Good day from Southern Alberta.

KZCanuck

KZCanuck

New Member
Hey all. Long story short, was given a 78' KZ400 15 years ago by a friends Dad, got it lookin' pretty damn sharp over the next couple of years. Lent it to a friend for a trip and never saw it again. Have missed it ever since so I put a wanted ad out on a local classified site. Got a couple of replies, but a little far to go check them out in person. 2 days ago got a reply from a gentleman only an hour west that has a 75' KZ400. Bike is complete, but the engine is dismantled as it had seized up on him, and it's got the classic inch of dust syndrome. Haven't seen it in person yet, but got a couple of pictures and am hoping to get out to see it sometime this week. Don't have a price yet as he told me to shoot him and offer, so I thought I'd post a couple of pics and get an idea of what I should offer the guy.

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Like I said, she's all there, just no where near running. I was thinking of starting low, like the old case of beer thing, but thought I'd ask for some opinions on where I should start.

Great site, and hopefully I'll be posting pics of myself loading this thing up into the back of a truck shortly!
 
Looks great. I live in Calgary.

I have a couple of kz650's and love them. The 400 twin is a great bike to restore, cafe, or bob. Please, sell that tank if you are thinking of a re-spray or leave it with its character. That was the coolest paint scheme IMO. The green being the ultimate find. Kz's are very reliable bikes and the carbs are easy to work on, unlike the honda twins. Too bad the engine seized, however, you should have no trouble finding parts or a donor engine.

Keep in mind that any bike that needs: engine work, carb rebuild kits, new petcock, battery, plugs, oil, rubber ect.. will cost a few bucks and often more than anticipated. In my experience take what you have in mind and add 500 - 1000 bucks.

A great source for KZ parts is Z1 Enterprises. They have just about everything and shipping is same day.

TJ's Cycle in Calgary has a KZ 440 engine on a parts bike out back that turns over and has compression. I was going to build a bobber, but ended up buying a money pit of a honda cl175. It maybe a good option.

Good Luck
 
Thanks for the info! That tank will definetley be saved as it is way too cool to paint! I'm going to hit up TJ's for a replacement as that's where my last KZ ended up!

And thanks for the tip about Z1. I know when I rebuilt the last one, parts were extremely hard to find for the old girl, and back then the internet was in it's infancy, so it was a bit of a challenge.

Now just to decide what to offer the guy...
 
Got a hold of the guy this morning and will be heading out tonight to take a look at the bike, and make an offer at the same time. Crossing my fingers!
 
Hmmm...never got out to look at it like I wanted, but the more I look at the pictures, the more I don't think that it's a KZ400. I think it's a KH500 triple. Not too sure if that's going to change my mind or not, but I'll know more after reading up on these things.
 
Well that's intereseting. It's a KH400 triple, or I think they call them the S3? Still going to pick it up I think, but not knowing a damn thing about these engines could be interesting!
 
The S3 is an AWESOME bike. It's said to better than any of the other triple street Kawis. It's power is only slightly less than the 500 triple, and it's much lighter and stiffer.

It's one of the bikes on my short list and hope to find one once I'm done with my second KZ400 and my '79 KZ650...
 
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