Really dumb question!

Am I a complete idiot, or did Kawasaki delete the kickstart on the 1980 KZ550? Electric start sucks.....when the starter is less than good.

my 82 was the last 750 that ive seen with one and even then it was optional

I totally agree with you and wish I had a kickstart. I think they dropped the kickstart on a lot of models in 1980.

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Woodsock ON Canada
1980 kz750E1, 4->1, K&N pods

I wish they would have kept the kickstart too. The last year for KZ1000's was 1980. 1981 was a whole new engine, the "J" series (except for the police bikes) and didn't have a kick starter. I'm not sure about the other size bikes.

btchalice wrote:

my 82 was the last 750 that ive seen with one and even then it was optional

I don't think that kickstart was ever an option on KZ's, it was standard or it was not available, one or the other. Your 82 must have been a 750 twin, the 750 twin had kickstart up through 83 (the last year for it), the 750 fours never had a kickstart, and the 650's lost theirs staring around 81-82 depending on model (when they went to the 750 four bottom end). I don't know about the 400/440's.

But there's always bump starting

Really dumb question?, cool, I usually have a really dumb reply. It's unfortunate that your bike doesn't have a kick start lever because I find that my bike starts very easily with the kick start, when it's cold, compared to a bunch of electric start cranking. Once the bike is warm though, it's just press the button and zipppp, instant start. Before I changed my very weak battery last year that kick starter was appreciated. Sure came in handy when my battery was on in its death throws.

The way I look at it is the only dumb ? is the ? that is never asked