Published - Mar 5, 2018

Comments - 5

KZ camshaft info

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 […]

Published - Jan 3, 2018

Comments - 0

Another vintage Z1 article

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 […]

Published - Dec 19, 2017

Comments - 1

Denco z1 article

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 […]

Published - Sep 8, 2017

Comments - 7

Z1 paint

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 […]

Published - Jul 5, 2017

Comments - 10

Sweet resto-mod bro

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 […]

Published - Jun 8, 2017

Comments - 5

Heli-coil heaven

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 […]

Published - Jun 6, 2017

Comments - 4

Z1 cam caps

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 […]

Published - Apr 21, 2017

Comments - 9

Kawasaki and Eddie Lawson

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 […]

Published - Jan 10, 2016

Comments - 3

Z1 – KZ porn

                                                                                                                                                  

Published - Dec 19, 2015

Comments - 3

Z1 frame is welded

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 […]

Published - Mar 25, 2015

Comments - 15

Z1 frame is cracked

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 […]

Published - Oct 18, 2013

Comments - 2

More KZ race bikes

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

Published - Aug 27, 2013

Comments - 2

Kawasaki 70s race bikes

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 […]

Published - Aug 20, 2013

Comments - 0

Great Lakes tour – day 10

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.

Published - Aug 19, 2013

Comments - 1

Great Lakes tour – day 9

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 […]

Published - Aug 18, 2013

Comments - 2

Great Lakes tour – day 8

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 […]

Published - Aug 17, 2013

Comments - 0

Great Lakes tour – day 7

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 […]

Published - Aug 16, 2013

Comments - 0

Great Lakes tour – day 6

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 […]

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Published - Aug 10, 2014

PA trip – day 1

Destination – Delaware water gap. So, Nate and I are doing a week long trip around PA; camping, swimming, relaxing and boozing a bit. We’ll be riding around checking out some of the cool stuff in PA we’ve never seen. No real destination or plan… just doing whatever seems fun for the week. – my […]