Saturday November 8th 2025
Kawasaki Z550
Now that he had insurance to ride the Kawasaki, Keiran finally took it out
for a ride on the road. Part way round the route it came to a halt and he feared
he might need to be trailered back to the workshop. As you can see from the notes
he made on the ride, it wasn’t a complete success. Never the less it was the
first time in several decades that it had propelled someone over the
tarmac. One other worrying issue became
apparent when it was wheeled back into the workshop and it was time to go
home. Keiran had filled the fuel tank
right up for the first time since it had been lined and re-sprayed. As Graham gave the bike a cursory glance over
before moving on to other things, he noticed fuel dripping from the front left
corner of the fuel tank. There was no
sign of anything leaking from the fuel tap, so the initial conclusion had to be
that the tank itself was not fuel tight.
With Chris to assist him the fuel tank was taken outside and the fuel
decanted into the empty CBR1000F fuel tank.
Oh dear – not the first outing we had hoped for, but hopefully all those issues
could be overcome with enough patience and Keiran reported that the bike
handled very nicely indeed!!
The Kawasaki KZ550 Limited was produced from 1980 to
1983 as a cruiser-style variant of the KZ550, blending classic styling with
sporty performance. It was introduced
in 1980 and was part of Kawasaki’s effort to offer a middleweight cruiser that
retained the performance of its sportier siblings. It was based on the KZ550 standard model,
which itself evolved from the Z500 series that was a scaled down version of the
legendary Z1R superbike. The LTD
variant featured custom styling cues like a stepped seat, pullback handlebars,
and a smaller rear wheel to give it a laid-back cruiser look. Ours is a slight compromise on the original with handlebars falling mid way between the full cow horn handlebars originally fitted to it and the flatter bars of the Z500.
The bike was powered by a 553cc air-cooled, DOHC inline-four
engine that delivered around 58 hp at 9,000 rpm and 35.5 ft-lb of torque at
7,000 rpm. It used 6-speed transmission
and chain final drive, offering a balance between city cruising and highway
capability. Despite its cruiser styling,
the LTD retained the nimble handling and sporty character of the standard
KZ550, making it a versatile ride.
In its original trim the LTD came with dual rear shocks, air-adjustable
front forks and disc brakes front and rear, which were advanced features for
its class at the time. It had a 12.5-liter
fuel tank and weighed approximately 207 kg (456 lbs) wet, making it relatively
light for a cruiser. Many models were
fitted with aftermarket Windjammer fairings, popularized by Craig Vetter, which
added touring capability and became iconic in their own right.
Ultimately the KZ550 LTD was overshadowed by the sportier
GPz550, introduced shortly after its launch, which featured more aggressive
styling and performance upgrades. Production
ended in 1983, but the KZ550 LTD remains a beloved classic among enthusiasts
for its blend of style, reliability, and performance. If you're into vintage Japanese motorcycles,
the KZ550 LTD is a gem that reflects Kawasaki’s adaptability during the early
1980s.
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| Keiran takes the KZ550LTD on its maiden voyage. |
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| The outcome of the maiden Voyage. |
CBF1000R
We had now obtained a set of carburettor float bowl seals
and Chris kindly agreed to install all four of them. He carefully cleaned out
the grooves that they fitted into, removing the remains of the silicon sealant
etc. Once the float bowls were in place the carburettors were taken outside and
filled with fuel from the temporary tank.
All the effort of fitting new fuel line and float bowl seals seemed to
have paid off and they seemed fuel tight. Chris and Allen took on the job of
re-installing the carburettors with a little advice here and there from
Graham. As usual getting them back into
place required a methodical and patient approach but didn’t take too long this
time. The bike was wheeled outside and
started up, and at last it was fuel tight. It would need to be fully warmed up at
a later date to make sure everything was ship shape and Bristol fashion, then
work could begin re-installing the bodywork and making it all shiny again.
NS125F
The new carburettor needle, needle clip, needle retaining plate
and throttle valve return spring had arrived very quickly indeed from a company
called ‘Eurocarb’ in the UK. All credit
to them for their excellent service. Once Ioan had installed the clip in the needle’s
middle slot Graham gave a little help by fiddling the throttle cable through the
spring, the plate and through the throttle itself. It was quite tricky to keep
the throttle spring under control whilst fully compressed and at the same time
use a pair of long nose pliers to move the cable slightly sideways in the throttle
valve. Moving it sideways meant it wouldn’t
pull out of the throttle. Then it was time to find a battery for the bike to
see if there was a spark. The bike’s own lead acid battery looked bone dry and
was of no use, so a temporary stand in was found. Once tested and wired up the engine was
kicked over utilising a plug cap borrowed from Jon’s Ducati and a spark was
observed jumping the electrodes of the spark plug. Jason had come into the
session bringing with him a 28mm Dellorto Carburettor look-alike which as it
transpired turned out to be invaluable. This was because the bike had a handlebar
mounted choke lever and its choke cable was seized solid. Jason’s carburettor had a carb mounted choke
lever which fitted a treat and immediately overcame the seized cable. It wouldn’t
be a permanent solution as it couldn’t be reach once the bodywork was
re-installed but for the time being it gave us a much better chance of starting
the bike. The air filter to carburettor hose was, as is often the case with old
bikes, rock solid. To overcome this the
hot air blower was employed, and the carb then fitted with surprising ease. As
it wasn’t certain that the bike’s two stroke oil pump was pumping any oil, a mixture
of petrol and two stroke oil was mixed in the temporary fuel tank. A ratio of
40 to 1 was decided upon. 700cc of fuel
seemed appropriate so with the aid of his phone’s calculator Graham divided 700
by 40 to establish that just 17.5 cc of two stroke oil was needed. It barely
seemed enough. So now we had a spark and fuel in a leak free carburettor it was
time to take the bike outside to see if it would fire up. It took a few kicks
but the engine soon fired up, but fire up it did. Initially it produced a cloud of blue smoke
but that eventually cleared and it was time to find out if the oil pump was
working properly. The oil feed on this particular bike attaches to a spigot on
the carburettor. Once a fair quantity of
two stroke oil had been added to the bike’s oil tank the engine was restarted
and run with the oil feed pulled off and the oil pump cable held as near wide
open as possible. The oil pump cable progressively allows the oil pump plunger
to move further and thus pump more oil, as the throttle is opened up. After a
while oil could be seen emerging from the open end of the small oil feed pump
and it was free of any air bubbles so it was safe to assume that the two stroke
mixture could be dispensed with. Moving forward the adjustment of the oil pump cable
would need to be checked. The final job
of the day was to refill the bike’s radiator with a mix of coolant and
water. Once the radiator was full the
bike was again started and run until the water in the radiator could be felt
warming up and the level no longer dropped. There were no water leaks apparent so next it
would be time to start sorting out the rest of the bike’s electrics and dealing
with its rather rough looking paintwork.
BMW F650GS
Guy, Don, AJ, Jon S and Jon R teamed up to sort out the bike’s
notchy steering and use the opportunity to change the fork oil. After a bit of
a struggle with the lower inner taper roller bearing race things went smoothly
and all the required jobs were completed by Guy and his team.
.JPG) |
| The BMW guys get to grips with Guy's BMW! |
Suzuki GSF1000 Bandit
We had acquired a piece of black vinyl suitable for
re-covering the seat and so Keiran set off home at the end of the session with
the Bandit’s seat strapped behind him, ready to re-cover it and complete the cosmetic
side of things. The vinyl cost a fraction of the cost of a purpose made seat cover and Keiran had the skills to make it look just as good.
In other news…
We had acquired three lots of self-build racking to give us
some extra storage space and get some stuff off the floor. In a feat of endurance
a team comprised of Dave and Dave set to and managed to assemble two out of three of
the units. It took them a good deal of
patience and tenacity and pretty much the entire session to build both lots of
racking. All credit to them for their
efforts. Now we needed someone brave enough to take on the remaining set of
racking during another session.
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| Shelving slowly taking shape. |
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| One down, two to go. |
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| Although not fixed in place yet, a few things have already found their way onto the shelving. |