1979 KZ 1000 ST

[HueyDriver]

It has been a while since I looked at this. The bike is running great still. I had about $1K worth of work done a while back (Carbs, ignition, tach seal, oil change, and shaft seal). I take it to bike nights locally. Still about 28K miles.

 

[dwalby]

Wish I could get my hands on some of the "big" 750's -1000's from the 70's & early 80's. Honda 750, Honda CBX,Kaw 750H2,Kaw Z-1,Suzuki GT750,RE-5,Yam TX750 etc.

I rode a few of them back in the day, and I think one advantage of riding them in that era was we still had the 55MPH speed limit, so you basically plodded along at ~62MPH all day long. With no fairing at all, that wasn't a big deal, they were great. Then I rode one in the mid-90s when the average flow of traffic was more like 75-80MPH on freeways, and found the lack of wind protection brought on riding fatigue much faster than on a bike like the ST. For short trips they're still great, but if you have to get from point A to point B ASAP, then they lose their appeal compared to more modern wind protected alternatives.

BTW, I didn't remember Kawi having a shaft drive version of the 1000. I had a 1981 KZ1000J that was chain driven, those are the ones I recall seeing most of the time along with the 900's and the Z-1Rs. I probably saw the shaft version a couple of times back then and just forgot about it over the years. The one Kawi shafty of that era that I do remember, that I test rode but didn't buy, was the KZ1300.

 

[HueyDriver]

The one Kawi shafty of that era that I do remember, that I test rode but didn't buy, was the KZ1300.

I almost bought one instead of this, but I am glad I got this one instead.