Success! She runs again.

Message

DivideOverflow · Sun Mar 05, 2006 9:52 am

I just sold my 2004 Alphasport GV250 to a forum member, Eric C, it is his first bike, and I hope he enjoys it!!

Since I did that, I was more than motivated to get my KZ650 back on the road. I had the gas tank off for de-rusting and paint, and the old vaccuum operated petcock would vomit fuel like crazy. Now I have a nice gravity-fed petcock, I just had to file out the opening a bit for it to fit... the tank is back on, and she is running great! I also had to replace the battery, that was actually the most expensive thing.. While I was doing that, I modified the battery box a bit, and re-painted it so there is no more corrosion/rust!

I found that the tank had been painted before, and there was some bondo on it. I tried my best to redo the bondo, and this was my first paint job. I would rate it "so-so" or perhaps "a really good try!". lol. I might try again in the future, but I got to the point where I really just wanted to ride it again!

Now I just have to fix an exhaust leak, touch up some paint on the rest of the bike, and get two bolts that were missing when I bought the bike.

I took her around the block, and I remembered how much I love riding this bike!

ejshotgun · Sun Mar 05, 2006 10:10 am

Very nice!
Glad to see another KZ rider on board.

Shiv · #3 Unread post by **Shiv** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 10:22 am

Nicely done. Always good to have an old steed back.

Gadjet · #4 Unread post by **Gadjet** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 10:43 am

good to hear that you got your bike up and running again. Looks good.

My dad has the same bike that he used to road/endurance race back in the late 70's/early 80's

I'll have to see if I can find some of the pics of him with his bike from back then and post them up

Sev · #5 Unread post by **Sev** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 11:44 am

Looks great to me!

Mon Mar 06, 2006 4:12 am

I just took my 650 CSR for a spin yesterday. She barely had any fuel in her and I was in reserve taking her up to the gas station. She barely had any power and I thought "not what I expected but I could use it to teach a friend on". Filled her up, put the petcock back into the on position, fired her up and road away

Holy God. The difference when she gets as much fuel as she wants (don't know why she's starved in "reserve") is like night and day. Those bikes don't want to ride, they want to take off. It was amazing.

DivideOverflow · Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:22 am

They definitely do want to take off! It is kind of tricky though, because they have a very nice powerband, easy to control, but it doesn't take much throttle go get moving. The exhaust note doesn't help either, it toys with you by sounding like it is just about to get louder, and it sounds really good when it does, so you make it a self-fulfilling prophecy in that sense.

These bikes are big and heavy, but they sure are fun!

Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:31 am

How heavy is it? It doesn't seem to be that heavy to me though I'm sure I'll think otherwise when I strip it in the spring to repaint the frame, tank, sideplates, tailpiece and a few other things.

One of the reasons I got the bike was to give it to a friend as a first bike. What I'd heard at the time was "yes she's a 650, but she doesn't have the kind of power to get you in trouble". The second reason of course was it was free which never hurts : ).

Now my thoughts are, should I still give this to my friend? For some reason she seems to run extra poorly/tame in reserve which probably means I rebuilt the petcock wrong. I could have it set to that while she's learning and then graduate her to "on"...

Oh when a good idea starts to turn bad.

Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:41 am

Looks good to me too. Where in Fl are you?

DivideOverflow · Mon Mar 06, 2006 8:05 am

Im in the Orlando area.

These bikes weigh about 483lbs dry, probably 500lbs wet, but due to the old engine design, the engine is very heavy, so the center of gravity is pretty high. I can deal with it being a big guy, but a shorter rider might have problems.

I dont know if you rebuilt the petcock wrong or not... but it sounds like it isnt getting any fuel when reserve is on. When I just run the bike off what is left in the carbs, it starts to run poorly.. but that is because there isnt enough fuel.

I just put a new gravity petcock in mine, and it works great.

The KZ650 is supposed to have 65hp at 8000rpms, stock. So figure probably 55hp at the wheel (or around that). But I would think the weight would be more of an issue with a beginning rider. It has a good powerband, so it isn't that scary, or hard to manage... it is just the high center of gravity for slow speed maneuvers that I would be concerned with.
I'd let her sit on it and try to roll it around a bit and see how she feels with it.