Bike of the Month Feb 2013.
Owner: Erich Martin, aka Daskraut, Santa Monica , CA.
This ELR clone before you is my first KZ1000 and my first Kawasaki 4 stroke. I think it was motorcycle
#55 that I have purchased. I always loved Z1s and the ELR was visually striking in my opinion.
I used to pick on them at the canyon drag races we used to do on encinal canyon by the rock store
back in the early 80s. At the time i was riding a '72 H2 with a 100hp Denco engine, it hauled a$$ and
made mincemeat out of the KZ1000s and some of the GS1100s. The main thing I noticed back in the
day was my buds that rode these bikes were never tired at the end of a Sunday ride, where I was
completely wiped out from the vibrating ,but damn fast 2 stroke!. Fast forward to 2000,
I am older, fatter and much smarter. I have been into Harleys and Buell's since '91 and really miss my
Kawasaki's. So I talk to my good bud Paul that is a damn fine mechanic that at the time worked for
Chuck Graves, he told me the later model KZ1000s handled better and there is a ton of spares due to
their use as police bikes. So I start looking around for an '81 and up KZ1000 or a GPZ1100.
I was bummed at how hard to come across they were and the fact they were a little pricey , so I
shelved the idea for a couple months. Then one day I get a call to come out to Chuck Graves
shop to check out my buddy Kenton's KZ1000J /ELR clone. It was damn cool and the hook was set in
my chubby little cheek!. I kept bugging my mechanic bud to find me a KZ1000 to buy. A couple months
go by and I get a phone call that a bike may become available. He told me in a couple weeks a project
KZ1000J is coming out from Kansas and I may be able to get it.
He told me he was going to build it but then his soon to be wife killed the idea....but the bike was on
its way, so he would sell/trade it to me. I was expecting a barn find, y'know, cob webs and dust, but
intact. I told him I would trade him for my perfect '83 GS450E, he said no problem. So one day I am
at the Harley dealer where my mechanic bud Paul now works and where where I worked on Saturdays
selling Buell's, and up pulls my Buddy Kenton with 3 bikes on a trailer, one of which was my soon to
be KZ1000. But I was told not to say anything about the bike, so mum was the word. Within a day I
was in his garage looking at a KZ1000J frame with a CSR1000 engine and wiring loom, a rear wheel ,
a swing arm and a GS1000 front end just holding the bike up. I was so bummed....until he brought out
the '83 KZ1000R gas tank that came with the bike, suddenly my spirits rose!.
So here I was, missing half the motorcycle and had Zip for knowledge regarding this model. At the
time, I did not even have a computer!. When this bike was sitting in my garage, I knew I had to get a
computer and check out this "eBay thing" I have heard everyone talk about. One of the guys at the
dealership built me a working 486 that got online. My life changed very fast!. I found a parts bike,
a CSR1000, robbed all the parts possible and in a month I had her up and running. Then came a
GPZ1100 front end, a J seat and many bits from eBay to turn this pile of parts into an ELR clone.
Funny little side note, the tank that came from Kansas with the bike was purchased out here about
six months before . I came from my bud Mario that crashed his brand new '83 R2 and got a brand new
tank for it and he kept the old tank in his Garage for about 17 years.
My bud Kenton bought it and put it on his clone, the same bike I saw at Chucks shop!. Fast forward a year,
I have been riding the old beast and really enjoying it, but had no fairing. So one Sunday I go the a
ZRX owners club meet in Palmdale at my bud Ricks house. I am checking out all the cool bikes and I
see a little lime green thing up on a shelf, I ask Rick about this and he says it is just what I need, an
R2 fairing from HIS friend Marios crashed R2 that has been kicking around his garage for ages!.
I bought it, repaired the big scrape and repainted the upper part lime green while leaving the rest intact.
At the time I was building this bike, I only had a storage garage and the occasional buddies garage to
do my wrenching. Fast forward to 2010, my wife is listening to our landlady trying to get us to rent the
bigger apartment next door, to which my wife replied "what we really need is a garage",
I knew from that day forward that I married well!. So now that I have a place to wrench and a new
motorcycle lift (gift from the wife), I tore the top end off the KZ and sent the head to Larry Cavanagh
for a valve job and stage 1 porting, then I scored some MTC 10.5 to 1 1135 pistons, for the GPZ1100
cylinder block I scored on eBay along with some GPZ1100 cams. It took a while to get the head
done and the block punched out and honed.
I got bored and went out and bought a 2011 ninja 1000 to keep myself entertained. I think the poor
KZ sat with all parts on the shelf for over a year since I was having so much fun with my Ninja. Well,
I finally got it together last summer, added some 33 CR carbs and am still fine tuning, but with some 100
octane gas in it to keep it from pinging, it will power wheelie in first gear like a damn 2 stroke!.
It may be a frankenkaw, but it is all mine and I love her!!.
Erich Martin.
We will be featuring a different bike each month on kz1000r.com
that we feel is deserving of the title "Bike of The Month."
Check back often to see what our pick is.
To nominate or submit your own bike for "Bike of The Month."
Send some info on yourself your bike and loads of pic's bigger the better.
PLEASE SEND IN YOUR INFO IF YOU ARE LUCKY ENOUGH TO OWN ONE OF THESE BIKES!
I really want to bring THIS Registry up to date so accurate number's left in circulation can be made available,
this will intern help us get a true market value for insurance purposes.
Please include the chassis number and the month of production printed on the headstock of your bike.
Your name and location. and most importantly a picture's of your bike.
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