Aloha from Eastern Washington

Hi All, John the Motonut here, glad to be a part of this community. I live in the far southeastern part of Washington in Clarkston, right on the border with Lewiston, Idaho and the beautiful Snake River.
I've ridden since the late 60s. Started on minibikes and Trail 90s, dirtbikes in the 70s and 80s and finally street bikes in the late 80s and up. I had a couple of H1's in the early 90s, really miss those rockets, but had to sell them in a divorce. Currently I ride a 2017 Moto Guzzi V7III. I've done some performance and appearance upgrades, thoroughly enjoy it. Recently I picked up a 1979 KZ650 B3. One owner, 14k miles. Been sitting since 2008 when the owner gave up riding in his 70s. The bike is complete, though he added a sissy bar, bags and a big king/queen seat off an '83 550 Spectre. Looking for a stock seat if anyone has a lead. This bike needs a lot of TLC, but as I said it's complete, even has the airbox. Going to try to see how well it'll clean up and keep it a survivor if possible. I'm looking forward to barraging you all with redundant questions ! HA! No, believe me I appreciate the SEARCH engine on these forums . My background is in muscle car restoration(primarily Mopar), and I was also a Medical Lab Technician, sorta semi retired now, do some occasional car work, mostly helping folks with wiring... All right, that's it for now- John

Here's a picture of the bike when I picked it up. Call it the BEFORE pic. I've already removed the bar, seat and bags. He drilled 2 holes in the rear cowl on each side for the bags, a little sad but oh well. I've taken the cowl and side covers off and am going to polish them out and see how they look. Weather's still too cold for black widows so that's a plus!

Hi John, welcome aboard! I think she will clean up nicely. A reproduction seat should be easy to get. Check out the z1 enterprises vendor add above. Or you can find a descent used seat of of ebay. Would love to see a picture of it with it polished up and a new seat.

Welcome aboard! There are plenty of KZ650 fans here and an amazing amount of knowledge about these old bikes. Please ask many questions and post many pictures.

Welcome aboard! Be SURE to use JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) screwdrivers on the fasteners that look like Phillips screws. Those are JIS screws not Phillips, and using a Phillips screwdriver on them will damage the screw heads. If you need more info about JIS just ask. Ed

Welcome aboard. I have been through that area quite a bit. beautiful area for sure. last time i was down there i rode through the Wallowas and through Hells canyon.

Thanks for the encouraging words everybody. I moved to this area a couple of years ago from Olympia, WA and have explored some of the awesome twisty roads on my Guzzi. Plan on a lot more riding this year.
I had noticed that my phillips screwdrivers all don't 'quite' fit and have been gingerly removing some things so as not to rip up the screw heads. I'll look into a set of JIS drivers.
I saw repro seat covers on the Z1 site for my bike, no actual complete seats. I've done some upholstery work in the past, may just buy a core with decent foam on eBay and recover it. I'll start a new thread in the projects section for the future play by play on this bike.

Take a look at the first 2 postings in the link below for more info about JIS screws. Ed

www.kzrider.com/forum/10-new-members/609...uy-signing-in#791293