Kawasaki Z500

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timbo1987
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Kawasaki Z500

Post by timbo1987 »

Hi all,

I've bought a 1979 Kawasaki Z500 with the idea of restoring/ modifying possibly to a cafe racer.

Are there any tips and/or upgrades that you might know of that are worth doing to the K500 to modernise in terms of performance or handling? I want to get the bike set up to be a bit more modern/ reliable if possible.

Plan is to strip down to the frame, powder coating the frame and rebuild.

Any tips or advise would be greatly received before I undertake this!

Thanks

Tim
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billinom8s
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Re: Kawasaki Z500

Post by billinom8s »

i would go with
brakes
suspension
tyres


once you've done the obvious things like bearings, fluids etc of course.


those three things above will make or break how the bike goes.
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Suspension and bike work undertaken.
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Scotty
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Re: Kawasaki Z500

Post by Scotty »

Give it a full service too; oil & filter, air filter, valve clearances, strip and clean the carbs and then balance them (should be a nice easy job on something like this). It would be interesting to read your progress, why not write a blog of the work on here (with photos of course)?
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timbo1987
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Joined: Apr 27th, '18, 10:46
First Name: tim

Re: Kawasaki Z500

Post by timbo1987 »

Thanks for the feedback. I may do some research into after market brakes and suspension for sure. I don't know if there are any known straight swaps people may know of?

I will keep you guys updated on progress. :-)

Cheers

Tim
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