've become an auto mechanic, so I brought the bike to work to check it out. The pistons are 2.990" with a huge dome and valve reliefs, the base gasket is copper and the headgasket was a graphite impregnated type, the head has some impressive looking porting/polishing, they have been ground for cam lobe clearance. I think it has a Wiseco 1197 13.5:1 kit on it. I don't know what the cams are. I'd like to use the bike on the street with readily available fuel. To return the bike to service as it was I'd need one new piston but I'm wondering if the bike would be more usable with a lower compression ratio. If I did de-tune it would I need different cams? How do I identify the cams?

Here's a pre-cleanup pic

seeing how it has atwo valve head i would drop the compression down to 10.5-1 wiseco makes those pistons 13.5-1 on the street running pump gas is just asking for trouble if you go with the less radical pistons the motor will be fast as hell still and wont build up crazy heat like the big compression will.i still would use premium gas in it the cams should have some id marks engraved in the end of the cam it might tell who made them and what grind they are also measure across the base circle and measure from the base circle to the top of the lobe and subtract the two and that will give you the lift. back to the pistons they might be hard to match as wiseco changes ring packages from time to time and those pistons are at least 15 years old so the rings might not even be available anymore. also if you buy a complete piston kit you will get gaskets new pins and rings and circlips so i'd go for new lower compression pistons.

Put some 10.5:1s in it and 435 cams and you will have a sweet street hot rod.

Jay

i like that a "sweet street hot-rod" almost a poet aren't you, jay

Poetry flows in his veins.

What Jay said ,,,,,

Here's a picture with the bike cleaned up a bit:


Here's a piston:


Here's the head clearanced for cam lobes:

Are those stock valve retainers?

Here're the carbs:


The cams say 'APE K435' on them and have 0.429" of lift. Any recommendations on piston kits?

Go to kzzone.com and get a set of 10.5-1 weisco. You already have the perfect cams and those look to be 33mm carbs. With the ported head, cams and 1197cc'c, that is a perfect set up.

Those are deffinatly VM33mm carbs. measure the bore id and see if it is round top to bottom front to back and side to side. see if u are too big for a new set of 1200 pistons.
u cannot bore any larger, but u can remove the sleeves and put in new ones ,and have them rebored.