After twenty-odd years
It has been over twenty years since I sold the Virago. My son is now close to being 21 and he found the love of motorcycling through a coworker. He saved up his money and bought a 1980 Kawasaki KZ550 LTD. I negotiated for him with the seller and we were able to pick up the bike and a second 1980 KZ550 for parts for $300.00 for both.
We rented a storage space and started to work on the bike. He had an idea that he wanted to pursue and started buying the parts as he had the money. We stripped her down to the bare bones, took out the engine and transmission and painted the frame black. We removed the air box and replaced it with individual air filters. He bought 12 inch ape hanger handlebars which I thought would be too much, but must admit look and feel really good.
We took the exhaust pipes and cut out the baffles, wrapped was was left and added shorty mufflers. We painted most of the engine black and polished the rest of the aluminum. We replaced the springs with shorter struts and cut the back of the frame. We did a spider web design on the rear fender, added a side mount tail light and license plate. The wheels we painted black and red and the tank was painted black with a red cap.
When it came time for the seat, he bought a spring mounted single seat. Because we replaced the air box with individual filters and changed the mufflers, we had to re-jet the carburetors. We spent a good part of the winter working on her and she came out looking great.
We had a hard time finding a master cylinder for the front brake, both bikes were outside for a long time and the cylinders were rusted shut. We ended up buying a 1982 LTD, which was a good buy for $200.00. This was a good find, not only were we able to use the cylinder, but the carbs from the other two were also damaged and we ended up using the ones from this one.
The rear brake was difficult to reset, we had to tear it apart and remount it a couple of times before it was right.
Finally, after many weeks of hard work we had the bike the way he wanted it and we were ready to hear it rumble.
We rented a storage space and started to work on the bike. He had an idea that he wanted to pursue and started buying the parts as he had the money. We stripped her down to the bare bones, took out the engine and transmission and painted the frame black. We removed the air box and replaced it with individual air filters. He bought 12 inch ape hanger handlebars which I thought would be too much, but must admit look and feel really good.
We took the exhaust pipes and cut out the baffles, wrapped was was left and added shorty mufflers. We painted most of the engine black and polished the rest of the aluminum. We replaced the springs with shorter struts and cut the back of the frame. We did a spider web design on the rear fender, added a side mount tail light and license plate. The wheels we painted black and red and the tank was painted black with a red cap.
When it came time for the seat, he bought a spring mounted single seat. Because we replaced the air box with individual filters and changed the mufflers, we had to re-jet the carburetors. We spent a good part of the winter working on her and she came out looking great.
We had a hard time finding a master cylinder for the front brake, both bikes were outside for a long time and the cylinders were rusted shut. We ended up buying a 1982 LTD, which was a good buy for $200.00. This was a good find, not only were we able to use the cylinder, but the carbs from the other two were also damaged and we ended up using the ones from this one. The rear brake was difficult to reset, we had to tear it apart and remount it a couple of times before it was right.
Finally, after many weeks of hard work we had the bike the way he wanted it and we were ready to hear it rumble.
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