Maiden Voyage!!!! The mighty Zed lives again!

After 5 years the journey has come to a new phase... RIDING!!!

My wife took this with her phone yesterday, the very first ride. I have never ridden this one, it was not drivable when I got it.

It is now!



Here is the full project thread on KZR... kzrider.com/forum/11-projects/367864-oh-...i-done-my-new-kz1300

So just a few minor issues, it's a bit hard starting when its cold, in my experience with CV carbs that has been common. My idle screws are 3-1/2 turns out and it runs well when warm. Any suggestions to help the cold starting?

The fuel gauge fell to E during a second ride today (tank still has lots of fuel in it). So that will need looking into.

Other than that she runs like a watch.

She looks and sounds great. Love that color!

Congratulations!

Hopefully I'll be joining you with a maiden voyage of my own in about 7 days.

Beautiful, and inspirational! Mine's been in the build stage for 2 years now, and I still have a lot to do -- yours looks great, and I can't wait to make more progress on mine now!

Glad to hear the build went well and it's finished. I've tried to follow along with your post "Oh no What have I done" on KZrider.com to keep an eye on your project. It's been a while since the posts started up again.

I know at one point you had done some port clean up and had flow ratings which suggested a grind in the cams would be in order. Did you ever do the cams? Who did the work if you did? I've been looking into getting the cams ground for mine but the only guys that would POSSIBLY do the work is Megacycle @ $900 for the weld up and grind. Sounds a little steep. I would be interested in hearing what you did in that respect.

I do intend to put cams in the bike, I left the stock ones in to start with. With changes to the ignition, larger displacement, and the head work, I figured it might be hard to sort out tuning problems if I changed the cams too.

I will pick up a set of cores and have them re-profiled. Megacycle is well regarded, but I know the guys at Delta Camshaft and if they have a profile I will have them do it. I ran a set from them in a Subaru a while back. If you want to do a set maybe we can get a deal if we send them in together, or if anyone else is interested. May save a few bucks.

Tyler wrote: I do intend to put cams in the bike, I left the stock ones in to start with. With changes to the ignition, larger displacement, and the head work, I figured it might be hard to sort out tuning problems if I changed the cams too.

I will pick up a set of cores and have them re-profiled. Megacycle is well regarded, but I know the guys at Delta Camshaft and if they have a profile I will have them do it. I ran a set from them in a Subaru a while back. If you want to do a set maybe we can get a deal if we send them in together, or if anyone else is interested. May save a few bucks.

I had a long talk over the phone with Megacycle about doing a set of cams and they told me that they wished they had removed the KZ1300 profiles from their catalogue. Apparently, they don't like the base material of the cam because it causes a lot of problems with warpage during the welding process. They described the process to me and it sounded like a lot of work. They said if I really wanted them done, they would do them but $900 U.S. would be the price and the prices would be going up. Probably more like $1050 U.S. I love my 13 but not that much.
I had one set of cams ground locally and he butchered them but looking at Delta's process, the butchered cams might be great candidates for reworking. Delta takes off .100" before building up and that's about what this clown did. I'd be looking for 284-286 duration and .375" lift. There was a VW grind at 284 dur and .375" lift for the 1.8 litre gas engine back in the 80's. If you talk with Delta, I'd be curious to hear of what pricing could be done. Right now I'm waiting for Ramsey Products who are looking at reproduction of the primary chains. Just an old retired fart here and only so much money for the candy store.