TOPIC:

Help me make a decision here. A friend of mine is willing to "give" me a a 79 Kawasaki KZ650 "free". THIS IS A PROJECT BIKE THAT'S IN REALLY ROUGH SHAPE (IMHO)!

It has not ran in ~18 mo. & when last it did needed tuning. It's been parked outside uncovered since. It's intact, very little missing, clear title & keys. Engine turns, gears shift, tank is clean (inside), only 1 dent, he has some extras for it (saddles, cafe & duck tails, pod filters, side covers).

It has a lot of rusty bolts/parts, rubber parts are all dry rotten, tires gone, chain shot, leaking fork oil, no battery, throttle frozen, cables toast, wiring questionable & who knows what else.

While the KZ650 is a good platform for a cafe project I've been contemplating I'm thinking this one maybe too far gone now & not worth the investment of time, money & effort. Still I thought I'd ask some experts / enthousiasts. Thoughts?

Looks ideal for a café project, especially if its free. 99.9% of the bits are there, just need cleaning up or re finishing. Pretty much what you would have to do to any bike to turn into a café. Bits are easy enough to get hold of. Engines are pretty robust and nice and easy to work on. When done they are very reliable.
I'd say go for it, what have you got to loose? Where is home?

I fear my mind is what I'd likely lose due to aggravation if I took on this bike. I'm located just outside of Philly.

Do you have a good air compressor? A parts washer would also be handy. And plenty of work space. I wouldn't take on a project like that, but if I did, I would make sure the engine is good first, then strip the bike down to the frame & go from there.

I considered taking on a KZ750 Ltd project that was listed on CL, since I already have a bunch of parts that could've been used on it. It was going to be minimum of about $2000 total which included $500 for the motorcycle. The high end of the estimate was close to $3K. so I passed. $3K was a worst case for a stock type restore.
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A free KZ650? Oh hell yeah.
If you want to café it do it as a rolling project. I did that with my café bike and just rode it and swapped/modified it little by little. I think sometime people get overwhelmed when they do it all at once.

Compressor, yes. Washer, no. I wouldn't say plenty of space but between my detached garage & basement, ample. I wouldn't do this as a rolling project as the bike doesn't currently roll. I'd strip this bike down to the frame, trash everything I didn't want to refurbish or re-install, hack everything I possibly could off the frame, & rebuild it as lean as possible . I'm fully aware it would take hundreds of man hours & thousands of dollars which is why I'm leaning toward no thanks on this heap. I just dont have the time, motivation or extra $ to throw at it.

If, as you say, you don't have the time or money it will take to make your dream bike you probably should let someone else have this bike. Ed

I'd take it.
Steve

Like everything in life thats worth having you have to work for it. Either time or money. Its unlikely anyone is going to give you your dream finished bike for free.
If you dont have the time or money now, when you do, you wont have a free bike offered.
Grab it with both hands now while you can and keep it until you do have time and or money spare.
OP sounds like a glass half empty kinda guy to me.

No, not true. My glass is full to overflowing with way too many other pursuits. I'd much rather ride my Triumph than wrench on this KZ. My friend is interested in getting this bike out of his yard & my post here was partly an effort to help him in that endeavor. So if there are any members out there local to Philly who feel up to this project or perhapse just need a parts bike please step forward. I will gladly pass your info to my friend.

OK, if you say so, cos that jibes with your first post, doesn't it.

After reading the posts here it sounds to me like you didn't really want to do this project...at least not right now. Maybe I missed something but I saw lots of negatives about it and few positives other than simply having a project to work on.

From my perspective the initial cost of a project bike is a minor part of the overall cost, even if it's $4 orr $5 grand. Getting one for free won't really save you very much money overall. The big expense is in the restoration/refurbishment. If you aren't ready to do your project then maybe you should pass on this opportunity.

Why don't you check around to see if there are any trade schools with motorcycle programs that could use a project?