[Ga Joe]

I've been lurking for about a month and decided to finally toss my build up here and start trying to find a direction to take with it. After countless hours reading I haven't come any closer to figuring out what I want to do with her. I'm bouncing between a cafe build and an all out fighter...

This will be pic Heavy. :fish4rep:

Back in Feb I snagged this :kawasaki: '82 KZ750R1 GPz for $560. Would turn-over but wouldn't idle or run well. So the PO said he had cleaned the carbs, bought new NGK Plugs, and two brand new tires, but wasn't getting spark on 1 & 4 and thought it was a bad coil.

Here it is loaded in the back of a lady friends 1500.

After I unloaded it.

Confirmed the plugs and tires were new and after CLOSE inspection I realized that the coils weren't bad, the plug wires were. So I cut the wires about a 1/2" back on both sides and re-attached them. The bike fired up! The carbs... well thats a different story.

And a shot of my awesome license plate, for the non-Georgians, 96 Rock was THE radio station of Georgia... may it RIP.

Smog Shit.

And... look at this nasty shit!

Stripping her down a bit...

Spent quite a few hours cleaning contacts to get some better current flow.

Ordered some cheap block-off plates.

After I THOUGHT I had it mechanically sound I had problems firing again which kept me from a trip to Helen. While the coils still appeared to be fine the wires were just disintegrating. However, 30 year old coils. So I went ahead and picked up two replacement Dyna coils and wires and fab'd up a plate to hold them closer to the frame under the tank. All pics are on the Nikon back home.

Noticed gas dripping down the left side of my tank...

took it to my buddies shop.

Charlie Fisher going to town...

Then after noticing the bike was red, then some metallic blue color, then dark navy blue, I decided to take 'er down and paint it.

Not a pro but better than a rattlecan!

I ordered rebuild kits for the carbs and completely tore into them. Replaced everything except the floats, float needles (okay needed to replace these and I now have 4 sitting on my bench waiting for me) , and float pin (whatever the hell it's actual name is...).

Baldy over at KZrider had a couple emblems laying around so I got those, went ahead and popped em on.

So I'm about to park it for the rest of the summer, I put about 2,500 miles on it over the last 5 months. I'm stuck though as I like the idea of doing a swingarm swap but never having done something this major before and being a novice welder I'm not sure that's the best route to take right now.

I could just freshen up the motor, replace the aged shocks, and keep her mostly stock, but that sounds boring and if I wanted to do that I would have stayed on KZrider and not joined a group of people who respect individuality and CUTTIN' FRAMES!

I was thinking about ripping it down, cutting off all the tabs, bracing the frame a bit, trimming the tail, doing a swingarm swap to a newer GSXR arm with a monoshock, ZX Forks with newer brakes, rebuilding the motor and possibly going to some 810 Wiseco's, making my own seat, new gauge cluster, headlight, rear sets, shiny bits...

And... damn. So many options.

 

[eccles291]

I'm totally with you on the "What the fuck should I do with it?" question, as I'm in a similar quandry with my GPz9.

I was thinking about ripping it down, cutting off all the tabs, bracing the frame a bit, trimming the tail, doing a swingarm swap to a newer GSXR arm with a monoshock, ZX Forks with newer brakes, rebuilding the motor and possibly going to some 810 Wiseco's, making my own seat, new gauge cluster, headlight, rear sets, shiny bits...

Looks like you got plenty of ideas already though. Keep us posted whatever you do.

 

[Ga Joe]

I'm totally with you on the "What the fuck should I do with it?" question, as I'm in a similar quandry with my GPz9.

Looks like you got plenty of ideas already though. Keep us posted whatever you do.

Ha! Yeah well we can be in good company together then. I have ideas but translating ideas into actual work is a different story.

 

[kwakazuki]

Looking good! How much better does that little beasty run with all the emissions garbage stripped out?

 

[Ga Joe]

Well it didn't run when I got it. Ran like ass after I cut the plug wires and got spark to all 4 cyl.

So I never really got a good idea, prolly not any big gains there just removes the re-circulation of spent gasses.

 

[Ga Joe]

UPDATE:

I invited my neighbor below me to come up for a few beers, bullshitting about my GPz and what I wanted to do to it when he asked what experience I had on other bikes. I'm not a vet by any means, rode dirtbikes and 4 wheelers as a kid, never owned one, and my experience with riding other streetbikes is just an 02 ZX6R, 02 ZX9R, and a 2013 Star Bolt 950. The Ninja's belong to a buddy and his younger brother and the Bolt is my Pops'. So he tossed me his keys and told me to follow him... and to grab him another beer as payment. So we walk out of the building to his Garage... He backed out his 2009 Triumph Speed Triple (Didn't take pics... might get some later) and handed me his helmet.

I took it out the apartment and down the access road and instantly noticed the difference that 30 years of technological advancements makes in motorcycles... I didn't get above 65 and didn't get out of 3rd gear even shifting barely over idle... I could feel the power, I didn't get into the throttle at all, quite awesome. Soo.... Going to keep the GPz and do a cafeish build to it this fall for the build-off but I'm going to save up for a good deal this off-season on a newer bike to seriously play with. So for the next couple months I'm going to get a good plan together. I'm going to find some shops that can do the work I can't. Then I'll get an idea of about how much it's going to cost me and then double that for a budget. Going to save most of the fab work and whatnot for the build off, don't know if I'll be able to do it in time as I'm planning to propose to my ole lady around the end of the year (let the jeering commence).

So it shall be written, so it shall be done.

 

[jmartin1110]

No jeering from me. Got married almost 4 yrs ago and it was one of the best decisions Ive ever made. Sounds like you have a good plan. It would be great to have an old school muscle bike and a modern piece of sportbike goodness. That's still my plan as well. Ive got the old muscle bike..now for something FI that I can just turn the key and go thrash on it. Cant wait to see your progress. Ive always been a huge fan of these bikes

 

[Ga Joe]

No jeering from me. Got married almost 4 yrs ago and it was one of the best decisions Ive ever made. Sounds like you have a good plan. It would be great to have an old school muscle bike and a modern piece of sportbike goodness. That's still my plan as well. Ive got the old muscle bike..now for something FI that I can just turn the key and go thrash on it. Cant wait to see your progress. Ive always been a huge fan of these bikes

Exactly!

 

[powdr7]

Color is tits!

 

[Ga Joe]

Color is tits!

:rock: Thanks man. It's a love it or hate it color. I've caught equal amounts of grief and praise for it. I'm working now to mock-up how I want to shorten ass a bit. Think I will keep the stock tail at least for a base, I like the classic look but think with some slight modifications it could be refreshed... and for the love of god I can't wait to pull those tacky ebay plastic carbon-fiber wannabe turn signals off (that the PO put on) and actually mount some lower profile ones next to a new brake light.