1978 KZ400 (first leg of the build)

[J.Sharer]

ok guys i'll introduce my self and my new toy.

My name is Jeremy, I'm a Mechanical Engineering student. I've been wanting a cafe bike since I was 15yrs old. After 6 years I've finally have a cafe project. I purchased the bike 2 weeks ago for $850. Its a 1978 Kawasaki KZ400C1 with 5600 original miles. The bike was running and "rideable", but it needs lots of TLC since everything on it was original. The tires were original and front works were leaking badly. Obviously everything needed some cleaning.

here a picture of the tear down.

Here is the out come after some TLC and a couple small things to give it a little more of a cafe look until I do my full build this winter.

 

[pukes]

i'll have to keep an eye out on what you do with this bike. I also have a kz400 and want to tear it down. You have removed the original wiring harness? was it much trouble?

 

[Shermanator86]

Good start man, seems to be a lot of 400/440s popping up hear recently

 

[AJWatUC]

looks good in a short time.

 

[J.Sharer]

thanks everybody.. its been a super fun bike. i've put 1,000miles on it since its been finished (which has been a week exactly)

there will definitely be a build thread this winter when it gets tore down. I'm going to try and pull a little more power out of the bike.. im thinking about trying to give it some more balls so i can play with the gearing and get my RPMs down a little bit at 70mph. (i have to do some interstate riding on my commute.)

lets just say this bike has been amazing to ride in twisties. My dad and I took off to Red Boiling Springs,TN this past Saturday for a nice cruise and it was quite funny to see the difference between my bike and my dads 09 1200 sportster. We were actually pretty evenly matched... he could run off and leave me down a straight but it didnt feel like i had to brake for a single turn. This little bike can be thrown around no problem.

 

[Shermanator86]

thanks everybody.. its been a super fun bike. i've put 1,000miles on it since its been finished (which has been a week exactly)

there will definitely be a build thread this winter when it gets tore down. I'm going to try and pull a little more power out of the bike.. im thinking about trying to give it some more balls so i can play with the gearing and get my RPMs down a little bit at 70mph. (i have to do some interstate riding on my commute.)

lets just say this bike has been amazing to ride in twisties. My dad and I took off to Red Boiling Springs,TN this past Saturday for a nice cruise and it was quite funny to see the difference between my bike and my dads 09 1200 sportster. We were actually pretty evenly matched... he could run off and leave me down a straight but it didnt feel like i had to brake for a single turn. This little bike can be thrown around no problem.

Just noticed in those last pics your not running a front fender/fork brace, do you ride it like that? My bike felt kind of scary when I rode it without something bracing the forks.

 

[J.Sharer]

I haven't really noticed anything to crazy.. there is a slight wobble at high speed but i just assumed it came from air hitting the front wheel with out a fender to help calm it down. im going to trim a fender to fit on the bike but the c1's have a really ugly fender that will even be hard to cut and make look decent. but all that will come with time. Next on my list of things to do right now is to get rid of the points one way or another. I may call pertronix to see if they offer an ignitor. i've noticed people on kz400.com's forum make units but a pertronixs would be a million times easier and cheaper.

 

[Shermanator86]

I haven't really noticed anything to crazy.. there is a slight wobble at high speed but i just assumed it came from air hitting the front wheel with out a fender to help calm it down. im going to trim a fender to fit on the bike but the c1's have a really ugly fender that will even be hard to cut and make look decent. but all that will come with time. Next on my list of things to do right now is to get rid of the points one way or another. I may call pertronix to see if they offer an ignitor. i've noticed people on kz400.com's forum make units but a pertronixs would be a million times easier and cheaper.

yea I've seen the until on the twin owners forum to, it looks nice but like you said expensive. I think the electronic ignition off the 440 can be used on the 78-80 400 motors as well, but I may be wrong on that.

 

[J.Sharer]

have you messed with the sprocket sizing on these. i'm thinking about messing with it to get a the RPM a little lower at 70mph.. im curious if it is going to completely kill all the power. im wondering if it will just make my lower gears more usable or if its just going to make it feel absolutely powerless.

plus i really need a 6spd trans as well

 

[Shermanator86]

have you messed with the sprocket sizing on these. i'm thinking about messing with it to get a the RPM a little lower at 70mph.. im curious if it is going to completely kill all the power. im wondering if it will just make my lower gears more usable or if its just going to make it feel absolutely powerless.

plus i really need a 6spd trans as well

Yours doesn't have the 6-speed? Thought all the newer motors all had 6. No I haven't messed with sprockets at all yet, my roommate put taller ones in his '76 and says it's much better at highway speeds though and hasn't really lost anything through the low end either.

I wonder if the 6-speed gear set is a drop in affair into you bike, wouldn't think the cases would be any different.

 

[J.Sharer]

my bike is a c1 which came drum brake and 5spd and kick start only. with no tach. which wasnt ideal but for it to only have had 5600miles and only be $850. i figured i'ld live with it for right then.

but i was thinking the same thing on the 6spd. I know the gear ratio between the 5th in the 5spd and 6th in the 6spd is very small
IIRC its 1:0.89 in the 5speed and 1:0.88 in the six speed. so really the only gain is shorter gear which would be extremely nice and probably make going to a longer final drive ratio less noticeable to me.

but i have a buddy that said he has a 400 motor he would just give me so maybe it has a 6spd. and i can test the fitment of everything this winter when i tear the bike down.. hopefully this winters build will include a cam, head work, better exhaust and an electronic ignition.

I know a lot of people question making power out of these little guys but i love the size of the bike to much to want to go to a larger bike.

who knows in the distant future i may do a Fuel Injection setup using a Megasquirt ECM and Ford EDIS ignition system.. im sure that would improve the bike quite a bit. Once i get access to my machine shop at school im going to try and do some of the R&D on fuel injection and getting the ford EDIS ignition system to work.. this would make for a completely tuneable setup. plus all the reliability of a modern bike. with all the class of our non composite motorcycles.