78 KZ400 Project

[Ryan Babb]

This is my first street bike got this bike for $400+80 in title work. I've been riding it for a few years, and have decide to do some mods.
I think its obvious I cant make a chopper out of this, and wouldn't want to anyway. Started looking for inspiration and ran across the blue and silver bike that biker_reject posted as his inspiration.
There is a great site dedicated to the KZ400 but not much appreciation on the end of cafe racers or any sort of go fast crowd. But this is what I have and after I'm done hopefully it will be fun to build and learn from.
I always welcome any response from those of you who have been down this road, and even any criticism. I'll try and keep posting my progress.

 

[rundown]

Unless you are adamant about being able to ride two you could cut the seet off at its hump and discard the rear. Then by fabricating a base that would mount the rear fender forward the same amount as the seat removed, you would, in effect, have a sole "cafe seat". To my eye the single styling miscue is that horrendous seat that sits up higher than the tank and totally dominates an otherwise pleasant looking bike. Add rear-sets & raise the pipes, to get better ground clearance; and voila, a very nice little cafe runabout.

 

[treitz]

Cool man. My first bike was a 79 KZ400. Fun, easy to work on little bike. Enjoy!

 

[Davoarts]

These bikes don't get a lot of love usually but I have three of them! A cafe, a stock-ish one, and a hardtail I'm working on right now. They really are super easy to work on, and have just enough power, not too much, but just enough .

What are your plans for the bike as far as mods? I just took off a set of cheap 33mm clipons that I would sell you. I did my bike up like that silver/blue one but decided I like superbike bars better than the clipons. For achieving that blue/silver look you will need to cut the rear rails and move the rear cross bar up towards the front and weld it back in so you can mount the tailpiece forward. It's not hard.

 

[diggerdanh]

Other than the seat it's a nice looking stock bike. I'm looking forward to where you go with this. I have a 78 KZ400 myself that I picked up this summer. It was nowhere near as nice as yours in fact it was just a frame and a couple of boxes of parts. It's going to end up as a scrambler style bike with a custom high exhaust. Best of luck to you.

 

[biker_reject]

T

 

[biker_reject]

T