My new bike - 1983 Kawasaki KZ550

[alantf]

Originally Posted by Water Warrior

and is good on spinach.

No, no, a thousand times no! NOTHING can make spinach edible!

[alanmcorcoran]

I like my spinach sprinkled with a little Berryman's served with some Rotella-T on the side. Dee-lish!

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by Water Warrior

Vinegar doesn't mix with gas ! Come on Easy, you can read,

It was a JOKE.......old Mr. Grouch. Notice the BSEG smiley ??? :poke2:

[Water Warrior 2]

[quote=Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by "Water Warrior":fj1hla6u

Vinegar doesn't mix with gas ! Come on Easy, you can read,

It was a JOKE.......old Mr. Grouch. Notice the BSEG smiley ??? :poke2:[/quote:fj1hla6u]

I have no excuse...............oh wait, I missed my morning nap and had a brain fart.

[primal]

Alright guys, I just got back from taking the KZ out for a shake down ride. Man, does this bike pull! And that's WITH twice the amount of recommended Berryman B12. I mean, yea, its only 55 HP @ 9000 RPM (didn't even get close to that), but its still impressive. After riding this bike, I think the only reason I might ever want something more powerful would be to get the same performance at a lower RPM range.

There are a few gremlins that still need worked out (anyone wanna send me a gremlin bell!? ), though. The brake light switch on the master cylinder popped out on me before I took it out for a ride. It's held in place by little snaps on the switch, but the plastic is brittle so I don't know how well it will stay. Also, at some point in the last mile of my ~7 mile ride the tach cable unscrewed itself from the engine. Luckily it didn't come all the way out, else I would have lost the screw on cap. Once the engine cools down a bit I'm gonna go out and try to put it back in.

Now all that I need to do to make my bike legal is get it inspected.

[Water Warrior 2]

Primal, you are just getting a taste of why the Kawi 550 was the best mid sized racer in it's day. A lot of riders cut their teeth on this bike on the track with little or no modification.

[primal]

Indeed. It really is an impressive bike from what I can tell so far. Not as fast as modern 600cc sport bikes, but MORE than enough get up and go to last me for quite some time.

And I'm not gonna lie... it'll be nice to smoke all those Harley riders that blew past me while on my GZ.

[mr. softie]

Props for getting the Kawi out on the road primal! Your efforts getting it running right will repay you with miles of smiles. Well worth your while I'm sure.

[primal]

So, as much as I hate to say this, I'm beginning to think that an inline-4 isn't for me. Or, at least not this one. I do like the bike, but I've been getting annoyed with the high revving engine. So, I think I'm gonna put it up for semi-sale and keep my eye out for a v-twin bike this summer.

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by primal

So, as much as I hate to say this, I'm beginning to think that an inline-4 isn't for me. Or, at least not this one. I do like the bike, but I've been getting annoyed with the high revving engine.

I can see how you would have that feeling.....coming off a 250 where you NEED to twist the throttle vigorously to get moving at all BUT (assuming it is running right), that 550 has enough low end torque to make for a pleasant and interesting ride without rev'ing the engine so high. Try limiting yourself to 50-60% of the red line and see how it feels.

(If you are doing that already, then "never mind" and we can talk about small Vtwins! Then you will be back to wishing it WOULD rev higher; there doesn't seem to be a happy median.)