Restoring rear wheel

I have a 77 650 that I am doing a resto on. I had to really fight to get the tyre off the rear wheel, it really didn't want to come off. I want to get the spokes re-plated but I am not sure about what plating to get them done in. Nickle, cadmium defenitely not chrome. The rear wheel has 2 rim locks on it, is this standard for this bike, seems like a lot of over kill for a bike this size.

You need to cut off the tire, the rust inside the rim is your enemy and problem you have to fight.

The spokes are zinc plated.  

Regarding wheel locks, or parts in general, go to one of the multitudes of online parts diagrams and look up what you are interested in.  I like Partzilla

Instead of trying to replate your spokes, I would recommend that you instead buy a set of new spokes.  It seems like new spokes would look better and probably be stronger.

Buchanan's sells spoke kits for some KZ models, and the page says they will make custom kits.

www.buchananspokes.com/products/spoke_kits_kawasaki_kz.asp

It looks like you could also send the rim and hub to them and they would lace and true the assembly using their own spokes.  

www.buchananspokes.com/categories/labor.asp

 

Finally removed the tyre, it was a Bridgestone Battleaxe I had put on there when I imported the bike from the USA. `the spokes are still in good condition apart from needing plating again. It would be good to be able to send them off to relace them onto the rim but I live in a little town in South Australia population 200. Thanks for the input, I might just end the spokes off for re-zincing.

Hate to say it but re-zincing "just the spokes" might cost more then buying new ones. That's the deal around here, 200USD minimum. And to add complexity, spokes and nipples were two different colors. Yellow chromate nipples, clear chromate "swagged" spokes.