Cafe Builder in MN - Hello

Wanted to introduce myself before getting over to the technical forums to start posting newb questions. I'm in the Twin Cities in MN (east side) and looking to build my first cafe bike. I've ridden motorcycles my whole life (mostly sport bikes and dirt bikes, but I've ridden a vast number of different bikes through the years) and dabble in small engine mechanics and fabrication. I'm an engineer (chemical) so I'm no stranger to technical details but I certainly will be learning a ton along the way. I'm on KZRider.com, same username for more bike specific support, but figured this site is the best for feedback and ideas on cafe design.

I picked up an '82 Kawi KZ750M1 (the uncool CSR model - pic attached). It has a challenging frame (which I'll likely be modifying a bit), but the price was nearly free, the motor turns over with decent compression (only 9600 original miles), it is complete, and there isn't a spec of rust to be found (this was a barn find that sat covered and properly drained for 20 years). I'm excited to get it running then rip the thing apart for the build.

She lives! I'm pretty encouraged right now.

I cleaned the carbs best I could (they could do with a rebuild), checked valve clearances, new plugs, changed the oil 1.5 times (put two quarts in and manually turned it over them drained), rigged a battery to it, made a fuel tank from an oil bottle and the thing fired up immediately.

It would only idle with full choke and it would die if I tried to rev it at all but I'm thinking that is because I ran it with no air box and the carburetors really could use new jets and an ultrasonic bath. Seriously though I'm impressed. Thing sat since the mid 90s.

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Welcome to DTT

Welcome in mate sweet buy mate struck lucky with such a clean donor, done the right thing getting her running first, get her running sweet before you tear her apart ??? plenty you can do with this model wouldn't say no myself