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For interest, just finishing a re-build on the KZ from frame up fired up lovely today after getting timing right, not overdressed and no glitter on these

Lookin' good there Mister. I understand you needed to do extensive work to bring this one back from the dead. How about sharing the story with the other members here. We do love hearing tales of woe !!

We should have an award system for recognizing the brave who resurrect the old girls and get them back on the street. (I'm talking the bikes)

No Tales of Woe here, have built 4 of these now. However the one I am just finishing now started as a frame and swingarm in a pretty sorry state bonus was it had a log book along with some other odds and sods. I had a look around my garage to see what other parts I had lying around and had enough miss matching gear to put together a rolling Chasis. So off to powder coaters I went. It then became a parts source task, for all the critical gear such as an engine for starters, full body kit and tank, switch gear, exhausts elephants ears, Regulator, headlight, tail light, indicators CDI and on and on and on Engine came without pickups, pick up housing or cylinder head fitted.
Anyway long and short of it all started project about 6 months ago and am at the stage in the photo as shown the bike being the one with the KZ1300 badging on it soon to be changed to the z1300 logo.
Parts have been sourced from Canada, USA, Scotland, Surrey, Essex, Southampton, Derby,Nottingham amongst others.
Today was the day after all the work put in that I decided to fire it up, obviously I had to fit a head to the motor set up all the critical timing which proved to be a bit of a bug bear but got there following discussions with friends in the UK.
Anyway it fired up without much of a problem and soon was blasting from all 6 cyliders the blisters are a testament to that fact after shoving them on all the down pipes, runs and sounds sweet, just a little more fine tinkering to do. fit breaks headlamp and wire front indicators. No paint job has been done on this bike sourced bit by bit in Starlight blue all along with the original decal striping (another huge bonus. As said all in all no stress or woe been a pleasure to do and great to see it going back on the road. The pic shows

how it started

Your "Yank" KZ1300 and your "rest of the world" Z1300 are impressive! You are to be commended for your hard work, dedication, perseverance, and attention to detail in resurrecting the KZ1300. Chasing down all the proper bits is time consuming and expensive.

I hope everyone appreciates your efforts in keeping another magnificent 1300 alive. The first picture is excellent for illustrating the difference in the U.S.A. only petrol tank and the 2 gallon larger tank the rest of the world received.

Thanks for sharing the photos and the rebuild story.

Truly impressive Mark. That's a ton of work in 6 months. Maybe "Globemaster" will have to rethink his on line handle here. Seems we have a new Globemaster!!

Top job Mark.
That's a really impressive difference between the "before and after" photos.
Cheers Tim