CLynn85
CLynn85 New Reader
10/27/09 7:29 p.m.

So in my quest to find a learner bike, this thing followed me home, the only requirements it met were under $1k, running....

It's an 82, overall pretty solid, but has a low-mid sputter that I hope is just old gas/plugs, so I'll start there. There are no idle mixture screws since it's a smog era bike, so beyond that and maybe checking for vacuum leaks, I don't even know where to start.

Either way, running crappy or not, I'm happy to finally be on two wheels.

xci_ed6
xci_ed6 Reader
10/27/09 8:49 p.m.

There should still be idle mixture screws, they just have tabs. Easy fix with a grinder.

Looks good though, like nobody has f'd with it yet.

Rusnak_322
Rusnak_322 Reader
10/27/09 9:12 p.m.

When my wife wanted off the back of my bike, we got her a early 80's KZ305. She would ride that thing so hard that I had to get her something bigger just out of mechanical sympathy for the poor old bike. We bought it for $300. Spent $0 on it other then gas and sold it for the same money to her brother three months later. Great starter bike that we used to teach 3 or 4 other new riders on as well.

Woody
Woody GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
10/27/09 9:38 p.m.
Rusnak_322 wrote: When my wife wanted off the back of my bike, we got her a early 80's KZ305. She would ride that thing so hard that I had to get her something bigger just out of mechanical sympathy for the poor old bike. We bought it for $300. Spent $0 on it other then gas and sold it for the same money to her brother three months later. Great starter bike that we used to teach 3 or 4 other new riders on as well.

They made a 305GPz as well, though I've never seen one in person. I looked for a long time, though.

Josh
Josh HalfDork
10/27/09 10:42 p.m.

Cool bike. As it sits in the pics, to me it is just SCREAMING to have the fenders, mirrors, taillight, signals, and engine guards ripped off, the tail chopped, a nice low solo seat fabbed up, flat or clubman bars with bar-end mirrors installed, and the pegs moved back 3 or 4 inches. There is just so much chunky extraneous E36 M3 hanging off a very well-proportioned frame right there.

914Driver
914Driver SuperDork
10/28/09 5:58 a.m.

My son's first bike was a KZ-440, I should have kept it. I ended up selling it to my friend for his wife to learn on, she passed it along to four other women who have moved up to Sportsters.

Good bike. Put some good gas in it, some Save-the-Baby addative and just ride it. Don't tweak any screws yet.

Dan

CLynn85
CLynn85 New Reader
10/28/09 5:30 p.m.

Glad to hear all the positive remarks. They seem like nice solid bikes for a reasonable price, just another UJM.

I was able to pull the plugs today, looked perfect, gapped fine, so I put them back in, dump an ounce or two of sea foam in the tank and put a gallon of gas in it.

Rode about 35 miles til the sun started to drop. Once warm it does pretty well, still has the mid-range sputter but it's livable til I can get it figured out. Felt great to be out there.

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