1975 z1 900 front end upgrade

That colour scheme is probably my all-time favorite. The bike you see that 650 Ed posted is the stock version so the exhaust should be a 4 into 4 but they are very expensive....about $1600. The issue facing me if I were in your shoes would be (and this is only my personal opinion) is I would like to keep the bike as stock as possible but I would still want to be able to ride it every day. There are some who spend a lot of time and effort to restore back to factory specs with date coded parts and heavy attention to even the minutest detail and that is certainly one way to do it. One thing I noticed on your bike is the seat is not standard for your year, it is a LTD style seat and I believe the first year Kawasaki came out with a LTD version was 1976 but it is a firm favorite of many riders and many of the LTD seats found their way onto non-LTD bikes. If you want to cruise through a site that is heavily intensive about details of early 900 bikes check these guys out, from all I have heard they are a good bunch. www.kawasaki-z-classiker.de/
The gauges are not supposed to come apart so getting them sorted out can be a bit tricky, again getting a period correct set of those 160 mph gauges can be tough/costly. Also when looking for the dual disc brake set-up it was also offered on later 77 and 78 KZ 1000's, you might find one off those bikes.

Z1 Enterprises sells a dual disk setup for the Z's .
Wayne

I agree about keeping it original since it is a numbers matching bike. Zresto can restore your gauges. For the front end, you can install Race Tech emulators. That should help with dive and braking. Ive only heard good things about that upgrade and plan on installing them in mine.

If you want a play/custom bike, just sell the Z1 and buy a KZ1000.

I did a triple disc upgrade to my 900 and I will never go back! There is WAY more braking power than there is traction. There is never any need to put more than two fingers on the brake lever.

I'm still trying to figure out my suspension upgrades though. I love my bike and will never sell it but the stock Z1/KZ900 suspension is terrible.

Thanks for the info. I am on the site now checking out some of the pics posted. Very cool and I am super excited to get working on my bike. Today is labor day and it will be labor intensive with the bike. The seat is very comfy, it would be hard to get rid of it. I am going to take some pics now and will post the in a bit so that you all can see the little details I am trying to correct.

bluezbike wrote: That colour scheme is probably my all-time favorite. The bike you see that 650 Ed posted is the stock version so the exhaust should be a 4 into 4 but they are very expensive....about $1600. The issue facing me if I were in your shoes would be (and this is only my personal opinion) is I would like to keep the bike as stock as possible but I would still want to be able to ride it every day. There are some who spend a lot of time and effort to restore back to factory specs with date coded parts and heavy attention to even the minutest detail and that is certainly one way to do it. One thing I noticed on your bike is the seat is not standard for your year, it is a LTD style seat and I believe the first year Kawasaki came out with a LTD version was 1976 but it is a firm favorite of many riders and many of the LTD seats found their way onto non-LTD bikes. If you want to cruise through a site that is heavily intensive about details of early 900 bikes check these guys out, from all I have heard they are a good bunch. www.kawasaki-z-classiker.de/
The gauges are not supposed to come apart so getting them sorted out can be a bit tricky, again getting a period correct set of those 160 mph gauges can be tough/costly. Also when looking for the dual disc brake set-up it was also offered on later 77 and 78 KZ 1000's, you might find one off those bikes.

I am on there now. Cheers.

kzz1king wrote: Z1 Enterprises sells a dual disk setup for the Z's .
Wayne

I am thinking about going back to the original paint scheme. The engine is my concern as there are no more chrome pieces. The chrome pieces were bad and I get them back from the stripper/sander tomorrow. So they will be bare aluminum. I guess I can paint the engine original aluminum gray. ??

Kidkawie wrote: I agree about keeping it original since it is a numbers matching bike. Zresto can restore your gauges. For the front end, you can install Race Tech emulators. That should help with dive and braking. Ive only heard good things about that upgrade and plan on installing them in mine.

If you want a play/custom bike, just sell the Z1 and buy a KZ1000.

I like your setup, very cool and clean. The suspension on my bike is not good. I will definitely need to upgrade. The braking is one of my other concerns as it is okay right now. Maybe if I bleed it and replace some pads it will feel better.

CrazyDuck wrote: I did a triple disc upgrade to my 900 and I will never go back! There is WAY more braking power than there is traction. There is never any need to put more than two fingers on the brake lever.

I'm still trying to figure out my suspension upgrades though. I love my bike and will never sell it but the stock Z1/KZ900 suspension is terrible.

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Pictures of bike in question:


Chrome pieces that are at the stripper now getting all the flakey chrome off...

More Pics:

Engine getting a soda blast cleaning...


Pieces I am working on...







Frame and engine numbers....




More pieces:

Here is a link to all the photos for better viewing etc.

Bike Build

Heres another one.