81 gpz550

I'm up in the air guys I own an 81 gpz550 pretty much a barn find I got from nothing no money into it nothing all original beautiful bike I've been thinking about restoring to its original or doing a cafe fighter out of it tell me what you think I'll send a photo the bikes all original except for the gas tank and I don't have a front fairing that's it

Hi Dj.
I have one. They are quite rare now.
Do it justice by restoring it to its former glory!
I can't tell you the satisfaction I get when I get "thumbs up" from guys that recall the days when these bikes were in their prime.

Great bikes!

If you follow the links in my signature, you can download a bunch of manuals for that bike.
Also, read the valve train warning before removing the valve cover.

The '81 version of the GPz550 is special. Please choose wisely.

The rear turn signals are clearly aftermarket "flush mount" models, not OEM. It's possible whoever installed them drilled holes in the bodywork - you'll have to check.

The mounting of the taillight looks odd/out of place.

The airbox appears to be missing, or at least not installed. (It's difficult to see much detail in the picture.)

The correct tank for the '81 GPz550 may be fairly expensive if you can find one in good shape. Ditto for the fairing.

Small point: "cafe fighter" is not a thing. if you want to build something goofy, please sell the GPz to someone who will appreciate it and pick up another bike to butcher.

I appreciate all the comments! I agree with nerdy. I'll build something goofy out of something else! I love the history of the Gpz. I believe I'll integrate a few things like the signal lights since the rear tail was already done! Original tank! Which I've seen the costs!!!! Ouch! And bikini fairing! I was very lucky finding this! An older gentleman gave it and a 79 pe175 enduro to me one day. I still have to get titles. But I've got connections! I'm finding everything is expensive on these. And hard to find. Not quite sure what all has been done to it. I suppose we will find out soon enough. I've started doing small things like painting. Lowering gauges. The bigger stuff will come this winter. Thank you all for the input. I really don't want to chop it up. It's so cool the way it is! Thank you loudhvx for all the tech work you've done through the years! And ThatGpzGuy I agree they are special! Back to it's old glory! Only a little modernized

Oh and Nerdy, the rear tail light was bolted to a piece of 2x4 I removed it because it wasn't the correct one, and shotty install. There are small holes behind the integrated signals. And it didn't have the airbox. Nor pods on it. It had a horrible recirculating system delete. I've capped those off and removed the 2 or 3 extra filters that were hooked onto the system. It needs a header pipe. These are rusted through in places. A pulser coil is needed as well. About 5 min of running it dies. The resistance isn't correct on one of them. Pod filters would be good to get as well! Oh and headlight , tank, and fairings. Not quite sure about the muffler. It's a Cowley. All I can find is it's some sort of South African company that makes a few slip on types and a few specific auto mufflers. Would prefer a kerker or moriwaki. But it has a nice tone.

Nice find .I have 2 81 s great bikes

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configuration

Dj@187593 wrote: Oh and Nerdy, the rear tail light was bolted to a piece of 2x4 I removed it because it wasn't the correct one, and shotty install.

A 2x4? That's just... wow.

There are small holes behind the integrated signals.

D'oh!

And it didn't have the airbox. Nor pods on it. It had a horrible recirculating system delete. I've capped those off and removed the 2 or 3 extra filters that were hooked onto the system. It needs a header pipe. These are rusted through in places. A pulser coil is needed as well. About 5 min of running it dies. The resistance isn't correct on one of them. Pod filters would be good to get as well! Oh and headlight , tank, and fairings. Not quite sure about the muffler. It's a Cowley. All I can find is it's some sort of South African company that makes a few slip on types and a few specific auto mufflers. Would prefer a kerker or moriwaki. But it has a nice tone.

The airbox would be nice to have, but if you buy pods be sure to get decent quality (not the really cheap ones). The '81 GPz550 was jetted a little lean from the factory, so if you decide to use pods you may need to richen the jetting a bit.

DennisKirk.com has a Mac 4-into-1 reverse cone exhaust on sale right now for about $306.
www.denniskirk.com/mac/reverse-cone-exha...1055.prd/4411055.sku

(same item in both links)

Good luck!