OK, so after much harrassment from others, I finally decided to start a build thread for the project bike I've had for about a year now. Progress was delayed for much of 2011 due to shoulder surgery, but I'm back now, and the KZ is coming along a little better now.
Back story: a year or so ago, I helped a friend transform his 1976 CB750K from stocker to rocker (see pics below) and had so much fun, I wanted to work on a bike that I actually got to keep when I was done.
For MY bike, I kind of wanted a vertical twin, but needed to build a bike on a very tight budget, so Triumphs and Nortons were not an option. Even XS650's seem to go for big money in the Austin area, so those were out as well. I'm also a bigger guy (6'3"), so smaller twins (CB350, 400, etc) would just look silly with me aboard, so my search began for a big Kawasaki twin. I fell in love with the Wrenchmonkees stuff and saw what was possible with them, so I scored a junker for a few hundred bucks. Nasty, huh?
Ugh. This is how I received the rest of it.
I won't bore you with most of the teardown photos, as you're all familiar with the procedure, and they were for my own reference anyway. It didn't take long for it to end up like this. Tail cut, de-tabbed, and passenger peg / exhaust hanger brackets hacked off.
More to come......
Back story: a year or so ago, I helped a friend transform his 1976 CB750K from stocker to rocker (see pics below) and had so much fun, I wanted to work on a bike that I actually got to keep when I was done.
For MY bike, I kind of wanted a vertical twin, but needed to build a bike on a very tight budget, so Triumphs and Nortons were not an option. Even XS650's seem to go for big money in the Austin area, so those were out as well. I'm also a bigger guy (6'3"), so smaller twins (CB350, 400, etc) would just look silly with me aboard, so my search began for a big Kawasaki twin. I fell in love with the Wrenchmonkees stuff and saw what was possible with them, so I scored a junker for a few hundred bucks. Nasty, huh?
Ugh. This is how I received the rest of it.
I won't bore you with most of the teardown photos, as you're all familiar with the procedure, and they were for my own reference anyway. It didn't take long for it to end up like this. Tail cut, de-tabbed, and passenger peg / exhaust hanger brackets hacked off.
More to come......