Thank for posting this. A real trip down memory lane for this "mature" rider. You were so right about the smoothness of those bikes. In my office riding group, (circa 1978/79), we had a: KZ650b, which prompted me to buy a KZ650c. In short order, our office group then gained a KZ1000 LTD, a Z1R, a KZ750b and finally KZ1300. All within within a few short months. Quite the crew for Sunday morning rides up Hwy1 in NorCal. Thanks again for a great ride and a quick trip back to a younger self. Please keep the rides coming.
I have a 1979 kz1000 ltd. Got new and still ride it every now and then. Just rebuilt the carbs on it. I had a kz 650 too. But now that im 65 I like to ride my 1200 voyage most of all. Yes it came with a chrome chain guard. In there days they where runners.
I run a 1200 Voyager. I live in the UK and had been waiting over a decade for the right one to come along, then three years ago one came onto the market here in England with barely 12,000 miles on it, one owner, stunning condition. It is such a great machine, with its lovely rorty sounding exhaust. Not seen another one on the road over here, but whenever I go to a bike meet she gets lots of attention. Also run a Gen 3 Hayabusa, but won't ever get rid of the big Kwak.
My cousin had a 1979 Kawasaki LTD 1000 , in 84-85 . It had modified handle bars.they where straight like a drag bike. Modified muffler to make it louder. It had a farin around the headlight, Four foot wheelie bars. And that bike would fly.
COOL, i had a 74 with Wiseco 1015 kit with the cylinder decked to the circumference of the piston, megacycles 417 cams, good valve springs, head matched and ported with Manley SS valves, electronic ign. 1000 transmission which is better than the Z-1, head decked about .030, good old chrome kerker with comp. baffle, etc. Yes they made a 750 LTD, mine had the 1 disc and rear drum
The Mk II 1015 was by far the best engine Kawasaki ever built, stronger and more powerful than the A1/A2 and leagues ahead of the 998 1000J motor that followed, most of those were rebored under warranty because of horrendous oil consumption.
I have this bike (12,687 mi.) and the same year. The '79 LTD came with the famous Z1-R 1000 cc engine stock. It's got the same power plant that their Café Racer (also called the Z1-R) that boasted the fastest speeds and acceleration at the time and pretty much blew away everything it came up against for about a 2.5 year span. I believe that the Yamaha XS 1100 was the first production bike that finally edged it out of the top spot if I'm not mistaken. I had well over 30 races against other "super" bikes for he first three years that I owned it and was NEVER beaten on this beast. Not to say there weren't some flaws with it despite all of the R&D (over 4 years before the release of the bike) that Kawasaki put into it trying to make the "KIng" of the Superbikes. The handling , especially the rear shocks, made high speed turns pretty much a thrill ride and if there were any bumps in the turn and you do have to muscle the handle bars to keep control of the bike. And as mentioned during the test ride review, I had worn off the outside of the exhaust megaphone's trying to keep up with all of my buddies riding their Honda CB 750's when doing some road racing with them, so I went with the Jardine 4 into 2 "spaghetti" headers which improved the horsepower but also have upswept exhaust tips and made it sound BAD ASS! I love this bike and although it was definitely a "Cruiser" it has some real balls and at the time you could also get a turbo charged model (it was an after market TC designed by a former Kawasaki engineer) that boosted the HP from 86 @ 8000 rpm to over 100 hp @ 8k rpm. It could be manually adjusted at a base of 6 psi up to 10 psi with the disclaimer that if adjusted over 8 psi there was the possibility of cratering the engine, AND Kawasaki would not include or honor the factory warranty if it was modified. I rode a '78 Z1-R with the turbo and at about 5000 rpm that turbo kicks in and the bike involuntarily brought the front end off the ground and you'd better be hanging on and moved up on the tank or it wanted to come over on you. Well, I've probably bored a lot of you with my long post, but as I said, I love this bike and if you're curious as to why it has such low miles it" because a good friend of mine was killed on a ride and my wife has been adamant about me not riding it (I do have a lead foot/heavy throttle hand) and I'm hoping that she'll eventually change her mind and I can't seem to part ways with it. But, I have had my eye on the new 2022 Indian Chief...
IMHO an Indian. Wouldn’t make a pimple on a KZ’s ass. Indian is probably the only so called motorcycle that is uglier than a Harley. But I honestly wish NOBODY likes KZ’s , then I could buy one at a reasonable price. Yea Yea these are JUNK. DONT BUY ONE. And if you have one , sell as fast as you can, he’ll give it to me . I’ll keep it away from small children and non motorcycle people.
These bikes were really called cruisers. All made in japan brands had classic cruiser styling of that era and were all beautiful even sexy but not too wild. Of course made in japan brands reliability made owning such bikes easy.
Do you guys have a shop to work on one of these? My brother passed away 3 years ago, and my other brother got his kz1000 but is giving it to me, it was hardly ever ridden and was garage kept but needs some carb work, new seat etc. trying to figure out where to take it when time comes. Gonna sale my Kawasaki Vulcan 900 and hopefully get the kz1000 up and running correctly.
Came with chrome chain guard, also Goodyear g/t tires. This one has the wrong point cover. Can’t see the gen cover but both should say Kawasaki. I would change the point cover because can be a red flag, because if it’s been laid down it’s the first to get destroyed.
There was no kz750 back then there was a 650 and the brakes are horrible on that 1000 unless you have steel braided lines I believe in 1979 or 80 750 had two cylinders and the 4-cylinder 750 didn't come in till about 82 or 81
