Kawasaki KZ1000: The next big thing.

It seems that I've become a Kawasaki guy as of late... A quick look into the garage shows 5 Kaws, 1 Honda, 2 Yamahas, 1 Suzuki, and 2 Triumphs. I've always have been partial to the first generation of Honda SOHC fours as being overall great motorcycles, Kawasaki's four banger offerings of the mid to late 70's have been growing on me like fungus. This particular bike, a 1980 KZ1000 LTD is my latest craigslist find and a gem (to me) at that! I'd consider it to be a mild "period-custom" with a lot of pretty neat hop-up mods that were likely done in the early 80's. Some of the goodies include: 1054cc big bore kit, Corbin Gunfight and Lady seat, Dyna Electronic ignition and coils, Suzuki GS aluminum swingarm, alloy wheels laced up to the stock hubs, Progressive rear shocks, K&N superbike bars, a halogen headlight conversion, welded and gusseted frame, and many chrome doo-dads on the engine and footpegs, etc. NICE... While I'll normally prefer restoring a bike back to stock, period mods that don't drastically change the character of the bike (improvements...) aren't all that objectionable to me. As my first experience with a big Kawasaki four cylinder, I wasn't quite sure what to expect from it. The engine was rated at around 84hp stock (I assume this to be crankshaft hp) according to a few different websites I saw.

When picking up the bike, the previous owner said that the carbs would need to be cleaned in order to get the old girl up and running. I peered into the fuel tank to check it's condition and the gas smelled as if it were as old as the bike itself so I expected the fuel bowls to be covered in a think green slime. That was not the case. PO had his "shop," a trusted friend, recently put a new set of carbs on the bike as the old units, according to this friend, were badly worn out so they would not idle or run correctly at low speed. Of course, the shop didn't return the 29mm smoothbore Mikunis after fitting the "new" used set of stock 26mm carbs on the bike (which he charged $300 for). Can you say red flag? I think the PO got taken for a ride and his carbs stolen... But I can only speculate. Anyhow, the "friend" did put a 117.5 main jet (vs. 102 stock) to compensate for the individual pod air filters (darn it...), big bore kit, Kerker exhaust, and high lift cams that were installed. But no changes were made to the pilot jets. We'll see how well that works. I replaced the needle valves, blew the carbs out, and refitted them to the bike. The low speed screws were set at 3 turns out. A few strokes at the kicker with fresh fuel in the bowls brought the old girl roaring to life.

Next: Further Inspection and First Ride.