Old Friend

This is "Old Friend". My 1980 KZ1300 that I traded for. The bike has been around for a long time. A friend of mine who I've known since I was a little kid had it, as well as two others. He got it in probably the mid 1990's from a guy he worked in the Kawasaki dealer with. When my friend (Kieth)bought his first 1300 new in the crate and brought it home I fell in love with it. I was about 5 or 6 years old. In a small quiet town the guy with the big motorcycle that has a stereo blarring The Allman Brothers and Marshall Tucker Band stands out. I knew I had to have one! Fast forward to 2014 and I decided it was time. I called him up and said that the "Battlestar"
(the name painted across the fairing of his original 1300) had sat long enough and I wanted it. He couldn't part with it because of sentimental reasons. He said he would trade me this one for the 1983 GS1100-L that I bought to flip. The GS was nice, but it wasn't the bike I always wanted so it was a no-brainer. He had started taking this bike apart to sell parts and fix up the other two he still has.

I could go on with more of the story, but I would imagine you get the point. I have a special place for vehicles from my past. I have my Dad's 1978 KZ650-SR that he got when I was a kid. I remember riding around on the tank with him. I have my Mom's 1977 KZ650-B that I originally sold to her in 1999 or 2000 so I coud buy a KZ1000, and my Grandfather's 1965 Ford F-100. It just feels right to me to keep things in the family!

I'll try to keep my build information updated with plenty of pictures and keep it from being boring.

Nice memories, welcome aboard

Over the last couple of days I've gotten lots of the bike back together, Tail light mount and rear cowl are back on and bolted down tight. Got the front fender mounted. Lowered the forks up through the trees. It has shorter rear shocks on it than the stock shocks. Can anyone tell me what the length of the stock shocks are? These are from a Spectre that my buddy parted out. I haven't measured but I think he said they are about an inch and a half shorter. In stock form I could probably ride it, but it's a little too tall for me to feel like I master it.

It's coming along, slowly but surely!

Welcome Mellvis, It all takes time but you will get there. Crikey I have had mine nearly 12months and only just started doing a few things, bought the decals and bought a sample pot of paint from England so I can get the color matched up over here and with the helpful generosity off Kawaboy obtained new O-rings for my carbs which as we speak are getting vapour blasted

Thanks everyone. I find this site kind of inspirational and motivating. I went today to have a new key cut because I managed to bend the only key I had for it. Luckily the shop was able to make a good copy and put the original in a key straightening machine (new one on me) so it should work again. My next quest its to find headlight brackets. This bike came with the big touring pack so it didn't have them. Does anyone offer a nice aftermarket set? I like to go stock with most everything but WOW the price of these things! Hopefully I'll add more pictures this weekend but right now it's sunny so it's of to ride the Cub Cadet for a while.

I'm quickly getting to the point of removing and cleaning the carbs. I see a tool listed in the service manual that is for aligning the carbs. I don't quite get the point here. Do they really require a tool to align them? Is this only if they are tacke apart from the mounting rack? I assume I can remove the bowls and diaphragms without needing a jig to line them back up. Can someone shine some light on this for me?