Kz1000 MKII brake upgrade

Does anyone know what 2 or 4 pot calipers will bolt up to my KZ1000 mkII;s forks?

so what is there no kawasaki kz expert who knows, come on.

I don't think there are any dirrect bolt on 2 or 4 pot calipers, but I have seen others make brackets to mount later model calipers.
Not sure which models they'd come from though.
I haven't seen any members here who have just switched calipers.
There have been some who changed the whole front end though, forks, wheel and calipers from anything like the ZX series of bikes to even CBR or GSXR series.

Oh, and welcome.
Do post up some pictures of you bike/s.

I put ZX11 calipers on a set of police forks but I had to mod the forks a little to do it and run a small bracket. And like RST said I don't think there are any direct bolt-on multipiston calipers for the Kz's.

Later, Doug

Since either the calipers or the rotors have to float, and the KZ has floating calipers while the two and four piston calipers are used on bikes with floating rotors, I'd say you are going to have a problem installing two or four piston calipers on your KZ.

If it's better braking you're looking for, and you're not doing this just for cosmetics, then using the brake system off a bike with smaller rotors on your KZ1000 will give you much better brakes.

I'm not speaking of theory either, I have 12" 79 KZ1000 rotors on my 79 KZ750 twin, and squeezing those rotors are calipers off the 10" rotors on a 83-85 GPz750, and I'm using a master cylinder off a 96 GPz1100.

If I was so inclined, I could easily lock the front wheel, or do a stoppie, depending on traction. My Nephew has a GPz750 Turbo, and while he can easily outrun my 750 twin, I can stop a bunch faster than he can, and both bikes have the same calipers, mine just clamp on 12" rotors instead of 10".

That equates to 20% greater stopping power, and that's a lot.


My Nephew used my 750 twin to take his riding test to get his license. They had one part where he had to take off from a standstill, then hit the brakes at a specific point and stop without crossing a line. Nephew did a drag racing start, wide open to the specified braking point, then hit the front brakes (only) and lifted the back wheel off the ground, and stopped before crossing the line.
He's a bit of a show off

i am looking for better stopping power. so the brakes from a gpz750 should fit up to my 1979 MKII

Captaingamez wrote:

i am looking for better stopping power. so the brakes from a gpz750 should fit up to my 1979 MKII

You want the calipers only off the 83-85 GPz750, others may work, I just have no knowledge of them. Use your stock rotors, and get a 95-96 GPz1100 master cylinder. I posted a list of the year/models that use that same master cylinder in another thread recently.

That master cylinder has the mount for a mirror and a adjustable lever (cool factor there), and since it was used as recently as 2005 models rebuild kits are readily available.

Rebuild any used master cylinder before using it, I didn't and it caused me to crash.

Stainless lines are nice too, cost is around $100 if you order the lines and screw on fittings from Dennis Kirk. Dual lines from the master cylinder to the calipers, the master cylinder has a brake switch on it, get rid of that stupid splitter.

Simple, it's fairly cheap (pads are expensive though), and it works.

My 750E project bike has 2000 GSX750 Katana forks with floating rotors and dual piston calipers, my Nephew's 650 project bike has a 2000 or so GSXR USD front end with either four or six piston calipers on floating rotors.

I figure both of them should stop pretty well.

I wanted to do that but,I wanted to keep a Stock look to a degree. my other plan was to do a ZRX swing arm conversion also.

My 750E kinda looks stock, the GSX forks are right side up and look like the stock forks, except they're 41mm in diameter.

My swingarm is an aluminum one off a 93-85 GPz750 modified to run dual shocks, so it kinda looks stock also.

The GPz750 Turbo throttle bodies kind of blpw the stock image though

Just buy a modern sportbike and forget that old cow.

I know this is an old thread, but I am considering doing this on my 78 kz1000. I already picked up a set of gpz750 calipers, and am looking for the master cylinder. Steell, I was curious what brake pads are you using in your setup.

I don't know what pads are on there, I bought the calipers on eBay with new pads for $40 with free shipping, and new pads alone are around $70.

Same way with my ZX11, it was cheaper to upgrade the calipers with late model ones off eBay that had new pads in them than it would have been to just buy new pads.

Crazy, isn't it :S