Author Topic: 1981 KZ1 survivor - FINISHED!!! (Read 16294 times)

Jaan · « **on:** March 10, 2013, 10:54 PM »

Starting more bikes before finishing others but I like to share my builds on here as I think the builds are the heart of RAD - certainly my favourite part.

So Kuwahara have to be my favourite BMX manufacturer, to me they're real old school, the KZ1's in particular tick all the right boxes for me - fast, super light, clean lines and very early 80s when BMX ruled my everyday.

Recently i've been building bikes with beautifully restored or NOS parts, fresh paint (I don't do powder) but as nice as they are I want to build a couple of clean survivors that remind me of the bikes i owned after they were new. So this morning I began building 2 KZ1, i'll do a thread for each and maybe do a vote at the end for your favourite. I'm definitely finishing these before any others

Comments as always very welcome

Heres some early photos of a black and gold build

glenboy · « **Reply #1 on:** March 10, 2013, 10:57 PM »

very nice chris , the cranks look good on there as well , i love the fineness of the tubing on the kz1's , its going to be a cool bike what colours the other

Devilock · « **Reply #2 on:** March 10, 2013, 10:58 PM »

What year is that?

stu27 · « **Reply #3 on:** March 10, 2013, 11:00 PM »

looks a beaut

Jaan · « **Reply #4 on:** March 10, 2013, 11:02 PM »

Quote from: glenboy on March 10, 2013, 10:57 PM

very nice chris , the cranks look good on there as well , i love the fineness of the tubing on the kz1's , its going to be a cool bike what colours the other

The other one is chrome and blue

Starting that thread next...

For me they have to be VX cranks on a KZ1, thats how they came out of the factory BITD. A one piece was KZ2 spec.

Jaan · « **Reply #5 on:** March 10, 2013, 11:09 PM »

Quote from: Devilock on March 10, 2013, 10:58 PM

What year is that?

1982

Devilock · « **Reply #6 on:** March 10, 2013, 11:24 PM »

Very nice in black.

KeithyT · « **Reply #7 on:** March 10, 2013, 11:24 PM »

Lovely Chris, looking forward to see this one progress. Will it be just like the black and gold in the original 1980/81 magazine ad?

Jaan · « **Reply #8 on:** March 10, 2013, 11:32 PM »

Quote from: KeithyT on March 10, 2013, 11:24 PM

Lovely Chris, looking forward to see this one progress. Will it be just like the black and gold in the original 1980/81 magazine ad?

100% replica (i hope)

monkian · « **Reply #9 on:** March 10, 2013, 11:59 PM »

Man that's a sweet set up.
Looking forward to this build (and the other one)

CustardLips · « **Reply #10 on:** March 11, 2013, 12:10 AM »

Good start.

Jaan · « **Reply #11 on:** March 11, 2013, 09:25 PM »

Day 2

Made some good progress on this today, added Suntour headlock, power stem and Redline V bars

Lovely used Suntour pedals, I could use gold KKT Lightnings (need to buy them) but I might stick to a Suntour group set so to speak...

Yellow Elina Lightning bolt seat, gold Nagaoka seat post and gold Suntour seat post clamp

Found some NOS in bag Suntour chain ring bolts so swapped them over

Possibly the jewel in the crown for me - some beautiful gold UKAI speedlines wrapped with yellow IRC 80X tyres

and heres a wide of how she's looking so far - more tomorrow... And yes Rich I need to tilt the seat back a tad

Clean · « **Reply #12 on:** March 11, 2013, 09:37 PM »

Lush, mate, fooking lush.

Going to be a pricy build, me thinks!

BMX1973 · « **Reply #13 on:** March 11, 2013, 09:45 PM »

Nice black and gold combo

Devilock · « **Reply #14 on:** March 11, 2013, 09:59 PM »

Donald Trump KZ...!!

Looking good so far Christine! Ditch those wheel nuts!

monkian · « **Reply #15 on:** March 11, 2013, 10:04 PM »

glenboy · « **Reply #16 on:** March 11, 2013, 10:14 PM »

very very nice that is ..blindin

Jaan · « **Reply #17 on:** March 11, 2013, 10:31 PM »

Quote from: Devilock on March 11, 2013, 09:59 PM

Donald Trump KZ...!!

Looking good so far Christine! Ditch those wheel nuts!

Colours are to factory spec, wheel nuts came with the wheels and i remember having red ones on a KZ1 - i'm building a bike that reminds me of what I liked in the early 80's, i'm not using your 2013 rule book

Wez · « **Reply #18 on:** March 11, 2013, 10:32 PM »

My eyes have been blessed

KeithyT · « **Reply #19 on:** March 12, 2013, 10:50 AM »

Looking fandabidozi that.

Out of interest what size are your redline approved v-bars Chris? Am I on a hiding to nothing looking for these stickered ones in the 25" proline size (It seems the Win v-bars are more "common" to find in the 25" width)

Retrodan72 · « **Reply #20 on:** March 12, 2013, 11:01 AM »

That looks really nice Chris.

Jaan · « **Reply #21 on:** March 12, 2013, 11:42 AM »

Quote from: KeithyT on March 12, 2013, 10:50 AM

Looking fandabidozi that. Out of interest what size are your redline approved v-bars Chris? Am I on a hiding to nothing looking for these stickered ones in the 25" proline size (It seems the Win v-bars are more "common" to find in the 25" width)

Cheers

Fitting the wheels and crank to the chrome one today

You're going to struggle finding 25" Redlines especially affordable ones

Mine are 23"