'78 KZ1000 makeover

You know that your motor looks good when people are counting the cooling fins on your cases. BTW I looked at mine and I have the thirteen ribs on the lower but I only have eight ribs on the upper case.

I'll have to measure that inner reinforcing rib the next time I have the cases out of the frame for welding. Thanks for the clarification Jack I'm sure my cases will turn out to be plain 'ol KZ1K cases. There is nothing special about my bike, just a plain jane run of the mill standard 1000. Sure, it'll be a little spruced up when I'm done though. On a different note I have decided to name my bike "Franken Z" :laugh: So far I have Kawi, gixxer and Yamaha parts on her. There may be a Honda part in the future too, I haven't decided on a few aspects of the build. Josh's bike is my Franken twin

OK, you guys have me very curious and very confused :S
What ribs are we talking about here? The ones shown in porchev914's earlier post have 15 on the lower case. Should we be counting the upper case only?? Thanks

I'm glad you stopped by 79MKII, long time no see. Since you weren't familiar with single sided swingarms a little over a month ago, how do you like the way things are turning out? As far as the engine cases go, it seems the only way to correctly identify a MKII case is to measure the center reinforcing rib, unless someone else can chime in on an external ident?

Things are coming out great! I would love a SSSA myself - maybe someday. I haven't posted but I've been watching closely! I have a MKII and a standard KZ "A" sitting next to each other in my garage, so I thought I'd compare the cases. I'm just not sure what to look for.

OK, just ran out to the garage to compare. It's the ribs on the TOP case that are different, not the lower case as I had pictured.

The 78 A has only 7 ribs and the 79MKII has 13. Got it now. I also realize that this isn't always a good way to tell - as we've learned here today.

On the other hand, it's probably safe to assume that NO MKII cases would have 7 ribs, right? 13 ribs could be either?

The next time I have my cases out, I'll measure the inner reinforcing web. We'll see see if the 13 rib myth has any substance

Are you planning on leaving the rear fender in the stock position? I'm just wondering if you will have room for the pipe and taillight when your suspension is in compression. This assumes that you are sticking with the undertail exhaust.

Excellent observation Josh. To answer your question, yes, I will be raising the tail. I don't think I will do anything until I have a shock and a muffler system. I'm gonna try and snag a pair of Duc 848/1098 mufflers. I'd like to stick with an existing undertail system to simplify things. What do they call that.......lazy? I don't think that I'd have enough room under there for mufflers and full shock compression. I'd hate to put rubber marks on Ti mufflers

Here's something.I have never seen a pipe tucked so tight. look at the front top bend. it looks like it goes across before going down?:side:

this tail looks better though.imo.

heeres another pipe solusion. it may be a little loud though.:laugh: :woohoo: