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1978 kz200 - Bought w/title for $50

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
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Guest

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My next classic bike project, 1978 KZ200 single cylinder thumper, 7000 miles on the odo. 99% complete with original parts, which for a bike like this seems to be getting more and more rare as people crudely caf? them to *@%^$*@%^$*@%^$*@%^$. Most of the missing pieces are in a couple milk crates waiting for me to have more time to assemble it; the only thing that needs replaced so far is the coil. It was so cheap because it was "locked up". Little 2stroke premix and marvel into the cylinder for 15mins freed it up easily. Got a paint match on the tins and paint should be ready for pickup today so I can get rid of that nasty black rattlecan job on the tank; unfortunately a lot of wet sanding is in my future. These bikes also have a cable operated front brake (yuck), and this one is pretty sticky so it doesn't stop for crap. Thinking I will do a hydraulic brake swap on it, and clean up and sell the original brake set. The electrical looks unmolested (bonus) so it will hopefully be cleaning connectors and plug and play. The brown seat cover is kinda gross but in decent condition. I'll see what I think about the looks after I get the repainted tank on it, but probably going to swap the seat cover back to black like original (if I can find one that is).

*Bonus project in the back is my soon to be track bike, Hyosung 250 frame, going to stuff a gs500e engine in there. Its been done, and requires a little bit of re-welding mounting tabs. And my GS850 is also hiding in the back there.
 
The front brake on those things "are" cable operated, but a disc brake, way better than the old cable operated drum brake. A good cleaning & lube, & you may be surprised how good it works. Cute little bikesto knock around on, but I wouldn't have any big cross country trips in mind. Congrats, & a progress report, every now & then, will be OK too.
 
rphillips said:
Cute little bikesto knock around on, but I wouldn't have any big cross country trips in mind. Congrats, & a progress report, every now & then, will be OK too.
Click to expand...

Sort of what I bought it for, a fun little bike to ride around town. It reportedly gets 70mpg so that will be nice just for around town trips. Top speed is supposed to be ~ 70 mph, so its fine for local highways, I'd not dare take it on the interstate though. I have the GS for touring or if I need to get on the interstate.

I'm hoping to have a quick turnaround on this project, maybe 3-4 weeks to completion, I will try to remember to document and update, something I did not do as much as I wanted with the GS project.
 
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Current state of the project: electrical is working now and all hooked up, everything is installed minus a headlight (sealed beam and filament is gone, on order) and the inner plastic fender (missing bolts, on order), still waiting on my brake caliper from a kz650 to arrive so I can modify the mounting bracket and have hydraulic front brakes (master cylinder and SS line installed). The electric start even works, which I thought would be suspect with a bike this age.
 

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Finished up cleaning up the wiring, installed heat shrink over "vulnerable" areas, then did a wiring sleeve over everything. Turns out I reversed two of the wires on the headlight, the old sealed beam still works great (both low and high). Rewired the horn, its much louder now, I think it was losing some power or had a poor ground before. I swapped the handlebars to "superbike" bars which have half the rise the old one did; little more aggressive riding position now, which is what I was after. Bolted in the inner fender. Old pet was bad so ordered a NOS one. Havent tested the carb but it was "professionally" cleaned by a local shop last year and it hasn't had fuel in it since. Still waiting on brake caliper to arrive so I can install that. Waiting on two new tires to come so I can spoon those on; the tires on it are original OEM (they look pretty good for being 41 years old. Pretty close to being wrapped up, probably done by the end of the weekend if all my parts come in. This would be the fastest turnaround I've ever had on a basket case bike, about 1.5 weeks from start to finish.
 
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Looking good, almost ready for road test. Oh yeah, check your private messages.
 
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