1980 Kawasaki kz550

Well I got the old bike running the other night and was test riding it up and down the street a bit when I noticed the wife watching from the driveway. I thought I was in trouble for something when I pulled up until she said "that's a nice little bike.". Can I sit on it"? Long story short it's not my bike anymore. LOL. She's good to me so no big deal. I have another one. She does also but it has never her favorite. Only one problem. She's only 5'2".Has anyone ever lowered one of these machines. I figure that the front is easy enough. Slide the forks up in the triple tree? Shorter shocks behind? Maybe dish the seat a little? Anything else anyone can think of?

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationHere is some 11" shocks for the rear ... That would drop it about 2" in the back. Then I'd slide the forks up 1.5" on the front... Other than modifying the seat some, your only other option to get it lower, would be to turn it into more a bobber and throw a smaller 16" wheel on the back from an LTD model kz550.

-Spencer

Lower profile tire too.
Steve

Dropping the front a bit is easy enough just letting the fork tubes up through the top yokes, you have about an inch there, just do it in stages and feel the difference, it will turn into bends a lot easier and you can overdo it.

The rear shocks could be changed for shorter ones, the 650 and 750 shocks are shorter IIRC. I think about 350mm standard on the 550's, mine are 362mm but 335mm are easily found.

A cut down Lawson style seat would also work, just hard finding someone to get the shape just right.

You could even fit an 18" front and 17" rear from a GPz1100, the later 3 spoke wheels won't be a direct fit but will involve changing the front forks too or using adaptor plates for the brake callipers.

Good tips all. Thanks. Tires are new so they will be staying. She has a cruiser that she isn't happy with and wanted to go back to more of a UJM. Thanks for the shock measurement, that helps a lot. I was wondering whether a auto upholstery shop could do up a seat for it? How hard is it to get a beat up seat pan? The original is quite good so I don't really want to trash it.

I've been looking into seats this morning. It seems there are a lot of LTD seats out there but not much that looks like mine (A?). Would the seat pans be the same or were there different frames between models?

The LTD seat pan is different from the standard 550. The LTDs have a lifted passenger seat and the frame of the bike bends upwards to accommodate it.

Thanks for the info. I guess I will have to keep looking.

the kz / gpz 400 / 500 /550 twin shocks all have the same hinged dual seat. The bases can rust on them so they are not so easy to find now.

My 550 is wearing a Guillari sport seat, with a fibreglass base. Cool looking but not so common in USA also maybe not scooped enough for you.