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I bought my B model new in 1980. Sucker cost $4500! I read an article in "Rider" magazine about the bike and just had to have one. Dealer had to special order it and I thought it would never get here. I rode it 12,000 miles the first 6 months I owned it. I changed jobs and didn't rid it much for several years and parked it in 1999 with 22,000 miles. Last march, I pulled it out of the barn and got it back on its feet. Overhauled the brakes, new coils, cam tensioner, new tires, and cleaned the carbs and fuel tank. Runs like it used to, took it on a road trip to Colorado, July 4, and got several positive feedbacks. Sure glad I didn't sell it for salvage a couple of years ago.

tx4726 wrote: I bought my B model new in 1980. Sucker cost $4500! I read an article in "Rider" magazine about the bike and just had to have one. Dealer had to special order it and I thought it would never get here. I rode it 12,000 miles the first 6 months I owned it. I changed jobs and didn't rid it much for several years and parked it in 1999 with 22,000 miles. Last march, I pulled it out of the barn and got it back on its feet. Overhauled the brakes, new coils, cam tensioner, new tires, and cleaned the carbs and fuel tank. Runs like it used to, took it on a road trip to Colorado, July 4, and got several positive feedbacks. Sure glad I didn't sell it for salvage a couple of years ago.

Awesome!

Bought mine back in 94 for 10000 Deutsche Mark, nowadays approx. EUR 5000.-/ USD 5870.-. The bike had been built from parts by and ole gentleman and the test ride actually has been my first one on a bike with more than 1 cylinder. Before I owned a Yamaha XT600.ö I was not aware about the Z1300 but met a friend one day on one. He used to be a very massive guy which fit perfectly to the bike below him. At that time I had been thinking about buying me a "real" bike and suddenly I knew what I wanted.
Ever since then starting the engine is an absolutely marvelous (if it starts, used to have two decades of issues). Just seeing it sitting there in the garage lifts my modd.

Here she is:

I cant help but wonder how bad the finish is on the Honda(referance Kwakka)
after removing a lump of angle iron that holds the carbs together!
Biltonjim looks like your getting some good responces
i first rode one in 1981 i was 16 yrs old and had just put on a set of Tyres for the owner.
mostly i was riding dirt bikes at that time, but was instantly impressed at how nice it was to ride, over the years whilst a mechanic i got to ride a few coming in for Warrant of Fitness tests.
after many years of riding owning a lot of other bikes, when i decided to do up a hold bike for fun the Zed was the first bike that came back to me as worth getting
(of course i did not know anything mechanically about their history!)
however after being shafted by the seller jerked off by idiots at Mainfreight 18 something months after buying the bike actually got to me (in quite a mess)
thanks to Robs persistence in pushing me into doing some thing with it i have got it going and on the way to getting it somewhat modernized and fully road Legal
its only my child hood memories that keep me going with it
all i can say is if you get it all sorted (and the guys on this site are very help full with that) im sure you will not be dissapointed
best of luck to you
Dion

And for those who bought a used bike, what was the appeal?

I'll have to be honest here- 20 some odd years ago, I got the mid 40 itch to find some fun in my life. I had a young family with younsters hanging around my feet. Working 6 days a week to pay the bills. I needed something back in my life to make all things worthwhile. The last ride I had that put a smile on my face was a 1981 Honda CBX. Running that engine up to redline in all five gears filled all of my cravings. so I started looking around for a CBX in the $3,000 range and nothing was to be found. $8,000 + was the going rate and I didn't have that kind of money to spent on a "Toy". Along came this 1980 KZ1300 B2 basket case for $500. It was in pieces and no exhaust. First, I'm not one for riding full fairing Baggers but the bike begged for my attention. So I bought it. The fact that it was a bagger really caused some grief. Everytime I looked at it, it wouldn't/couldn't put a smile on my face. It just wasn't a CBX. I like them naked with a big engine and the sound of a Ferrari. So it sat in a sorryful state for years. But I had a bike and at the time that was enough.
In the meantime, I'm renovating houses and selling them only to move to the next renovation. Each time the KZ follows me. I finally found time to get around to putting this bike together and went through the boxes of pieces to see what I had to work with. First on the list of WTF was the ignition coils. All 3 were split. Not good. Then looking down in the cam chain tunnel I see the tensioner wheel all chewed up. Ok, there's more to this resto than I wanted but it needed to be done.Started poking around the web looking for parts and found this site. Perfect, a site dedicated to the KZ1300. The more time I spent on the site the more engaged I got into getting the old girl running.
One day I was traveling up the Highway 400 in Ontario when out of nowhere came this screaming bike doing about 80 MPH. It was huge. It had a 6 into 1 pipe, sounded like a Ferrari, Looked kinda like a CBX and as fast as it came, it was gone. So with the wife in the car along with the kids, I stepped on the gas to catch up to the bike to find out what it was. The wife is screaming at me to slow down and the kids are crying because the wife's screaming at me, but I had to know . Sure enough it's a KZ1300 , naked . Alright, I can get into this. It's not a CBX but it meets all the requirements I needed to spur me one. So started the restoration/renovation of my B2 into a running A2 but at the same time I'm spoofing the KZ to look like a watercooled CBX. Candy Glory Red paint and decals that replicate the CBX decals only it will state KZXIII. Also, a big appeal for me is the ducktail tailpiece so some body faring work will happen to create that (well actually I have already fabbed it up) Just bought House of Kolor Orion Silver Max basecoat with Wineberry midcoat. It will be as close to the Candy Glory Red as I can get and have more sparkle from the Orion Silver Max. Looking forward to getting on with this project. In the meantime, I relax at night and stop by the KZ1300 forum to keep in the spirit and help out with answers when I can.
My "project" will take forever to finish. I was raised with an iron fist who taught me that work comes before play. To this day if I have work to be done then play will not happen. Restoring the KZ falls under the "play" catagory so even as a retired fellow, I have a lot of work to do. Unfortunately, the KZ gets attention when time permits. I will get her done, just not as fast as others on this site. Hanging around here on the site and helping out and conversing with other like minded people is almost as good as go out for a ride. Thanks for sharing.
KB

Fascinating thread this - great to read about peoples biking histories !
I have a confession that in 1982 I went to my local Kawasaki Centre to buy a gleaming Luminous Holy Green A3 he had in his showroom unsold for ages, but whilst there I had a demo on a shiny new GPZ1100B2 - which after a lot of consideration I bought instead of the 13 (was a cracking bike - loved it). So I came really close to getting a new one Only took me 30 years to finally get myself a Z1300.

I've had bikes all my life, but about 10 years ago I got into Japanese Classics, and started buying and restoring the bikes that I had as a young guy: Yam RD350, H1 500 Kwak, Suzuki GT750, Z900 Kwak, and about 5 years ago I had saved up a bit of cash so I started looking at the Z13 (and a CBX1000) the bikes I almost bought - so I eventually got myself a Z13. To say I was genuinely surprised how good the bike felt would be an understatement: really strong engine (feels almost as quick as my modern BMW) it brakes and handles far better than something that big should: oh yeah I forgot to mention the sound track .

5 years later I am still impressed by my Z13 - somebikes do not live upto the memories, hype or expectation (like my Kettle / Water Buffalo) but certainly not the case with the Z1300.