The Wolf aka 1982 Kawasaki KZ750

[thejosh]

I am posting this in the "specials" forum because I'm not quite sure what to call it. It's a little bobber style and a little cafe style with a touch of brat in there too. You guys tell me what to call this thing.

I have been really inspired by the work that I see on this forum and I wanted to contribute some of the bikes that we have been working on. This one Is a 1982 KZ750 Ltd. that we modified with a Hayabusa front end, hand made wiring harness with automotive style ignition switch, custom seat, piggy back shocks, some paint and some other odds and ends.

Here is the bike the day we brought it to our garage to get to work. It had been sitting outside uncovered for over 5 years in Brooklyn, NY after a buddy bought it but then discovered that he didn't actually like riding motorcycles.

Day one:

We worked on it on nights and weekends for about 5 months, and now it looks like this.

Here are some pictures where I was pretending to be a photographer and playing with my camera phone's settings.

The blog in my signature is where you can see more of the build progress as it happened, and I would be more than happy to answer any questions that anyone might have since I have learned so much from this site.

 

[thejosh]

Re: The Wolf

Not a single comment? Hit me with some feed back, guys. I'm trying to see what works and what doesn't with this bike. Thanks.

 

[GreatDane]

Great bike man! And a great mix as well, in my opinion it doesn't have to fit in a specific category. How is the handling with the new frontend? I myself have a KZ650 that I've started working on a month ago, I'm thinking of doing a front end swap as well, so I'm gathering knowlegde at the moment. How much needed to be changed to make it fit? You've got a really nice stance on the bike. What are the wheels, and did you change the swingarm as well?

 

[sinbad85]

big ups on the front end conversion.....
im considering doing the same, but with r1 forks...
looks killer, how does it pull up?

i think it would look great with matching wheels.... is it a 17 front 16 rear??? if so maybe the matching wheel at the rear to the front....
and personally i do prefer wheels which aren't white... i like black.....
what about a dark matt red??
love the bike....

 

[JustinLonghorn]

I'd give it a go.

 

[Maritime]

much improved over stock for sure, looks like a muscle bike

 

[thejosh]

Thanks for the feed back guys. It really helps!

Yeah the wheels are 17" front and 16" rear. The Hayabusa conversion wasnt that hard. You just need to perss out the stock Stem from the KZ triples and replace the stem from the Hayabusa triples with it. I Don't have a big enough press in my garage so I had a machine shop do the work. Then you just get tapered bearings to fit the KZ stem and you are good to go. I will say that next time I'm going to look for longer forks to keep the ride height a bit more balanced as the busa forks make the bike pretty low at the front.

With the busa brakes it stops on a dime, just amazing. On the bike we are working on now we are doing a swing arm swap along with the forks which will give us matching wheels and more modern rubber all around, but I kinda like the "muscle car" looks of the current set up and it rides great.