1977 KZ650 B1 Cafe Racer

This is a sort of introduction and my build of bike I bought this last spring. Winter is in full force and that means its time to do a full strip and rebuild of my bike. I did some cosmetic work and upgraded some parts as the year went, nothing that kept me down more than a day or two. I will post pictures later of the current state of the build and progress as I work through it.
Before

After

http://youtu.be/WZC6vY0wngg
Here is a list of stuff done so far
1. Wiring Mod for Coils
2. Dyna Coils & Wires
3. KZ electronic ignition
4. Cafe Seat
5. Tailight Assembly
6. Air Pods
7. V&H Exhaust
8. New Throttly Assembly
9. Polished Tank & Painted Emblems
10. New Battlax Tires
11. Rebuilt Carbs
12. Electronic Voltage Regulator/Rectifier

Here is a list of stuff I plan to do
1. Grind and Cut n/a tabs on the frame
2. Sand Blast frame and misc parts for powder coating
3. Minor Rebuild of Engine (Leak down test and and valve work if necessary)
3a. Paint Engine
4. Clean up Wiring Connections (CWS Wiring Goodies)
5. New Sealed Battery
6. Rebuild Forks (Seals are Leaking)
7. New Master Brake Cylinder & Clutch Perch
8. Digital Acewell Gauge
9. Paint Spokes on Wheels
10. New Right Hand Control
11. New Brake Lines
12. Rear Shocks
13. Dual Front Brakes
14. Fork Brace (Either No Front Fender or Black one from DimeCity)
15. Redo the Seat

Here is rough MS paint view of what it might look like, haven't decided yet what I want to paint black and what to polish.

Amazing! Great job!

Looks great so far. I can't wait to see it after its winter hibernation!

that exhaust sounds sick. is that a 4into1?

It is Vance & Hines 4-1 with the packing material removed, just the baffle.

Here some current pictures, ignore the mess all this grinding and polishing is making a mess of my work area.

I think the seat sits much better now, was scared at first to cut all the mounting tabs but now it really helps line up the seat with the tank.

Battery fits well under seat hump just need to fabricate a metal pan for all the electronics & wires to hide underneath seat.

New 8 cell battery way smaller and no more acid mess to worry about

Rear sprocket, ready for new bearings

New engine breather, one less hose for a cleaner look

seals replaced and new fork brace, a little more polishing to go.

In the process of shaving the triple tree for a cleaner looks (clip-ons below triple tree). I plan to fabricate a plate to hold new gauge & potentially the key switch that will utilize existing mounts from orginal gauge

Long time no see Jeff. Looks like I will be following the build on both sites. Good luck keep me posted on how the shaving of that top triple works for you.

Two thumbs up man! Nice work so far.

Great work, Looking forward to forward progress.

Thanks for the compliments, hopefully I can a productive weekend so it can be painted next week

Up to date pics from this weekend
Working on cleaning up the engine to get it prepped for painting



Seat pan developed

Triple tree shaved,holes patched and body filler to smooth out

More Parts


Goodies from CWS wiring, thanks Dan

looks good buddy! will be following along!

Looks good man. Subscribed, seems like there are a few KZ builds going on!

Ya it does sure seem like that when I first joined the website for some inspiration for my build there wasn't much for kawasaki's much less kz650, definately dominated by honda. Its kind of nice to see a few popping up to look at what other people are doing.

Hi Jeff!

Are you planning to completely re-wire or just modify the existing harness? I modified the harness on my previous KZ build, but am seriously contemplating doing a completely custom harness on my current project. I'm just curious what you're thinking....

I am going to reuse but replace all the connections with new ones that are crimped and soldered, I just noticed that I was getting some voltage drop and ended up doing the coil mod to circumvent the problem but since I have all apart I plan to clean it all up and hopefully dump the coil mod. I have new wiring for the battery and a new fuse box but other than that will be reusing the existing wires.

More updates to the build
Wheels are painted are ready for new bearings


Engine has been cleaned & primed, will paint black soon

Hard to tell because they are so shiny, but are they black?

Chrome rings with black through the middle, not the best pictures but I think they turned out pretty good. The chrome is in really good shape still so I decided to tape them off. Talk about a pain in the ass took me hours to tape around each spoke but like the results

More Progress this weekend.
Cleaned my carbs with the pine-sol method & replaced all the gasket & orings


Engine Painted and ready to go in frame

Frame all painted & Clear Coated


Just have the electric to go, trying to decide to create a whole new wiring loom or have somebody do it (CWS Wiring).