Which do you like best, the CBX or the KZ 1300?

A friend asked the question..
Which do you like best, the CBX or the K 1300?

About equal. The CBX is painfully OEM stock, so I'm super careful when riding it. Try to keep freeway miles minimal, the sound is whisper quiet.The KZ is a hot rodder. It's been massively modified by me back in the day when it was new and I had zero mechanical skills or tools. 

• For exhaust sound the KZ wins with the DG 6-1 system.
• For engine sounds, CBX. Soo smooth and quiet.
• Handling - KZ. Bigger diameter forks
• Brakes - KZ. Simply have better feel.
• Trans and Shifting - KZ, by far the best shifting bike I've EVER owned.
• Final Drive - CBX. Chain has no slop compared KZ shaft drive.
• Starting when Cold - KZ. The CBX has to crank to make vacuum to allow fuel.

• Starting when Cold - CBX. You can spin the engine without making spark, thus generating oil pressure before making heat and load on main bearing, camshafts, etc.

• Fit and Finish - CBX. No contest.
• Header Beauty - CBX.

• Electrical Charging - KZ1300. Two alternators. I can run heated gear, aux lights, everything and still be at 14.1 VDC.

• Maybe if the CBX wasn't so stock, it would be more fun. A snappy 6-1 or 6-2 system, remove the vacuum petcock, change the bars... I might need another one ASAP?

To be fair, one could add its predecessor, the Benelli 750 sei.
The bike came to me without looking for it, it belonged to a guy who owed me money and we paid off the debt, which I had already written off as lost, with two motorcycles that were gathering dust in his garage.
I was 25 years old at the time, just married, I remember that my wife and I went everywhere on Sundays, during the week we worked hard to pay the mortgage on the house.
We could ride 600 km in a day just to go to eat a Paella more than 250 km from home on secondary roads, with jet helmet and dressed in shorts putting the bike at 180km / h. on straight stretches without traffic, (crazy youth).
The Benelli Sei is the most beautiful bike I've ever owned, with its six exhaust pipes made of very thin chromed sheet metal, it went up and down in revs almost like a two-stroke, its sound still makes me shudder remembering it.
Three single carburetors with double nozzle outlet for each cylinder.
Kick or electric starter, platinum ignition.
It was a bike with its own personality, wherever it was it left a good puddle of oil and my hands always smelled of gasoline oozing from its two taps.
The design was good, the materials were bad, seals, plastics, engine parts ....
I had it about eight years, I sold it to a collector when I bought my BMW R1200C, with small children at home could not fit so many toys and bikes together in the back of the garage.



   
I had one just like this.
Now they are more valued than the Japanese ones, at least here in Europe, many less were manufactured and because of their unreliability many ended up junked.

dcarver220b wrote:

• Starting when Cold - KZ. The CBX has to crank to make vacuum to allow fuel.

Those Honda vacuum fuel valves have a vent hose that runs out the back.  Tip for easier starting after they've sat for a while: blowing gently on that vent hose opens the tap and allows fuel to flow into the bowls. 

Bucko wrote:

dcarver220b wrote:

• Starting when Cold - KZ. The CBX has to crank to make vacuum to allow fuel.

Those Honda vacuum fuel valves have a vent hose that runs out the back.  Tip for easier starting after they've sat for a while: blowing gently on that vent hose opens the tap and allows fuel to flow into the bowls. 
 

Blowing over the top, as to make a venturi effect, thus opening the petcock? Or actually blowing into the tube inner diameter?

The CBX is pretty cool in that you can crank the engine without spark to develop oil pressure before making combustion and placing load on the crankshaft. I've learned that during the initial no spark cranking, about 4 seconds two times, with the choke on really helps to fire the old gurl up more quickly. The KZ is like 1/2 a crank revolution and she's fired up.

Thanks for the tip!

d

You are fortunate to have experience of both the CBX and the KZ1300.  I think the CBX has the most beautiful to look at engine ever fitted to a motorcycle - in particular the black painted  CBX-B. and CBX-C version. 

I remember when the Japanese superbike war broke out in the late 1970’s  -  the CBX, GS1000, XS1100 were all coming onto the market. I was ready to buy a big bike, and considered all of these exciting models. However, the CBX, though very desirable, was significantly more expensive than the Suzuki or Yamaha, and that ruled it out for me. In the end, I ordered a XS1100. It had many appealing features, not least being the shaft drive. It was a fabulous bike, and I regret  selling it after about 20 years of ownership.
 When the KZ1300 was launched, I immediately wished to buy one, but lack of money ruled it out, until about ten years ago. I bought a non-running though unmolested A4, with 18,000 miles on the clock.  As of this writing, still awaiting restoration.