When the KZ1000 first rolled off the factory floor in 1976, it was the fastest production bike with a 1015cc inline four motor that produced a very respectable 83 horses. In recent years, these KZ?s have been in high demand and have been fetching some high prices. So when Steve Meyer from Maui, Hawaii inherited his late uncle’s 1979 KZ1000 he wanted to bring it back to its former glory but with a custom twist. He had seen the work of Sean Skinner from Motorelic and decided to give him a call out of the blue. “My first thought was ‘How in the heck did you find me"’ ? and then I wondered how he was going to get the bike to Virginia,? recalls Sean. “Well, it turned out Steve was originally from Baltimore MD and the bike was there.” Once the bike finally arrived at the Motorelic HQ, they began the design process together and nailed down the final look. “We settled on a classy brat style theme that would be comfortable enough to do a cross country trip to San Diego on so he could ship the bike back home to Hawaii!”
If you know Sean?s work you’ll know he doesn?t like using the stock tank, so that was his first order of business. “Steve was pretty set on using a stock tank but I happened to have a Royal Enfield Continental GT tank from a previous build sitting on the shelf. I removed the stock tank and, though the GT tank didn’t just slip on, it was close enough to get an idea of how great it would look. Stev...