Topic: Terry's new Kawasaki Z1B build, the OCD special...........

[Terry in Australia]

Hmmmn. Well I do have an original rear fender coming that was gonna go on the garage wall, but I might put it on. Why would I put KZ900 badges on a Z1-B Bill? I couldn’t think of anything worse?

[grcamna2]

Hmmmn. Well I do have an original rear fender coming that was gonna go on the garage wall, but I might put it on. Why would I put KZ900 badges on a Z1-B Bill? I couldn’t think of anything worse?

Cause people to think it's 900cc a 'Sleeper'. 
I like squeezing a bigger engine into my vehicle,whenever possible. 

[MauiK3]

Any idea what HP and torque it makes?
It’s a beast, nice work

[Trevor from Warragul]

I asked the wife if it wasn't just the most magnificent thing she's ever seen, but she said "no"?

I showed my wife your bike, and her exact response?

"Fcuk, a Z9! I fcuking love those bikes! Nothing else comes close!"

Guess I married a "keeper"!

[Terry in Australia]

I asked the wife if it wasn't just the most magnificent thing she's ever seen, but she said "no"?

I showed my wife your bike, and her exact response?

"Fcuk, a Z9! I fcuking love those bikes! Nothing else comes close!"

Guess I married a "keeper"!

I'm impressed that she was able to even recognise a Z1-B Trevor, I talk to my wife about my bikes and I have to tell her "The red one" or "The Blue One" or "The smokey one" etc etc.... Does she ride too?

[desertrefugee]

I always have to use colors for identification with my wife as well. One of the good things about having a stable full is that you can sneak another one in and it goes unnoticed!

[Alan F.]

+1, I talk about my projects to my gf, she's wise in the ways of many, many things but not the deeper things about bikes. She professes to be a Mopar girl though, so there's always that.

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, I used to remove the tanks and sidecovers when I sneaked a new "Acquisition" down my driveway Darrell, then if she challenged me I'd just say I was bringing it back from the shop after having some work done on it? Not sure if she believed me, but she did leave me alone....

[Terry in Australia]

Hmmmn. Well I do have an original rear fender coming that was gonna go on the garage wall, but I might put it on. Why would I put KZ900 badges on a Z1-B Bill? I couldn’t think of anything worse?

Cause people to think it's 900cc a 'Sleeper'. 
I like squeezing a bigger engine into my vehicle,whenever possible. 

Oh OK, you know that my bike's not a KZ900 though? The KZ900 (or Z900 here in Oz) was a "One year only" model that came out in 1976 and was followed by the KZ1000 in 1977. The KZ900 isn't a Z1.    

[Terry in Australia]

+1, I talk about my projects to my gf, she's wise in the ways of many, many things but not the deeper things about bikes. She professes to be a Mopar girl though, so there's always that.

Nothing wrong with that Alan, and thinking in reverse, isn't it great that we don't know sh1t about anything that interests women?

[Trevor from Warragul]

Does she ride too?

She got her motorcycle licence in her 50's, started with a 2001 Honda VTR250 (which we still have), then a 2010 Yamaha XJ6N (which she sold just before we moved to Warragul).  She's lost her nerve, so hasn't been out on a bike in ages...

[Terry in Australia]

That's fair enough mate, while I couldn't think of a day when I haven't wanted to ride bikes, I've had some horrible crashes over the years, so if I had half a brain, I'd stay right away from them. Luckily for me, I'm totally devoid of any intelligence whatsoever.......

[grcamna2]

Hmmmn. Well I do have an original rear fender coming that was gonna go on the garage wall, but I might put it on. Why would I put KZ900 badges on a Z1-B Bill? I couldn’t think of anything worse?

Cause people to think it's 900cc a 'Sleeper'. 
I like squeezing a bigger engine into my vehicle,whenever possible. 

Oh OK, you know that my bike's not a KZ900 though? The KZ900 (or Z900 here in Oz) was a "One year only" model that came out in 1976 and was followed by the KZ1000 in 1977. The KZ900 isn't a Z1.

Oh?,
Terry,I worked on a Kawasaki KZ900 here in the US with that same color scheme:900cc.

Edit:I now remember this one time customer Jay..
The bike was the same color as yours and he put KZ900 emblems on the sidecovers.. He wanted me to get it running good:I took the head off and had the valve seats cut and a few valves replaced(rust)by a good machine shop then reinstalled and fine tuned it.
He flipped it as a 900 to a person who visited that resort island that Summer..

[Terry in Australia]

Hmmmn. Well I do have an original rear fender coming that was gonna go on the garage wall, but I might put it on. Why would I put KZ900 badges on a Z1-B Bill? I couldn’t think of anything worse?

Cause people to think it's 900cc a 'Sleeper'. 
I like squeezing a bigger engine into my vehicle,whenever possible. 

Oh OK, you know that my bike's not a KZ900 though? The KZ900 (or Z900 here in Oz) was a "One year only" model that came out in 1976 and was followed by the KZ1000 in 1977. The KZ900 isn't a Z1.

Oh?,
Terry,I worked on Kawasaki KZ900's here in the US with that same color scheme:900cc.

Yes mate, the Z1,(1973) Z1-A (1974) and Z1-B (1975) were never "KZ900"s, they were Z1's, in every country.

The KZ900 (1976) had slightly different bodywork, different sidecover badges, a different seat, a square tail light, no reflectors on the forks or rear shocks, and had an entirely different paint scheme to any of the Z1's.

I had a 1976 Australian delivered Z900 (the "KZ" nomenclature was only used in the US and Canada, not Australia or Europe) in the 80's, it was brown, and I think there was a green one, I'm not sure if there were any other colors? The paint scheme on mine is specific to the Z1-B only, the original Z1 and Z1-A had their year specific paint schemes as well.

Here's a pic of my 1976 Z900 from around 1986 with my dog Ben.

Terry's Z900 1986 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[grcamna2]

I like your 76' Z900,looks like you have enough fuel capacity for long,spirited rides.
A very nice dog.

I'm not familiar with many Kawasaki models Terry   
I did own one Kawasaki:a 1978 KZ1000 Z1-R with a factory fairing and small sport tank with factory 4 into 1 exhaust.
The bike had a silvery blue color;I really loved it.I rode it from Cape Cod,MA. down to Florida and struggled to live there for 1.5 yrs. on the West Coast side and one of my landlord's friends sabotaged it.The dealer worked on it extensively to find a knock;some jerk took a hardened drift punch and whacked one of the clutch basket's primary drive gear teeth through the oil fill hole..
I couldn't afford to keep it and had to sell it to pay the bill.

[PeWe]

Good to know more about the bikes.
That 900 paint look closer to the Z1000.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, I bought that Z900 in 1985 just after I came back from the Bathurst Easter TT that I rode my 1980 Yamaha XT500 to, and as much fun as that ride was (I even got hit by a car towing a caravan and survived with a very sore knee) I wanted a big road bike. It had only done 8000 Km (5000 miles) and was in mint condition, but the OEM pipes had rotted out, and the owner's pet Cockatoo had eaten the seat, so the guys at Melbourne Motorcycles (previously Sonic Choppers) put those black 4 into 2's and a recovered on it before I bought it.

It is funny in a way that the Z900 (KZ900 in the US) was probably a better bike than the Z1's, and was only made for one year, but is worth maybe half what you'd pay for a Z1? The Z1 is a much sexier bike though, as Trevor's wife would attest!

[Zunspec]

Hi Terry,

I was the proud owner of a new Z900 in 1976.  In pre-camera phone days I've hardly any photos of it unfortunately.  My landlord (Prof. photographer) did let me off a weeks rent for using it for a photoshoot though 

[PeWe]

That bike IS sexy!!
I like the double underhead option on a double overhead!

[MauiK3]

Oh boy, here we go.
The K1 750 Hondas were somewhat better bikes than the sand cast and other K0 bikes but the K0's and sandys are worth more as well.

[PeWe]

CB750 got improvements all the time during years to come.
Just see the engine upgrades. Side covers that K1 got also for a reason. But the collectors market is different.
The very first version is something special. Memories about the bike's impact another one.

It is not strange that Z1-900 is a collectors choice. The bike's design is very good. Tank, side covers, rear part with rear lamp together with seat an almost perfect combination. Gauges look good too. On top of that the paint that match it all really nice!!

The fork's rake look a little bit different for me though.

They should have sold more of it, like CB750, more bikes and parts for sale at a lower price today.
I'm old enough to have had my chances to buy one for decades ago, but did not.

I can wish to meet a person with a good but not running Z1-900 that want to trade it for a good running CB750 in good shape

[Kelly E]

We sold our 75' Z1-B to a collector in Iowa. I wanted to keep it but but we decided it was going to be too much money for us to resurrect. The motor was stuck and it was rough but complete except the exhaust. We bought it for $300, cleaned it and sold it for $3950. The guy was happy to buy it, I think he was filling a hole in his collection. He's like you Terry, he has fourty something bikes.

After we finish up the 80' GS 1100E my uncle is giving me his 78' KZ 1000 LTD to clean up. There's a good chance that he'll be leaving it with us since he's 80yo and only rode it once last year. I've been admiring his bike since he got it 40 years ago.
In 17' he gave me the 84' Sabre 700 that both he and his brother had owned. I would like to leave them both to my son but before that I plan on riding it a bunch.  

[CaseyH]

I love my KZ900
Your Z1 is looking amazing

[Terry in Australia]

I love my KZ900
Your Z1 is looking amazing

Thanks mate, your KZ900 looks great, and that’s the other KZ900 paint scheme that I remember, was there any other?

[spotty]

, so the guys at Melbourne Motorcycles (previously Sonic Choppers) put those black 4 into 2's and a recovered on it before I bought it.

Sonic Choppers was owned by some of the boys in the Melb chapter of the HA's, and its probably safe to say that it may have been the only Z to go through there that wasn't, shall we say, of doubtful legal provenance......
One of the other members worked in a factory that used to 'flock' kids toys so there were quite a few frames that came out of that shop that had been flocked, apparently it was quite in vogue back then. a mate just bought an Indian barn find frame that had been fully moulded and flocked, he has quite a bit of work ahead of him to get all of it off