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I had the opportunity to put my 1300 on a dyno today. It was both good and bad at the same time. Good to finally see what this 37 year old motor actually puts out. Bad because it was less than I hoped for.

I was expecting 100-105HP at the rear wheel.

The actually numbers were 92.1 HP with 130 ft/lbs of torque.

He stuck the probe in the tailpipe and the bike is burning VERY rich. As if the black cloud wasn't my clue As the RPMs climbed it got richer. At 7000 rpm it pretty much ran out of enough air to fire properly and began breaking down. My tachometer is off by about 1000 rpm as well. When it reads 8000 its actually 7000.

The good news is he thinks I can easily pick up another 10 or more HP by getting the carbs set up right. He was very enthralled with the bike and wants to set it up for me. He's offered me a really good flat rate to take them apart, clean them again, and tune it on the dyno so I am going to take him up on the offer.

Interesting information. You're out in Nova Scotia so it's safe to say you're pretty close to sea level. Did you jet the carbs with a kit? it will be good to find out what jets are in it and if the float levels are off and what jets he sets up the carbs with. Looking forward to hearing how you make out.

Yes I am at sea level. I could actually see the ocean from the dyno.. about 100 feet away
The carb rebuild kit had the same jets as the carb originally had. From memory I think 92.5?
I can't say for sure if my float levels are actually correct because I am a complete novice. It would be nice to have a pro do this and get it right from the start. The carbs have been an issue for me from the beginning. I did the best I could at the time. It starts easy. Idles well but a tad higher than it should despite the idle screw being backed off all the way. It runs on all six with decent power and doesn't smoke unless I come on to it hard. Plugs are burning the right colors. It does stumble a bit around 3k when the main jets come online and sputters out over 7000. I broke my carb sync tool so I don't know if that is even right. I'm amazed I got it this far LOL.

Here is the video of the dyno runs.



Just a bit smoky LOL

Typical smoke related to valve seals. High vacuum created by downshifting from high rpm's will suck in oil around the intake valve seals, then running back up to high rpm will burn off that oil and leave a cloud of smoke. I wouldn't worry too much about it now, not until it starts smoking profusely at idle. You're going to be doing the valves at some point down the road though.

Definately doesn't sound crisp. I hear the stumble up at high revs. I also see a lot of jacking of the rear end which tells me that the rear end wasn't lashed down. I've seen slippage of the rear tire on the dyno also giving lower false numbers. Usually when running vehicles up on the dyno causes the rear end to bite down on ther dyno wheel but there's a lot of weight transfer forward on the kz when running it up due to the design of the rear end. I would think that another 10-15 hp would show up on the numbers if the rear end was lashed down.

With an engine this old I guess it stands to reason the valve seals are getting ripe. The engine had only 20k+ miles on it which means it sat for a quite a bit to let the valve seals dry out. Its not going through significant amounts of oil... I check every day and it rarely requires a top up so that is good.

The KZ always lifts its ass when coming on it hard. Must be the shaft drive setup, yes? Makes sense I would lose a few ponies on the dyno because of it.

So here is the weird thing. The manual lists the torque at 11.8 kg/m which converts to 85.3 ft/lbs. How the in hell did I get 130 ft/lbs? That is almost 18 kg/m.

Here is the dyno sheet. The sqiggles are from shifting etc.