TOPIC:

Hi everyone, Gareth here from Blenheim in En Zed. I have after many years managed to pick up one of my bucket list bikes, a 81 KZ1300 A3. 12500miles on the clock with one owner ex USA.
The bike is in pretty good condition considering its age. A minor tickle up of the paint is all that's required to make it good brand new I reckon.
One question for the wise out there, the balance tube between the forks has been caught and mangled by the steering lock mechanism. Has anyone got an idea if they are able to be made locally? I think a brake business should be able to make a hose fitting that would work. Thoughts??

Here is a pic of the bike.

Cheers!

Gareth

Hello from the West Coast of the U.S.

Nice looking A-3 you have.

Yes you should be able to remove that crossover tube and have a replacement braided line made.

Let us know how it turns out.

Todd.

Oh there are so many parts on that bike you can't get anymore, like the plastic horn cover and the original fuel tap, sigh

Yes i can imagine some bits are hard to come by. My other bike, an RE5 suzuki was tricky to find parts for until i found a place in tennessee which speciallised in nothing but re5s! A goldmine!
This bike is pretty complete so should be a straight forward resto.
Cheers
Gareth

I am in Tauranga. let me know if you are up this way and we can have a catch up. check ebay for your crossover pipe.
Cheers

Cheers Rob, will give you a bell when we are up that way.
My father who is retired is a bit of a dab hand at bike restorations, he has restored two suzi re5s and is tidying up this one as well. We think a brake shop should be able to make up a balance tube locally so got fingers crossed.
The re5 went from this....


To this!