Show us a picture of the "Z1-900" we would like to see if it really is a Z1 since that would be a valuable machine but if the engine is ripped out and put in a KZ650 frame the value of the Z1 would be greatly diminished and have you considered the modifications necessary to the KZ650 frame since a large displacement engine can be installed but it will require changes that should not be attempted without the person doing the mods having a solid understanding of the engineering of motorcycle frame dynamics and I don't say this to be negative simply because I like KZ650 bike since I have owned one since 1977 as I have seen at least one big engined KZ650 that looks like it was done very professionally and with good results but also keep in mind that the gsxr front forks and rear swingarm will no doubt change the bike's geometry which will affect the bike's handling to some degree so have you considered mapping the geometry of the modified bike to that of the original to determine what the overall affect on handling will be or maybe it doesn't matter if you are more interested in simply fiddling with and displaying the finished product rather than riding it and it seems odd to call the project "the ton" since the stock KZ650 will very easily exceed the ton that is 100 mph without any mods at all so maybe a better title for the project would be Frankensaki

531blackbanshee wrote:

tk11b40 wrote:

jaw dropper

leon

Thank you!

I saw a post about gathering a KZ Rider rally.

Is this an annual event?

So here's a better overview of the bike and the project.

It's a 75, was lightly molested by some or other of the previous owners. It's missing the stock turnsignals and mirrors, rear chrome fender. Has a Dyna ignition and coils, badly installed, coils are shorting madly when the bike is running due to some really poor wire construction. Has a period Kerker 4>1 that was repainted at some point, it's solid and looks good, but I can't get it into Switzerland with that on it, so there's a Doremi repro exhaust in the attic that will go on when we're done. Wiring seems "ok", there's some weird vampire tap under the tank doing nothing that I can see, and the starter cranks slowly even with a full battery, so that may need rebuild in addition to cleaning and renewing all those connections.

Has pod filters, will be returning to factory airbox and filter. Have not determined what jets are in it, carbs are on the bench though getting a mini-cleaning while I assess the condition of the bike. Fuel lines were cracked and leaking, carbs leaking and plugged, petcock leaking, tank mildly rusty. Missing the centerstand spring. Seat recovered. Single disk front, will be converting to a double.

Plan of attack is to quickly get it running as well as I can without spending a ton of time on it to assess the health and condition of the engine and transmission, see if it needs to come apart. I did a cold compression test yesterday, found the following values:

1 - 125 PSI
2 - 140 PSI
3 - 125 PSI
4 - 125 PSI

Cleaned and replaced the plugs and was able to get the bike running on three cylinders for a few minutes, discovered the bad coil wire, and repeated the compression test - everything but #1 went up about 10 PSI. I removed the carbs and float bowls last night, blasted the jets clear and gave the float needles a quick wipe. cleaned the nasty pod filters and left them to dry overnight. Will set the float heights and reinstall today.





As above, today I am going to recrimp the sparkplug wires and see if I can run it a bit longer, repeat the compression test and see if it's smoking to any great degree, see how noisy the cam chain and head is, how it shifts, etc. Then I'll make the call about going into the engine. It is showing only 6700 miles on it, so unless that's BS, it may not need anything other than a good servicing.

The chassis will get the full teardown for sure:

Rebuild all brake calipers, new pads and parts, brake lines. Converting to dual front disks. Rotors will be sent to my pal Tom at TrueDisk for resurfacing.

Fork will get teardown, replace the seals and wear parts, new springs and some flavor of cartridge emulators, either Racetech or Ricor.

Steering head bearings will be replaced.

Swingarm bushings/bearings will be replaced and I'll put a modern zerk fitting on it while its apart.

Planning a set of Hagons for the rear, sprung to match the front.

Wheel bearings will be replaced.

Wheels will be re-laced, probably with new rims.

Frame and swingarm will be refinished, still mulling paint or powdercoating for that.

Anything steel will get replated, most anything alloy will get vapor blasted, and anything chrome will get replated or replaced.

Seat will be recovered or replaced.

Gauges will be replaced with repros, in KPH.

The bodywork is all going to be replaced with the reproduction stuff that Z1parts.net and other vendors sell. We're returning the bike to a correct factory color scheme for a 75 - blue.

So that's the overview. More later after I see what I learn today.

Just sent a long e-mail to Cycle World to see if they are interested in photographing it.

I feel like I am auditioning for a movie part here... a little out of my league, BUT..if you never ask, you'll never find out.

Ok.

Now it's done.
If I wanted to go to a show with it who knows of some good stops on the west coast?

Does KZRider ever get together in the western U.S.?

Freakin' Awesome!! :woohoo:

tk11b40 wrote:

jaw dropper

leon

check private messages

Ten plus years, thousands of hours, and thousands of dollars.

Shocks are back on! Bike is done!