'80 kz 550 - half finished? suggestions?

johnnyeatsgood

johnnyeatsgood

Active Member
Hey all!

So I have myself a 1980 kz 550 on my hands. It's my first build and has been through quite a bit. It has been repainted since it's stock days, completely rat biked out (spray painted black, chopped) and then hand sanded down for that raw industrial metal look. And that was all done by me!! who know's what the other owners did....

This is what I have so far and am not overly happy with it. Couldnt figure out the colours that I wanted so I left it raw looking for now. As for future major plans, here's what I'm thinking:


- sportbike Monoshock swingarm w/ street rim
- spoked dirtbike tire on front
- street fighter tail-esque sort of dealio
and perhaps running a magneto. ANybody give me a place to start for this? My knowledge around magnetos is slim but it sounds like a sweet concept anyways.


Im currently a very broke university student up in the great white north. definitely finding it hard to find a place to work on your stuff when youre always moving and never having garage space!


THanks for lookin yall.



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I know what a mag. is.
Just curious as to what "magneto" he will be using since I did not see an ARD belt drive on the bike of which I don't remember if one was made for the KZ550.
Are there any other magnetos for the app. or will it be custom built or the capacitor to replace the battery?



.
 
What a beautiful and majestic beast.. I love that thing, Jeff!

I still think we need to lower the forks by an inch or two to level things out.

As far as the magneto/capacitor/smaller battery goes, i don't think it can happen unless you can figure out a way to put a kickstart on it - or if we always resort to push-starts (which i'm not opposed to!).
 
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Here's a quick and dirty photoshop of the ideas for paint you were talking about (kind of 3 different ideas in one shoddy pic). My vote goes for the front wheel - red spokes with the chrome lip.
 
That battery might work. I have one at my place that we could wire up and try out. I'm just worried about the draw that the starter motor is going to pull from the battery, especially coupled with that 100w headlight...the battery might be dead in short order if your generator isn't up to snuff - or blow up.
As far as paint goes, any of the spray cans of auto paint should work. I'm in between doing coats of paint on my car right now with a custom mix i picked up from AutoElectric. I think it was around 15$ for a can of any colour you can imagine. I'll let you know how it turns out. I really think we should pull your wheels off, strip them, then re-do the black and add the red. A bit more involved, but it'd be the right way to do. Find your plug cables first, then AutoElectric can match the paint to the wires if you want.
 
That color scheme is entirely to, ummm... common. Seems like anyone afraid to go out on a limb defaults with dare I say the "rat" colors. red, black and metal. Add some white walls and you'll blend in. like a sheep or lemming. Just my opinion though...
 
Believe me when i say it's come a looong way from where it used to be. Johnny's been riding a motorcycle for a little more than 5 months now, and i think this (his first bike) has already gone through 3 major phases. I'm sure by springtime it'll look totally different again.
It's cheap, dirty, easy, and fun to mess around on.
It might be one of the flock, but it's the loudest fucking sheep you've ever heard!
 
What I said had nothing to do with the bike build it's self... Bike shows some creativity. So should the color scheme. Just my 2cents.. thats all.
 
I'm with you on that. I've been keeping my opinions on the colour scheme of the bike reserved. I'm sure it'll turn out fine though.
 
My humble suggestion is to drop the front.... maybe get you a modern sportbike front end..... i dont like the hard tail... but it looks pretty nice... enjoy your bike ! ! ! ! ! !
 
+1


drop the front prob like 2" until the frame under the motor is parallel to the ground. looks like its raking up right now.


paint it the color of your shoes in the first pic, laugh.


colors are up to you, man. we can make all the recommendations in the world, but you gatta live with it. well, until you sand it down in a couple months.


That said, here are the color combo's ive considered for recent builds:


Black and gold accents
Black and copper
gunmetal, white and bare metal (alum color paint)
Black, bare metal and carbon fiber
black, green and gunmetal
Blue and gold (early 2000's subaru rally colors)
Black and dirty, worn maroon. almost like this. <--- really like that one.


so yeah, a lot of those are lemming colors. doesnt make them look any worse though.
 
How does it run? (as in how well?) And what jets etc. are you running? I've been playing with my tuning for a while, and it would run like a son of a gun, but it was really lean. Hope they aren't stock jets with pods and open exhaust or you'll be looking for a new engine soon I fear. I think it looks pretty good so far. Agree with lowering the front maybe a couple of inches. Maybe a larger headlight?
 
MotorbikeBruno said:
How does it run? (as in how well?) And what jets etc. are you running? I've been playing with my tuning for a while, and it would run like a son of a gun, but it was really lean. Hope they aren't stock jets with pods and open exhaust or you'll be looking for a new engine soon I fear. I think it looks pretty good so far. Agree with lowering the front maybe a couple of inches. Maybe a larger headlight?
Click to expand...



Runs real well actually! At first it would do like.... 60 km max and stall out with the stock jets in it, which made riding on the 70km/hr streets a REAL blast! It was only for a couple days, there's noplace to buy/order keihin jets in town and my car was broked.


I tried 95's and it was still running not well, so i bumped it up to 102's. It's a little bit rich, but it's got enough power that it throws you off the back now if youre not ready for it.


I've decided to go a cafe route with it now, stripping it down a little more and getting it pretty bare bones. That will be the later winter/spring job though. I've got no garage to work in right now and im sure not gonna be battling to do anything in -40 celcius weather.


I was checking out your thread earlier, i dig the rear cowl set up you have! Have any other major plans for it?
 
I should add that I had it maxed out a week and a bit ago on a nice stretch of highway, it broke 110mph, though it sounded like it was gonna implode haha
 
That's slick. I've got 110's in mine now....maybe I should drop those down a bit!? And 37 pilots from the 32's. Running open 4 into 4 exhaust with non-packed baffles at the end to give it a little bit of back pressure, and UNI foam filters oiled correctly. I'll see about changing jets shortly. Been trying to get my other projects done and out the door.
 
unfortunatly no progress lately. I am but a wandering student without a permanent residence, so at the moment im looking for some shop space to rent. At the -20 its getting here, If i don't get some space soon, the project will be on hold for a few months unfortunately.

Hows your build going bruno? What project(s) do you have on the go for the winter?
 
Right now i'm in the process of cleaning up all the welds on the frame to get it powdered up. My painter guy has my tins for now. Guess I want to see it put back together and then make a fork brace of sorts, and a plate holder that will be on the swingarm I think. Moving right along...hah. Good luck on finding some space man.
 
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