The below info is mostly for my own personal future reference, but hopefully someone else out there in internet space gets a benefit from it. Obviously a ton of options for aftermarket cams, but I’m going to highlight only three specific cams. specifically for the z1 / kz900 / kz1000 motor. specifically for 1015cc or […]
Our friend George sent over another vintage Z1 article. It’s the same year and color scheme as mine. From George; “I wanted to wish you and the clan a happy New Year. I ran across this Z1 article (Big Bike September 1974) and though Ed might a copy of it. It’s a pretty basic stock […]
George is one of our buddies who comes out on Thursday rides periodically. He sent over this article from an old Cycle Guide mag. Denco was an old performance company. They list the mods they made to their z1. Fuck the z1 and kz’s are the best. I did a Kelly loop on mine last […]
After doing an “old guy” inspired clean up of my z1, where I tried to get shit as cosmetically dialed as I was able. I decided to have my tank/tail repainted. As I said before, my z1 is a 74, but whomever had it before me had a 75 tank/tail on it. They look pretty […]
I forget who it was… but someone we know had a funny story. Someone came up to them and was like… sweet resto-mod bro. I think it was Brad. He replied; “uh, my bike is a stock junky cb550”. Ha. Such a stupid phrase, resto mod. Anyway. Got the z1 back together. No more fuked […]
As seen in previous post, the z1 blew out 4 (non-heli’d) cam cap bolt holes randomly, out of no where after a year of being totally fine. So, I heli-coiled the z1 cam caps fucked threads last night. Went well. Engine is fixed. Really glad I didn’t have to take head off and take to […]
Jesus fucking Christ. Just when I think the z1 is solid and done, something else breaks. The first gen KZ motor has a weak spot. The caps which hold the camshafts down and in place, have shitty bolt holes. They’re m6 threaded holes in the soft aluminum head. The sequence for removing the cams and […]
We know… Kawasaki’s are the fast bikes of the 70s / 80s. Eddie Lawson was the factory Kaw racer of the very early 80s. – Kaw big 4-cyls started out with the z1 (73-75) – z1 became a kz900 (76-77) – kz900 became a kz1000 (77-83?) In early 80s, kawasaki took the J motor kz1000 […]
Ain’t no chopper got no two cams…
See my other post here regarding how my 74 Z1 frame was cracked. Adam helped out big time and welded the frame where it was cracked. Creating those extra frame braces and gussets was not easy so huge thanks. We did all this and placed the bracing and gussets based on pics we’ve seen from […]
Shit… My kawasaki z1 frame is cracked. Anyone know anything about fixing frames? That’s the z1… The frame is cracked to the point where it’s sort of scary. Both my main downtubes are cracked. The left one is cracked all the way through. All the way around. Can’t believe I never noticed it. Adam randomly […]
So sick… I think the z1 / kz900 / kz1000 has become my favorite cycle. For a crappy old 70’s bike… man they can make some power. Pics are from here: http://elcorramotors.blogspot.com
Still looks funny no matter how you say it.
Mostly z1’s, kz900 and kz1000s. A couple Honda and Suzuki in there. Pics are shitty low res. whatever. Pretty cool to see how they set certain things up. I recently added a lockhart oil cooler to my z1 and set it up in the normal spot above the headers and ran the lines over the […]
Destination – two rivers Wisconsin Yea we drank too much in Milwaukee trying to make the post from yesterday… Milwaukee is wayyyy cooler than Green Bay. Green Bay can suck a dick. So… We did stuff. Hangover pending… we’ll update tomorrow.
Destination – pictured rocks national lakeshore again So we met a 21yr old dude named Blake from this little town here called Christmas. Super nice dude. He camped with us the other night. He’s a local here at pictured rocks. He showed us some badass shit. He said he used to swim distance competitively… And […]
Destination – pictured rocks national lakeshore – we made our way to pictured rocks which is a national park which borders the south end of Lake Superior. – crazy 300 ft tall cliffs that go down into the lake – water is insane crystal clear – hung out and took a mid day nap at […]
Destination – Grand Maris Michigan – woke up on the beach and a maintenance guy called the cops on us but cops never came – headed north back over the 5 mile mackinaw bridge towards pictured rocks national lakeshore in the upper peninsula of Michigan. – mackinaw city is a horrible tourist trap. Never go […]
Destination: Mackinaw City, Michigan ‘Where the men are men and so are the women’. – guy at the lunch spot stop. We tried to get up and out of Leno’s place before he got up and pulled another wild card on us. It was a 3 mile dirt road back to a real road. We […]
Random
Blast
From Past
Published - Jun 6, 2019
In a little over a week Ben, Andrew, Alex, Ed, and myself are heading out West to explore British Columbia. Last month we all packed our bikes and shipped them out to Portland, OR. Our final stop be will Missoula, MT where Ed and I plan to keep our XR’s so we can fly out […]
