My new bike - 1983 Kawasaki KZ550
 

Picked up the bike that I bought on eBay (after checking it out in person, twice, of course ;) ) today. Pictures to come soon!

I'm planning on ratting it out a bit. I ordered some superbike bars and bar end mirrors today. I'll be repainting the tank and rims, and any other bodywork flat black. Also bought some new tires and a new chain and sprocket set.

Re: My new bike - 1983 Kawasaki KZ550
 

Good for you. The Kz was one of the best out of the box bikes back in the 80's.

Re: My new bike - 1983 Kawasaki KZ550
 

Awesome job. Congrats. I hope you keep a progress thread going with pics here. I'd love to see the work on it.

Re: My new bike - 1983 Kawasaki KZ550
 

Thanks everyone.

I'm kind of wishing now that I'd gone with Clubmans. After sitting on the bike today I realized that I would be able to reach clubmans fairly easily and still be pretty comfortable due to the bike's geometry. Might look into that at some point down the road.

Re: My new bike - 1983 Kawasaki KZ550
 

Clickable thumbnails:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...h_DSC00111.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...h_DSC00113.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...h_DSC00114.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...h_DSC00115.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...h_DSC00116.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...h_DSC00117.jpg

This one is interesting:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...h_DSC00112.jpg

Department of Defense? I think I might keep that on there instead of painting for the forks like I'd planned. I kinda like the historical aspect of it.

My plans:

- Replace the old handlebars with superbike bars
- Repaint rims. Keep the parts that are black now black, but the silver parts will be red.
- Repaint tank flat black
- Remove exhaust, sand off the rust, and repaint with heat-resistant grill paint
- Add ammo can saddle bags and relocate rear turn signals
- Possibly paint front brake caliper at some point
- Repaint as much of the chrome as I can flat black
- Eventually add some old school style fork guards (you know, those rubber accordian looking things)
- I'd really like to paint the engine, but I think that will be too complex a job and will prevent me from riding for several weeks most likely.

Re: My new bike - 1983 Kawasaki KZ550
 

Well I'm sorry but I feel I just HAVE to say this:

You have a classic bike there that appears to be in EXCELLENT condition. I think it would be a grevious mistake to do all (any) of the things that you propose.

Really. Seriously. :cry:

Why not just ride it and enjoy it ......and do just what NEEDS to be done to maintain it.

But then I am biased. I just don't understand spending all that time and money on perceived "bling", if you only have one bike and not a lot of money to throw around.

Now, if it was a rat bike to start with, that would be a WHOLE different story.........and there are a LOT of mid-80's KZ550's that ARE rat bikes.

Re: My new bike - 1983 Kawasaki KZ550
 

It would be a rat after I got done with it. I honestly hate the bars on it right now, so I'm all about new ones.

BTW, I'm not so sure about the red on the mags, but I can't really visualize it either, so I'll have to mock it up in Photoshop and see.

Re: My new bike - 1983 Kawasaki KZ550
 

The tank has a spot of rust about the size of a quarter on the right side right under the Kawasaki logo. It NEEDS to be repainted so it doesn't rust through. Since I don't have the time or funds to do a proper paint job it's getting ratted out. There's a lot more rust on the bike (exhaust especially) than you can really see from the pictures.

Re: My new bike - 1983 Kawasaki KZ550
 

Ask and ye shall receive! I actually like this idea more now that I see look at my (badly done) MSPaint mockup.

http://www.postimage.org/gx18UIIi.jpg

Re: My new bike - 1983 Kawasaki KZ550
 

Photoshop the rims and exhaust black and let's see how it looks.