Just ordered a set of tires. Avon RoadRiders. 3.25-19 front 150/80-16 rear. Rear tire is just a couple mm higher than the stock, but a bit thicker... I have a 130/90 on it now.
Scouring ebay for a rear fender that's not all bent up. About to look for a gold chain and sprockets. Can sprockets be painted or will they just get fucked up from the chain? Would like to get black, but can only find silver for the kz440s. The chain I found is a gold 104 (I'm assuming it's 530? that's stock on the kz440s right? couldnt find width in the haynes...) and I see z1 has rear sprockets that are 41t and 33t. Which should I get? what difference would I see in smaller vs larger?
I'm also on the hunt for new rear suspension. I wouldn't mind lowering it a bit, but I gotta see if it will still clear the new, slightly taller tire, especially when I got a big booty bitch on the back with me. Looking for black. I believe my stock rear is 13"
So once I get the tires in I'm going to remove the old ones, send the wheels and swing arm out to get powder coated (flat black), Mount the new ties and get the wheels balanced, Send the rear fender, front fender, gas tank, and rear springs out to get plated, and swap out the chain/sprockets... Gotta do a more thurough inspection of the gas tank. First time I took it off was last week and I didn't check to see if there was any bondo work or anything that would fuck up my plating job... Really hoping I'm not going to need a new gas tank, though.
This is what I'm looking at atm:
http://www.d2moto.com/p-20450-1979-1985-kawasaki-kz440-ltd-o-ring-chain-gold.aspx
http://www.z1enterprises.com/ItemDetails.aspx?itemDescription=530+(JTR476+series)+41T+Rr+Sprocket&item=TU24-9655
http://www.z1enterprises.com/ItemDetails.aspx?itemDescription=530+(JTR476+series)+33T+Rr+Sprocket&item=TU24-9673
After this I want to clean out the carbs and send out the bodies to get ceramic coated, new the harley headlight mounted and operational, mount a trumpet style air horn on the fork, get the forks painted, get the triple trees plated, handlebars coated, levers plated, maybe remove instrument panel and install small gauges (or no gauges and just an oil light or something), Rewrap headers with copper wrap, get exhaust pipe ceramic coated, fork boots, new petcock--for now.
Anyone have any experience with aftermarket universal petcocks?
Happy to get the ball rolling again--it's been too long but I'm going full force ahead once I get the tires...
Anyone in the NYC area have a chain breaker and spring compressor????
Also, what do you guys use to clean your carbs? Just compressed air or carb cleaner too?
