1976 Kawasaki KZ900 aka “The Jericho”

I bought this bike while I was in school in Orlando, FL for a personal café build. I wasn’t sure exactly where this build was headed, but I knew I wanted to create something both different and unique. This build went through several stages. The fist stage was a basic resto-mod to bring it back to life. Next we added some stylistic queues to transform the KZ900 into a café racer. Finally, after still feeling unsatisfied with the build, we ended up with a cross breed between café racer and street fighter as the finished product that we coined “The Jericho”.

What was the design concept and what influenced the build?

I always thought vintage Japanese motors were a piece of art because they were designed to be exposed and air cooled. The problem I have with vintage bikes, is mostly reliability and handling. On another note the problem I see with modern bikes is the beauty of the motor is often covered by fairings and plastics. With the dying breed of air cooled Japanese bikes, I wanted to create a bike that has all the functionality and reliability of a modern bike, but the beauty of an exposed vintage motor and frame.

What custom work was done to the bike?

Primarily, frame modification with a seat hoop fashioned with a custom fiberglass cowl and diamond stitched seat. It is also outfitted with 2006 CBR600RR front forks, triple trees, clip ons, controls as well as mag wheels and performance disc brakes. We finished it off with a modified ZZR600 swing arm with custom brackets for dual progressive coil-over shocks in the mono shock position. Lastly we upgraded to a Dynatek electronic ignition, CR performance race carbs, and a Supertrapp exhaust.

Was there anything done during this build that you are particularly proud of?

With every bike I build I take a lot of pride in my electrical work. This bike has a custom harness made specifically for its application. Although it is mostly unseen, I view the wiring harness as the nervous system of a motorcycle and it is one of the most important parts in creating a good reliable build.