Do I have a '76 or '77

The Virginia DMV states I have a '76, which is what I both thought and intended to purchased (got the bike a few months ago). I mean, it sure looks like a '76 -- single front rotor and rear drum brakes.

My State Farm agent tells me he is certain I have a '77 (so says their VIN decoder).

I do not have the bike stored locally, so I am not able to check the Kawai decal on the head of the frame.

Question:
Is there a way to decode the vin to tell for sure?

The # from the insurance card is Z1F109849.

Thanks
Phil

Someone else will know for sure,but i think 76 was the last year for the 900,and 77 was the first year for the 1000.
The v.i.n. on the steering stem for My 1000 says it's a 76(made late in the year)but it IS a 77.

I can't help you either, but they did make some KZ900A5 models for 1977. As far as I know there is no differences at all between a 1976 and a 1977 KZ900A

Circusnuts:

The following info is from www.zedder.com

You have a Japan manufactured 1976 KZ900A4 based on the frame VIN. If it was a USA assembled bike, the leading number of the frame VIN would be a '5'. Since the A5 (1977) model was only assembled in the USA, all KZ900A5 bikes have a leading '5' The number series for the A5 is Z1F510341-Z1F515578, or 5237 units.

RonKZ650 wrote:

I can't help you either, but they did make some KZ900A5 models for 1977. As far as I know there is no differences at all between a 1976 and a 1977 KZ900A

You're right Ron.
But the 77 900A5 still had a rear drum brake.The 76 900B1 had the rear disk brake,and that's the only 900 model that did.
I just looked it up on My KIC program(Kawasaki Information Center)

Very cool!

Thanks Guys.

Now, off to redeem the .05 insurance cost difference between the '76 and '77 :woohoo:

Post edited by: circusnuts, at: 2007/08/28 21:10

This still baffles me. Why on earth did Kawasaki have a 900 and a 1000 in 77 ? The 900 was great but the 1000 was it's successor. Talk about a tough sell......bigger was better back then. Must have had a bunch of 900 motors still in the pipe line.