My KZ1300 project thread (photo heavy)

siral wrote: Good luck with the rebuild it looks like you have your work cut out for you, but is going to be so worth while. And when it does go back on the road it will give you many thousands of hasle free riding.
One of my friends had a cx500t many years ago loved it till a white van decide he did not like it.

I'm hoping that, when time comes, installation won't be quite as rough as removal. Lots of these fasteners are corroded or time-bonded together.

The CX500T is really a trip. It's not fast, but it's a hoot to ride. You can crank the throttle WFO and from 3,000-5,500 rpm it just kind of strolls along. The turbo is very frenetic and starts to build boost only around 5,500, at which point it starts to work. At peak it is pushing 18.5 pounds of boost! It feels like a two-stroke bike as it goes from 40 horsepower to 89 horsepower in about a second and a half.

That's a bike that is not meant to be adulterated, however. In fact, I ran into a guy here in Phoenix several months ago at a motorcycle show. He was showing his CX500T, the only other one I've seen apart from my stepfather-in-law's. Apparently there are only 40 of these bikes still on the streets in the US!

I don't know how, but my big bore kit arrived yesterday. It baffles me that I just ordered it from Japan last, what, Saturday? I can't get UPS to ship me something from New York that fast!

It'll be a fair while before the kit goes in, but at least it's here!

I think my kit arrived from Japan in 3 or 4 days. Same again when I ordered another set of rings and spare head gasket.

Well, major frame disassembly has been completed! This is a rather huge milestone for this project.




It took a lot of careful and creative tool use to get here, what with some seriously nasty fasteners!

Here's one of my new pistons next to one of the old ones. The new piston has a 64mm diameter and is noticeably lighter. Interestingly, it's also more crowned; that might help with flame-front propagation. Skirt depth looks the same.

looking good buddy
i was thing of playing about in the winter with one of my 1300's even contemplating a super charger on to it and please do not judge the purists i might have to trike one of them!!!
Wondering do you have a link or website for the pistons and stuff you ordered was going to strip down one of the bikes engines over the winter and may as well change the rings and pistons while it is stripped down.
thanks and good luck with rest of the build

I purchased the piston kit from the eBay seller cruznimage_co, item number 141177318706.

I also purchased my carburetor rebuild kit from the same seller. The cost was right (much cheaper than OEM), the quality seems good, and shipping from Japan is surprisingly fast.