cyclhed
Been Around the Block
A little background first: I've always been a fan of Kawasaki. My first full size motorcycle was a '72 175 F7 and my first street bike was a '74 KZ400. I love the 4 cylinder Z's also for the power they make. The first, and only motorcycle I ever purchased new off of the showroom floor was a 1981 GPz550. Picture attached below with a much younger me. In the mid 70's there were always a lot of KZ900's, 1000's and KZ650's around town. So these and any other standard 2 or 4 cyl. UJM's were turned into the cafe' racers of the time, at least where I lived (CA&NV). Guys just basically turned them into road race looking type bikes. The main mods were 4 into 1 Kerker pipes, air filters, jet tuning, euro bars, or clip-ons, small euro fairings, tires etc. and for those that could afford it, rear sets, cams and/or big bore kits. Those were the cafe racers of the day. And that's what we called them, at least my buddies and I did. When Kawasaki offered the first GPz in 1981 I had to have one! It was one of the first sports racer type factory stock bikes to be offered. I loved the bike. It was smooth, fast and handled great. I kept it in pristine condition when I sold it a few years later to a friend who pretty much immediately beat the shit out of it and later wrecked it. I bought a used KZ1000 a while later.
As everybody knows Japan also came out with "cruisers", aberrations made to look like Harleys, which I detested. The LTD and 81-82 KZ1000CSR. It's basically the same bike as the KZ1000J and GPZ1100 and the ELR Replica, the engine is the same but there are differences in the frames, wheels, rear suspension and forks and of course the bodywork. So I've had this one for a few years and now it's got a burnt exhaust valve in #4, so I'm going to give it a valve job. And change the look from ugly ass HD wannabe to something better. I'm going to look for a square tank to replace the peanut. I would like to change to a modern front end and swinger also as budget permits.
As everybody knows Japan also came out with "cruisers", aberrations made to look like Harleys, which I detested. The LTD and 81-82 KZ1000CSR. It's basically the same bike as the KZ1000J and GPZ1100 and the ELR Replica, the engine is the same but there are differences in the frames, wheels, rear suspension and forks and of course the bodywork. So I've had this one for a few years and now it's got a burnt exhaust valve in #4, so I'm going to give it a valve job. And change the look from ugly ass HD wannabe to something better. I'm going to look for a square tank to replace the peanut. I would like to change to a modern front end and swinger also as budget permits.
