Total Motorcycle Community Forums

I am a new bike owner as well as new to the forum. recently I purchased a 2001 Kawasaki ZR-7S from a friend for EXTREMELY cheap. Unfortunately the reason it was cheaper than dirt is that it was laid down 2 years ago which resulted in damage to the front fork, left generator cover, upper bracket cowling, and both wheels. Problem number 2 is that she didn't have the keys for the bike so now I also have the problem with all the key locks, including the gas tank, as well as the ignition. Well that is me.
I have a home shop and plan on doing all of the required work myself. Some cool stuff that I have in the works for my shop includes a homemade bench with a vice, power strip, set of drawers, and a homemade parts washer design I found online.

welcome to the forum and good luck on restoring the bike.

Glad to have you around. You might consider starting a blog in our blog section, located Here to document your work on the bike. People have the wonderful habit of offering advice and tips when stuff like that shows up.

I look forward to seeing you get your bike on the road.

Congrats! I love the ZR-7. It's a direct descendent of the original KZ750 from 1980. That bulletproof, air-cooled 738cc engine went virtually unchanged for over 20 yrs.

If the accident was bad enough to damage both forks and the front wheel, you should pull the triple clamp and check it over carefully. You may find it slightly bent. The last thing you want to do is to put new forks and a new wheel on a tweaked triple clamp. It'll never run true.

Good luck with the restoration!

flynrider wrote: If the accident was bad enough to damage both forks and the front wheel, you should pull the triple clamp and check it over carefully. You may find it slightly bent.

Is the triple clamp the same thing as the triple tree?

cool, damaged bike, no keys. yay you just bought a stolen bike. ha j/k

kemopots wrote:Is the triple clamp the same thing as the triple tree?

Yes it is and Welcome to the forums . And if you take your ignition apart , there should be a set of numbers on the back or lower side . Take those numbers to a big Kawasaki stealership and they should be able to reproduce a key for you .
Regards, Wizzard

Wizzard wrote:And if you take your ignition apart , there should be a set of numbers on the back or lower side .

I am wondering if that is the keycode? I spoke with a locksmith and he said he could cut a key off of the keycode. He also told me that the ignition lock is the same as the gas tank lock, only with more tumblers ergo I could use the ignition key as the gas tank key as well. Can someone verify this as truth or dispel it as fiction for me?

A properly cut ignition key should open the gas tank just fine. On most of my bikes, the gas tank lock only had one tumbler. On some, there was no tumber and anything shaped like a bike key could be stuck in there to open it up.