Kawasaki KZ1000 Café Racer
Tuesday, July 20, 2010 
After yesterday's 'Mad Kwak' article I thought it was appropriate to feature this monoshock Kawasaki green KZ1000 café racer which was recently a finalist on Do the Ton for 'Bike of the Month'. Built by 'backyard builder' Andrew Lakowicz who told us "the bike was actually given to me by a relative, it had about 60,000 miles on it and was in a very rough shape". Andrew did everything on this bike himself, including all the welding which he learned during the process. He is far from finished though, and already has a list of changes for his bespoke creation. "I actually just finished taking the swingarm off, as I am going to redo it. I am not too happy with the way it looks. My first stab at it was really an exercise in design and function, now I want to make it look more aesthetically pleasing". The bike is well documented in it's many stages, with numerous build threads (one, two, three, four, five, and six) on Do The Ton, showing how Andrew transformed this vintage bike into a beautiful monoshock café racer.
Build Specs:
Airtech solo seat
Removed battery box ETC... and relocated all electronics to custom made tray under the set
Bobbed front fender
Woodcraft Clip-Ons
Kawasaki lime green paint throughtout
KZ1000 LTD speedo
V&H down pipe with custom made splitter and two Dyna mufflers
Repainted wheels
Painted calipers front and rear
Cat eye rear tailight with custom fabbed mounting
Emgo pods, rejetted running 125 mains and 20 pilots, with needles at their stock setting.
Reader Comments (6)
Thanks for the post Scott. Appreciate it.
Andrew
4-1 exhaust? Funny, I could swear I'm seeing a pipe on the left side, too...
All kidding aside, this is fantastic - and learning to weld for a project like this? Inspiring!
Nice Job! I dig that front fender.
Ha ha, Thanks dead-elvis I will update that original spec list.
No probs Andrew, love the bike and well done.
Great looking bike Andrew!
No joke, just bought a kawasaki 1100 today due to your bike mods and finished product. I haven't learned how to weld or do all the things you do... but I am going to try! Any chance I could bother you for some advice intermittently?
- Kile