New 1980 KZ440 owner!

Hello everybody! New member here (of course!) I just got my first motorcycle, and am entering the world of the KZ bikes for the first time! I am wanting to turn this bike into a cafe/brat bike and am looking forward to sharing photos of the build as I go! I don't have a ton of mechanical knowledge, but am looking forward to rebuilding the bike back to its full potential. Tore the bike down to the engine and frame a few days ago, lots of work needed!

Well Welcome to the site . Lets get this started . Post up some Pics .

Here are the photos of the teardown in progress and the bikes before I got them!

KZRIDER58 wrote: Hello everybody! New member here (of course!) I just got my first motorcycle, and am entering the world of the KZ bikes for the first time! I am wanting to turn this bike into a cafe/brat bike

Welcome aboard!

First, you will want to decide what you want the bike to be. Cafe is not brat, and brat is not cafe; the two styles are quite different. The cafe philosophy is add performance and reduce weight: Cafe Racer Magazine describes it as "low bars, high performance". I don't know if there's a brat philosophy beyond "kind of make the bike look a little like a flat-tracker".

Cafe bike:

Nerdy wrote:

KZRIDER58 wrote: Hello everybody! New member here (of course!) I just got my first motorcycle, and am entering the world of the KZ bikes for the first time! I am wanting to turn this bike into a cafe/brat bike

Welcome aboard!

First, you will want to decide what you want the bike to be. Cafe is not brat, and brat is not cafe; the two styles are quite different. The cafe philosophy is add performance and reduce weight: Cafe Racer Magazine describes it as "low bars, high performance". I don't know if there's a brat philosophy beyond "kind of make the bike look a little like a flat-tracker".

Cafe bike:

I was shooting for more of a cafe look, but will go brat if I cant find the parts. I'm struggling with the seat design due to the part of the seat that curves up in the rear. I will definitely be posting more as the build progresses for sure, asking a ton of questions!

CAFE


BRAT


:laugh: Ed

This may help. www.omarsfiberglass.com

650ed wrote: CAFE

BRAT

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

That Norton is beautiful.

KZRIDER58 wrote: I was shooting for more of a cafe look, but will go brat if I cant find the parts. I'm struggling with the seat design due to the part of the seat that curves up in the rear. I will definitely be posting more as the build progresses for sure, asking a ton of questions!

You have a couple of options on the seat. One is to buy the foam and the cover (with or without the seat pan) from a place like motorcycleseatsdirect.com. I think they're a little expensive.

Or you could do what I'm doing: take the cover off the LTD seat and use a coping saw to trim the existing seat foam into the "bum stop" style seat you see in the Norton and Triumph pics. That will require the creation of a custom seat cover, which is where I'm currently stuck. :laugh:

I've heard that an electric carving knife is also good for trimming the foam.

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