Kicking Up A Stink

He’s finally listening to ‘she who must be obeyed’ as Ralph gets to work on his wife’s Kawasaki Z650 clutch.

- Ralph Ferrand

We bought SWMBO’s (She Who Must Be Obeyed) Kawasaki Z650 C3 many moons ago in a series of rather tatty cardboard boxes.

Some parts were duplicated and some came up short, but for £150 I didn’t think we could go wrong. How many times have you heard that line?

The plan was to throw it together, get it running and think about throwing some money at it later on to pretty it up.

Age and excessive consumption of locally brewed Butcombe bitter has not aided my ability to recall accurately, but if memory serves me right, we are now on the third engine. It always seems so much easier to just buy another ‘good’ engine than go to all the time and expense of a major engine rebuild.

When the third engine wouldn’t play ball, I stripped it down to the last nut and bolt. I bead-blasted the whole engine and gearbox unit, sprayed it with etch primer, satin black, polished the shiny bits and bought it a Wiseco big bore kit. Because of its position, the starter clutch is a complete git to fix on a Z650, so I fitted a brand new complete unit and a new primary drive chain.

The diminutive Zed has caused me no end of hassle over the years and has had more than its fair share of rides in recovery vehicles, though in recent years it has behaved sufficiently well that SWMBO has managed to clock up a good number of miles and smiles.

Despite my hatred for the damned machine, the current Mrs Ferrand has insisted that Stinky (the side-stand mount is a bit knackered, making it lean over too far and thereby spilling petrol out of the float chambers if left for any period of time, hence ‘Stinky’) is her favourite bike and the only way it will be taken from her is from her cold, dead hands, mirroring my feelings for my 1977 Z100A1, which has been massively reliable.