{"id":2164,"date":"2024-11-08T21:47:25","date_gmt":"2024-11-08T20:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clmogarage.com\/?p=2164"},"modified":"2026-05-21T11:23:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T10:23:45","slug":"kawasaki-z-650-f2-nostalgic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clmogarage.com\/index.php\/en\/2024\/11\/08\/kawasaki-z-650-f2-nostalgic\/","title":{"rendered":"Kawasaki Z 650 F2 “nostalgic” Motorcycle S.O.S"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This project may be considered by the uninitiated as rather odd and insane. In the spring of 1981 I was involved in a very unpleasant accident with my Rickman Kawasaki and the summer was spent in a wheelchair and later on crutches. In August I was reasonably on my feet and had a great desire to ride a motorcycle again. The Kawasaki Z 650 F2 was available for immediate delivery and so it had to be. The first 1000 kilometers were quickly covered in order to do the then mandatory first service. Despite pain and limited mobility, it went south with then girlfriend on the back seat. It was the French Riviera round trip and with some small exciting events during the trip. After two years it was replaced and other bikes took their place. In the spring of 2022, I track it down and it turns out that for many years it was owned by a man who for several years had an authorised person due to severely failing health. I get some pictures and information and it turns out that many years before the owner attached a sidecar and even more shockingly I learn that it has been stored outside for the last 7-8 years. Damn it, I go up to Dalarna (750 km. to the north) and pick it up and pay basically nothing for it. In the pictures below, it can be viewed as it looked when it \u201clanded\u201d at home. The goal of the project is for it to be restored to perfect new condition and the hunt for parts is in full swing\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Disfigured and with a sidecar..<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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A little mossy here and there<\/strong>















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The frame is painted and for the first time on the lift<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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After a lot of searching I found original shock absorbers in perfect condition. Most of the original shocks probably wore out pretty quickly and were replaced by Koni or Ohlin ones.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Newly chromed and nice rear fender with new NOS original reflector. Every single screw on the bike will be NOS or electroplated original.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Now it is standing on its own wheels for the first time. Unfortunately I had to capitulate when it came to the brake discs. NOS were impossible to find and turning\/grinding was not an option. It had to be aftermarket parts of good quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The engine in place in the frame. Since the delivery time for the pistons was taking a while, I chose to mount the engine in the frame anyway. In fact, the bottom part was beyond expectations. No strange things with the gearbox and the main bearings were like new. There were new crank bearings, primary chain, timing chain\/tensioner and refurbished oil pump. The engine covers were a mix of original and some from a “donor”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Freshly milled valve seats are always a nice sight. All valves will be new but surprisingly no valve guides needed to be replaced. Leak down test on just the cylinder head shows 0% leakage\u2026 It doesn’t get any better. Cams were taken from a healthy donor and all tolerances are well within requirements. Now I’m just waiting for the pistons and cylinder bore to the first oversize (62.5mm)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now the completely renovated meters are also in place. Patrick at CBMTRS does a fantastic job as always.

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Now the newly painted tank is in place, including the NOS emblem<\/p>\n\n\n

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I’ve also had the ugly little warning sticker on the tank remade. Achtung & Warning… The end is near. Next week the chromed exhaust system will arrive and I’ll have the cylinder barrel from the bore any day now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Everything is there.. soon fire up<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Original exhaust system in perfect condition. A lot of welding, soldering, grinding and finally new chrome. Not cheap but a very good feeling<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And here it is now. 100% finished after renovation. A lot of hours and a lot of money but it was worth it. So far these are not very valuable on the market but they will come.. Doesn’t matter because this was a pure nostalgia project. Next step is the technical inspection (MOT) to get rid of the sidecar in the matriculation documant and as soon as the weather permits it will be on the roads<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stefan at OPUS inspection doing his job for the changed matriculation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And then Anders at Opus took over to do the final inspection. Here he has just completed the test drive and this will be the absolute last stage of the project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This project may be considered by the uninitiated as rather odd and insane. In the spring of 1981 I was involved in a very unpleasant accident with my Rickman Kawasaki and the summer was spent in a wheelchair and later on crutches. In August I was reasonably on my feet and had a great desire… Continue reading Kawasaki Z 650 F2 “nostalgic” Motorcycle S.O.S<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ongoing-projects","category-uncategorized","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clmogarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clmogarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clmogarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clmogarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clmogarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2164"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/clmogarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2439,"href":"https:\/\/clmogarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2164\/revisions\/2439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clmogarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clmogarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clmogarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clmogarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}