It all started when my friend Dianna wanted to get a motorcycle, she's a tuff girl (ahem, tom boy) who likes fast cars and now that I think about it I'm surprised she didn�t want to get a bike earlier. She wanted to get something small and after I took a ride on a Ninja 250 I was suckered in. I didn�t have a lot of cash to spend on a new bike, plus I didn�t want to get something expensive just to have me wreck it or damage it. So I started to look for a used bike, I didn�t care if it ran or not, but it had to look decent and be in a fixable condition. This is when I ran into the Ninja 750R (ZX750F1), I was looking thru the recycler and it was listed there for $700 and all it needed was a head gasket. I've done tons of head gaskets on cars and small displacement multivalve 4cyl engines. So my thoughts are that this can't be hard... After I E-mailed him, I almost stopped there when I found out it was an 87. I wanted to get a bike that look somewhat like the newer bikes, then he sends me a pic and I was like... whoah, not bad.
So I drive out 40 miles to see the bike (yeah it was kind of far) and I'll tell u it looked much better in the pics. He tells me it overheated and that�s how the head gasket went bad. Then he tells me his friends� son use to ride the bike until it overheated and he gave it to this guy. He was going to fix it but couldn�t figure it out. Ok... that�s ok, I thought its probably just a water pump or the radiator, nothing big... so then he tells me some technical details about the bike, "It has a K&N filter kit and stage 3 jets" ok I have no idea what that means, but it sure sounds fast. Then he says it has a Vance & Hines 4-1 super sport exhaust, ok sounds good... I guess... "Does it start?" He looks at me and I see a bead of sweat start to build up... "Sure, let me find the keys" He goes back into his house and comes back out. After about playing with the choke and gas for about 5mins it finally starts. I hear a misfire, ok.. Not totally life threatening, probably just the head gasket. Then I start to look at the bike, I walk around, poke at its war wounds and check out the paint. "It really needs a paintjob" I tell him, "Yeah I got the bike it a really bad shape, I started to patch up most of the plastic as u can see" I see some epoxy patches and some 2 part mix that was used to repair some cracks. I look over and tell him, "Well I don�t think some of the panels will come out right even with the epoxy" I run my hand down the side.... I squint and tell him, "I'll give you $200 for it" I pull out the money, and he says "sold"... wow, either I got ripped or he really wanted to get rid of it....
I take it home on my step dads truck (man this thing weights a ton, I just found out its close to 430lbs, which is pretty heavy for a bike) and I unload it. I try to start it, but for the love of god it just wouldn't start. I kill the battery in the attempt to start, its was starting to get dark so I decide to call it a night and try in the morning,
1978 Kawasaki Ninja 750R (ZX750F1)
Total spent today:$200
Total spent on project: $200
