shaft drive

Does anyone know the horsepower limits of the shaft
on shaft driven kz.

i dont mean to sound like an egg head, but im sure if you can find out what metal the shaft and the bearings are you can make a rough guess with some metallurgical research. Then again i have no idea what kinda parts go into the KZ's shafts. Now on the other hand there's the questions at what speed does the shaft vibrate the bike to hell and you with it. The other thing to remember is if you have the stock width tire.. it wont take much to break the tread from the pavement. It's not much help but figured i would at least make a reply

Given that a chain gets more power to the ground and allows you to change ratios as needed, why are you considering adding a significant amount of power to a shaft driven bike? If you're going to hop it up. I think the cheapest few horsepower you could find would be to convert to a chain.

KZCSI

As long as it isn't worn out it should handle a typical street setup (1045, porting, mild cams, better carbs, pods, 4-1).

If you are going for a lot of power for more strip and than street then switch to chain on these old KZ's.

What bike is this question for?

You can't switch to a chain on the shft bikes. The motor can be but the frame cannot. You should be good with about 100 to 110 HP.

The shafts are pretty beefy but like what was said before, a motor can be converted but the frame may cause trouble. Any amount of power your gonna get out of one of these motors shouldn't break it.

My guesss it's 1 horsepower less then when it breaks.LOL I agree though, it could probably handle most any street horsepower. Most of the abuse would be when and if you revved it up and dumped the clutch, as in a dragrace. Don't do that sort of thing much and you shouldn't have a problem. Any serious playtime though andyou would be ahead to do this to a chian drive version of out favorite bike.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I knew I would ruffle a few feathers. I had a kz 1100A with an 1170 Wiseco kit,
36 mm flatsides, Mac 4/1, and k&n pods. Considering the V Max, V 65 Magna, and Eliminator were all shaft I did not think it would be that bad a choice. I sold that bike regretably and now I would like to go further on another one. Since joining this site several weeks ago the itch to get going has turned into a rash. This is a great site and again thanks for the feedback!

Kawasaki make stout shaft drives. The GTR's go some crazy mileage on their shaft drives, and failures are rare enough to be surprising, and this is in a very torquey, heavy bike that oners like to thrash a LOT!:evil:
Certainly, my GTR at 91k kms is still tight, and when I serviced the shaft drive, the splines were hardly worn at all.
Considering the linage of the Kawasaki shaft drive systems, I doubt there'd be a single one model that would not take very decent amounts of torque.

Regards, Andrew.

The bevel gear system and drive shaft on a 79 KZ1000E1 is almost identical to the one used on a VN2000. I have seen Vulcans that were turbo'd and probably putting out 150-200 HP and used essentially the same shaft system. My personal KZ1000E1 puts out about 400 HP (runs in mid 5s at the strip at over 300 mph). (LAST BIT PUT IN THERE IN THE EVENT BENCH RACING BEGINS... DON'T WANT TO BE LEFT BEHIND hehe)

To wiredgeorge, what kind of goodies have you got in your kz1000E. Do you have any pictures of this monster.

Errrr... passenger backrest and luggage rack and engine guards... OK you caught me... it isn't really a rocket. I did completely rebuild the engine a year ago and had most of the engine bits powdercoated and painted the body parts as well...

Post edited by: wiredgeorge, at: 2007/10/25 10:38