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Rank: n00b
Groups: Member
Joined: 5/13/2010
Posts: 3
Location: Canberra, Australia
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G'day guys and girls. My name is Mark Smith, my board name is Max, I belong to The Australian Hayabusa Club and the Suzuki owners Club. I have owned three hayabusas, a GSXR1100 before that, a selection of FJ1100 and 1200s and GPZ1100s before that, a Kawasaki ST1000 shaft drive was my first new road bike in 1979, and a Suzuki GT550 before that.
I am restoring a 1983 GPZ550 that my Godson rode into the ground and abandoned. I bought it from him for $200 in 1997 and after dismantling it that year, left the motor parts in the shed and the frame has sat outside in the weather since.
In the mean time Kawasaki has stopped making or keeping any parts for this great little bike. I am feeling challenged, a close mate, Tess has asked me to teach her about motorcycles, the best way was to restart the rebuild and after showing her the way to do things, have her keep going with it. So for the last year we have been slowly rebuilding the motor and have now started on the frame and undercarriage.
I have a facebook site that includes the photos and Tess and the things we are doing if anyone wants to follow along. Please feel free to came along.
I am enjoying the rebuild as it's been a long long time since having to rebuild anything from the ground up.
I found this site tonight while looking around for anything GPZ5500 and anyone who may have the parts I am chasing.
Cheers and thanks for having me.
Mark
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Rank: MSF graduate
Groups: Member
Joined: 6/7/2008
Posts: 45
Location: Delaware Ohio
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Hi Mark. Mark here too. Not to active a site, but the forum moderator/owner has vast knowledge about the 550s whenever he gets here. If I can give any help I'll try to do so and feel free to email me if needed. I make manual cam chain tensioners for the Kawasakis with a majority going to the Zephyrs and the KLX650s. I've got about a half dozen in Australia and New Zealand along with other parts of the world... amazing how the internet and forums work. Both my KLX and my Zephyr had bad tensioners, the KLX failed twice with the second one finishing off the chains at about 15,000 miles - rebuild - about 27,000 miles since then with the manual. I knew better with the Zephyr and did the tensioner shortly after purchase. Seems the new improved tensioner was the same design as the one that failed on the KLX!
But I digress. I hope all goes well with what you're doing. I will tell you with some U.S. sourced stuff if it fits in the U.S. postal flat rate boxes it ships fairly cheap. I sent my tensioners anywhere in the world for $13.45 for the small box and it could actually fit several parts. The bigger boxes will go up to about $25-30 or so, I forget. You could look on the United States Postal Service site for their box sizes and see what they cost. If I can help I will. I helped another Australian who has a KLX650 get a set of suspension links. The ebay seller wouldn't ship them outside the U.S. even though they did flat rate packaging. We figured out the cost, he paid me by PayPal, I bought the parts, repacked into an unmarked flat rate box, and sent them off to him. If this is ever of interest let me know.
Mark - klx678
Delaware Ohio
1990 Kawasaki Zephyr 550 mostly stock - if I wanted faster I'd have bought faster
1995 Kawasaki KLX650 with a big bore Vulcan piston 678cc, a pipe, and Dial-A-Jet
1978 Yamaha SR500 eventually to be a 60's style flattrack look street tracker
1967or so Bultaco M27 Sherpa T - first bike I bought, 1971.
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Rank: n00b
Groups: Member
Joined: 5/13/2010
Posts: 3
Location: Canberra, Australia
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Hi Mark and thanks for the welcome. I am also on another GPZ550 site and the membership there is also pretty small. The Hayabusa site has 800 and growing so I am learning patience while here. I am looking for some hard to get parts and appreciate your offer to help if shipping becomes an issue.
At the moment I'm after a chain guard for my '83 GPZ550.
I bought some forks probably 8 r 9 years ago off ebay and got stung - the forks I got were off a Kwak 750 something and doesn't have a leading axle. The forks on my old basket case are rooted. badly chipped and pitted while rust is also settling into them, so they have to go. I'm going to try to make the forks fit with a few small mods, that will be interesting. (:-)).
Just finishing up the rear end, have new swingarm bearings and have some bits for the suspension linkages that are broken and buggered.
Thanks again for the offer, don't have a chain guard do you??? lol.
Cheers and thanks again.
Mark
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Rank: MSF graduate
Groups: Member
Joined: 6/7/2008
Posts: 45
Location: Delaware Ohio
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No such luck.
Mark - klx678
Delaware Ohio
1990 Kawasaki Zephyr 550 mostly stock - if I wanted faster I'd have bought faster
1995 Kawasaki KLX650 with a big bore Vulcan piston 678cc, a pipe, and Dial-A-Jet
1978 Yamaha SR500 eventually to be a 60's style flattrack look street tracker
1967or so Bultaco M27 Sherpa T - first bike I bought, 1971.
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Rank: Administrator
Groups: Administration
Joined: 4/23/2008
Posts: 222
Location: Catskill Mtns.
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Welcome to the board. We do have location-specific parts for sale and parts wanted areas on the board that might be of help. Things here are a little slow, but we strive for quality over quantity. ;)
| 1990 Kawasaki Zephyr 615 (Daphne) -=- 1986 Kawa Ninja 250 (stolen) | | The Motorcycle Fuel Injection Handbook -=- http://tinyurl.com/297abo |
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