New guy, old guy

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24 Jun 2024 10:04 #901236 by WoodheadB2
New guy, old guy was created by WoodheadB2
Hey all New guy here. Got a KZ1000A from my old Air Force buddy and I'm going to get it back going after sitting since 1982 in his barn in upper Minnesota. Pretty much all there but pretty rusty and corroded. With the help of all my new friends here, I'll try to get it going as a remembrance of him and our friendship over the years. I was an aircraft sheetmetal mechanic for 30 years and worked mostly on military A/C so I kinda know which end of a hammer to grab. I've been retired 4 years now and loving it. I have some questions I'll be looking for answers to, so I'll try and find the right threads to search before starting a new one. thanks in advance for the help. 

Current ride: 2022 Trimph Tiger Sport 660
First ride: My buddies dad-built mini bike circa 1968
First real bike: 1971 Hodaka Super Rat
Favorite ride: 1987 Yamaha FZR1000
Favorite road: Cherohala Skyway
Favorite movie: On Any Sunday of course!

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24 Jun 2024 20:15 #901275 by TexasKZ
Replied by TexasKZ on topic New guy, old guy
Welcome to the asylum 

1982 KZ1000 LTD parts donor
1981 KZ1000 LTD awaiting resurrection
2000 ZRX1100 not ridden enough

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24 Jun 2024 21:30 #901277 by sf4t7
Replied by sf4t7 on topic New guy, old guy
Welcome to our version of fun.   The combined knowledge and experience here will help with what you've gotten yourself into!   


Scotty

1974 Z1A
1015
welded Z1 crank
Andrews 1X Cams
Delkevic 4 into 1
Superbike bars
530 conversion

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25 Jun 2024 00:21 #901279 by Wookie58

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25 Jun 2024 03:37 #901287 by Mcdroid
Replied by Mcdroid on topic New guy, old guy
Welcome to KZRider...

Michael
Victoria, Texas

1982 GPz750
1977 KZ1000A
1978 KZ1000A
1982 GPz1100
1975 Z2A

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25 Jun 2024 05:11 #901291 by ThatGPzGuy
Replied by ThatGPzGuy on topic New guy, old guy
Welcome from GA. There's some good riding in TN. 

Jim
North GA
2016 Yamaha FJR1300ES
1982 GPz750 R1
1974 Kawasaki H1
1976 Kawasaki KZ400
1979 Yamaha XS650 cafe'
2001 KZ1000P
2001 Yamaha YZ426
1981 Honda XR200 stroked in an '89 CR125 chassis
1965 Mustang
1967 Triumph GT6
1976 Bronco
"If you didn't build it, it's not really yours"

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25 Jun 2024 07:19 #901293 by Moose1800
Replied by Moose1800 on topic New guy, old guy

Hey all New guy here. Got a KZ1000A from my old Air Force buddy and I'm going to get it back going after sitting since 1982 in his barn in upper Minnesota. Pretty much all there but pretty rusty and corroded. With the help of all my new friends here, I'll try to get it going as a remembrance of him and our friendship over the years. I was an aircraft sheetmetal mechanic for 30 years and worked mostly on military A/C so I kinda know which end of a hammer to grab. I've been retired 4 years now and loving it. I have some questions I'll be looking for answers to, so I'll try and find the right threads to search before starting a new one. thanks in advance for the help. 

Welcome to KZR Woodhead! congrats on your (new bike) I bought a 77 KZ1000 not long ago and after seven months of tinkering with it during my retirement it turned quite nice.
Below is a link to my thread you might find helpful, your bike sounds like mine when I got it good luck and have fun bringing it back from the dead. Show us some pics of what your working with.

www.kzrider.com/forum/13-bike-related/61...and-i-blame-you-guys



 

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25 Jun 2024 14:19 #901322 by ronnieV
Replied by ronnieV on topic New guy, old guy
Welcome to the best place for kz knowledge. Ask and you shall receive. 

77 ltd1000 80 ltd1000 78kz1000a ,02 red zrx 12r, 94 cb1000 big one ,03 valkyrie (my couch) 65 olds 442

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25 Jun 2024 17:13 #901333 by WoodheadB2
Replied by WoodheadB2 on topic New guy, old guy
Thanks all. Appreciate it immensely. My KZ is an early 1000A that is complete but really rough. I am the third owner. Pretty much every part is rusted or corroded. All of the rubber is cracked and/or dry rotted. So I bought it with the idea of restoring it to like new in honor of my really good friend and brother in arms. But it would need basically everything replaced to do that. Every chrome piece had from small pitting to complete scaling. The aluminum parts were all salvageable and all have been cleaned and polished. So the prices of replacement OEM or knock-off parts made that unfeasable. It would be a decent "survivor " but it would be very rough. So, I have been blown away by the restomod superbike thing and I thought "why not". For all the purests out there, I haven't chopped it up to bad. It can be taken back to original.   But I don't ever plan on selling it, so I decided to make it cool in my eyes. I will probably post a thread of the build in the project section as soon as I figure out how to post pics (pics are worth a thousand words, ya know). Again thanks for the support! 

Current ride: 2022 Trimph Tiger Sport 660
First ride: My buddies dad-built mini bike circa 1968
First real bike: 1971 Hodaka Super Rat
Favorite ride: 1987 Yamaha FZR1000
Favorite road: Cherohala Skyway
Favorite movie: On Any Sunday of course!

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25 Jun 2024 18:28 #901344 by sf4t7
Replied by sf4t7 on topic New guy, old guy
See the post "posting pics is easy"  it helped an old guy like me learn to post pictures. 

When I retired a couple years ago I decided to revive (not restore) my 1974 Z1 that had been stored for 20 years in less than ideal conditions. (LOTS of patina, to be kind).  A lot of cleaning, some paint touch-ups and more than a little part replacement, (used where available and some aftermarket),  I now have updated the hot rod bike it was in the 80s and 90s before I put it away.  The guys here on KZR helped immensely with their advice.  See some of my posts in "Why a KZ before another motorcycle" thread for some looks at my project.
Once you get started it will become fun.   


Scotty

1974 Z1A
1015
welded Z1 crank
Andrews 1X Cams
Delkevic 4 into 1
Superbike bars
530 conversion
The following user(s) said Thank You: WoodheadB2

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26 Jun 2024 11:47 #901367 by WoodheadB2
Replied by WoodheadB2 on topic New guy, old guy
Hey sf4t7: WOW! Yours started out much worse than mine. Mine was just bad enough that no parts were "nut and bolt, frame up restoration" quality. So I went with restoring it to my idea. I'm going to post my endeavor in the projects section as soon s I get my pics together and figure out how to properly post them. 

Current ride: 2022 Trimph Tiger Sport 660
First ride: My buddies dad-built mini bike circa 1968
First real bike: 1971 Hodaka Super Rat
Favorite ride: 1987 Yamaha FZR1000
Favorite road: Cherohala Skyway
Favorite movie: On Any Sunday of course!
The following user(s) said Thank You: sf4t7

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26 Jun 2024 13:18 #901370 by sf4t7
Replied by sf4t7 on topic New guy, old guy
Thanks Woodhead.  The after pics aren't up close because it's still a "20 footer" - kinda rough around the edges, but for now that fits with a sort of barn find theme.  The plan was to ride it again without waiting on a 2 year plus restoration project.  Besides, I hotrodded it in the early 80's, so it will never be back to "original".  After a couple of riding seasons I plan to take the motor and wiring out of the frame to thoroughly clean, repaint, re wire, restore the cases finish, re spoke wheels, etc.  I guess it could be called half finished now.  But I get to ride it.


Scotty

1974 Z1A
1015
welded Z1 crank
Andrews 1X Cams
Delkevic 4 into 1
Superbike bars
530 conversion

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