While I'm glad our more seasoned members have had good luck with their kick start only bikes it doesn't counter the fact I've seen lots of broken kick starters over the years on street bikes. It maybe due to the owner is too lazy or cheap to buy a new battery, a bad charging system, a bad starter clutch or a dead starter I thought it a mistake KHI removing it all together on the later bikes. When I saw the Z1R had the lever bolted under the seat I said to myself "Here it comes,"
Sure enough they removed it although they made the starter assy. harder to get to.
Instead of just pulling the starter or the clutch and rotor on the bigger fours the smaller ones are a lot more work to get to. Though I feel the KZ 750 twin motor is fugley I was happy to see the starter assy. is easy to get to. Kinda like my 350 Honda was.
As for the cams running in bare aluminum heads one oiling system problem can ruin a perfectly good head along with the lower end. That happened on my Honda but the cam rides in two end caps that are easily changed. Bare heads seem to be the standard with other makes and smaller Kaws. Planned obsolescence.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
I didn't know this when I bought my Z! but it being totally rebuildable has kept it on the road through today.
Best investment I ever made. Like I said:
"The best of both worlds, speed, utility and vintage cool."
Steve