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A new member with a KZ400...
- Nerdy
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I started riding motorcycles *mumble* years ago, and have been carting a 1981 GPz550 around for 20+ years. There are boxes of spare parts in the basement and now that the shop is (almost) finished I decided it was time to get the GPz back on the road. Unfortunately she needs more work than I could expect to do this summer so I picked up a 1979 KZ400 to ride in the meantime. (That's the wee yellow beastie in my avatar picture.) When I got the 400 she ran pretty well but had chrome buckhorn bars and some kind of weird airbrushing on the tank. In the past couple months I've done the paint/bodywork, clubman bars, seat cover, shocks, headlight (H4), turn signals, and made a fender eliminator kit (with LED tail/brake/license plate lights) for the rear. The plan is to write up a couple of things here (at least the fender eliminator) in the forum in case anyone else is interested.
Frankly I missed turning wrenches. I used to do a lot of it years ago but it kind of fell off the radar. Anyway, maybe I can provide some useful answers here and there. Cheers!
1967 Yamaha YCS1 Bonanza
1980 KZ440B
1981 Yamaha XT250H
1981 KZ440 LTD project bike
1981 GPz550
2013 Yamaha FZ6R
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- SWest
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- 10 22 2014
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Steve
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- martin_csr
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- Nerdy
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I need to take some more pictures: the one in the avatar has some goofy contrast. Honestly I think it's because the yellow is basically blinding in bright sunlight. :blink:
Maybe this will help for now. The aluminum piece on the left side cover was missing at purchase, so I made a template, cut a piece of flat aluminum sheet, and gave the piece a sort of faux brushed finish.
1967 Yamaha YCS1 Bonanza
1980 KZ440B
1981 Yamaha XT250H
1981 KZ440 LTD project bike
1981 GPz550
2013 Yamaha FZ6R
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- SWest
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- 10 22 2014
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Steve
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- Nerdy
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swest wrote: Yeah, a little detail will break it up a bit. It's not hacked up and looks good.
Steve
Thanks, Steve! I made a point of not doing anything that couldn't easily be reversed, so no cutting, no welding, etc. Everything is bolt-on and I kept the original parts.
I'm going to go with a set of wrapped headers and stubby chrome mufflers, but I didn't want to cut the stock exhaust. [That auction site] to the rescue: a spare set of headers arrived a few days later. The OE pipes will be cleaned up and put away.
1967 Yamaha YCS1 Bonanza
1980 KZ440B
1981 Yamaha XT250H
1981 KZ440 LTD project bike
1981 GPz550
2013 Yamaha FZ6R
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- diggerdanh
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- Nerdy
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diggerdanh wrote: That's a good looking bike and you seem to have done some good updates so far. Keep up the good work and keep posting pics!
Thanks, Dan! I'll get some more pics in here as soon as possible.
1967 Yamaha YCS1 Bonanza
1980 KZ440B
1981 Yamaha XT250H
1981 KZ440 LTD project bike
1981 GPz550
2013 Yamaha FZ6R
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- mark in Portugal
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Don't worry too much about those exhaust pipes; they aren't original.
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- loudhvx
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1981 KZ550 D1 gpz.
Kz550 valve train warning.
Other links.
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- Nerdy
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mark in Portugal wrote: I'll add to the cacophony; nice looking bike.
Thank you!
Don't worry too much about those exhaust pipes; they aren't original.
Respectfully I believe they are. There is no evidence of anyone changing anything and they look exactly like the ones in this '79 KZ400 B2 pic (from kz400.com):
1967 Yamaha YCS1 Bonanza
1980 KZ440B
1981 Yamaha XT250H
1981 KZ440 LTD project bike
1981 GPz550
2013 Yamaha FZ6R
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- Nerdy
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loudhvx wrote: Great little 400! I've had that same combo... gpz550 and Kz400, but the 400 is long gone. I really miss it for knocking around the city.
I'm planning to hold on to both for now.
If I may ask, were you loudgpz on another forum?
1967 Yamaha YCS1 Bonanza
1980 KZ440B
1981 Yamaha XT250H
1981 KZ440 LTD project bike
1981 GPz550
2013 Yamaha FZ6R
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