My new bike - 1983 Kawasaki KZ550

[primal]

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.

[Water Warrior 2]

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

[patrick_777]

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

[primal]

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.

[primal]

Clickable thumbnails:





This one is interesting:


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.

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by primal

My plans:

- Replace the old handlebars with superbike bars

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.

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.

[patrick_777]

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.

[primal]

Originally Posted by Easy Rider

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.

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.

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.

[primal]

Originally Posted by patrick_777

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.

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

[mrlmd1]

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