TOPIC:

Hello lads.

Bit of an issue with tracking down the last parts I need to commence assembly.

Levers!

I want a matching set of levers, preferably something short-levered and modern/CNC looking.

My problem is I need a radial brake lever but an old school cable-clutch lever.

Any ideas?

I love the Brembo racing stuff, but their lever sets consist of hydraulic clutch also.

Something like these Pazzo ones...

Swingarm selection time.

I have 3 box section alloy arms and all are useable with some mods.

These 2 are chunkiest and I like the eccentric adjuster on the bottom one. However, it needs a lot of change to make it work. I may nick the adjuster and fit it to my preferred arm.



But this is my preferred. I like the bevelled arms and the pivot width needs only a 1-2mm reducing either side to slot right into the frame. Also, it is asymmetrical with a kick on the drive side which must help with space for the chain I think? The others don't. Best bit, it is the same length as the original Z swinger so just weld on some shock mounts and it's ready - it's also the lightest by far of the 3.




Mocked up - I think it looks best too.




Got my radial callipers sorted mounted with Titanium M10 bolts. I'll need these clamped into my new wheels with the right spacing for the discs to give me final width for my custom yokes.







Question (again).

The swing arm mount point on the frame has protruding tubes/bushes on either side.
I could grind these down to make the swing arm fit or machine down the swing arm a little.
Which is best? Also, how should it mount to the frame - are those bosses important?
Should I use bearings or brass bushes as has been suggested?

Cheers for any help in advance.

Ratch, if you can weld the eccentric adjusters to your preferred arm, then I say do that. I love your original photoshop of the black arm with gold eccentric. I must be eccentric myself because I love 'em. I'm a big believer that form follows function, so use the arm that works best.

The frame bosses at the swingarm pivot only matter for centering the tire, so modify as needed. You have two options on the swingarm pivot. I'm assuming that whatever arm you choose will have a larger ID than the original. It should also have bearings in the swingarm. You can make bushings that have the OD of the new pivot and the ID of the original swinger bearings. This way you use the Z swingarm pivot. That's what I did. Or you can cut the bosses out and weld in new bosses big enough to use the new swingarm pivot. Porchev914 went this route. His method is more difficult but more rigid. I would definantly try and use some form of bearings at the pivot. Any stiction here is not desirable.

As for your previous question. There is actually a hydraulic clutch kit available for the Z1000. Possibly you could adapt your clutch to a hydraulic setup and use the Brembo levers that you prefer. I don't know if there is a hydraulic kit for the small fours.

Here's a picture of the bushings that I made on a lathe to adapt my z1000 swingarm pivot to fit a GSXR 750 swinger:

Cheers dude - cleared up a few queries there.

One more thing, the protruding bosses on the frame are meant to sit inside the swingarm? If that is the case, how would I get them in the swingarm as obviously there is not enough room - unless you;re supposed to spread the frame a little...?

Brake lever - I went with the original ZX6R Ninja levers as they are a rdial brake lever and cable clutch - so I will just swap out the cheap Kawasaki levers for bolt-in Pazzo / Titax GP ones.

That's good info on the zx-6 levers, as I may want to switch to a more modern lever in the future. Funny, I didn't think of that since I have a zx-10r sitting in my garage.

As for the frame bosses, I wouldn't think that you should have to spread the frame. If it is very close, say within just a few mm, then I would narrow the swingarm or cut the bosses back. Narrowing the swingarm may be difficult dependent upon the pivot bearings. In my case, I was lucky, the GSXR swinger was just about 3mm narrower. If you look at the picture of the bushings that I made, there is a narrow flange at the bottom that takes up the space.

Cheers dude - cleared up a few queries there.

One more thing, the protruding bosses on the frame are meant to sit inside the swingarm? If that is the case, how would I get them in the swingarm as obviously there is not enough room - unless you;re supposed to spread the frame a little...?

Brake lever - I went with the original ZX6R Ninja levers as they are a rdial brake lever and cable clutch - so I will just swap out the cheap Kawasaki levers for bolt-in Pazzo / Titax GP ones.

So the first bling bit arrived today.








Too much Gold? :twisted:

Now I can get my 'imaginary' rear wheel lined up with this wheel with the swingarm in place and figure out my hub/sprocket offset. Then I can order the rear wheel. So both 'rims' will be perfectly aligned with each other but the rear hub will be pushed in or out to get my chain line neat.

Also picked up 'the' engine. It's a 750 and looks in good exterior condition with all fins in tact, studs all present and hardly any corrosion.




Even the black paint is in good nick - but this will be stripped down, rebuilt and powder-coated whilst there. I was going to do the 810cc conversion but I'm not sure an extra 60cc is worth £1000+ cost. I will fit Dyna S ignition and maybe kickstart only to ditch that meaty starter and smaller battery. I'd love to have a crack at taking the head off myself to see what state it's and I try a mini-rebuild myself but I need to see how tough it actually is. I'm hoping it's just sending the head and block to be cleaned, skimmed and powder-coated and then I just maybe do piston rings and full timing gear - and anything else you guys recommend (oil pump - does it have one?). And a full service of course. But if the valve seats need doing or other weird stuff then...


Intake rubbers are in great condition - soft with no cracks.




Leads us to Carbs. The guy threw in a set of Carbs which are Keihin (CV type?) with 34mm output diameter which I think are correct for this engine. They will be totally stripped, cleaned and rebuilt with a larger Stage 3 DynoJet kit. Don't know what state they're in at the mo. The caps will be re-chromed too.






I've been advised to not powder coat these - bad idea? I'd like to have them Black like the engine and the caps in Black Chrome too.

I guess next thing to do is align up the rear wheel, get that ordered then it's all kind of stalled until I get my yokes done - so my next job is look at that engine.

Wowee! Ratch, that wheel is positively sinful. You're making me want spokes. How much did you spend to put that together if you don't mind my asking?

I'm not sure why you shouldn't powder coat carbs, unless there is no way to positively block off all the openings. You wouldn't want to seal off an air passage. That's my only theory.

I fear that you may have uploaded too many pictures to this particular page. It is taking a long time to load. I have done this to myself in my thread before. It seems to only affect the page that is picture heavy. Once this rolls over into page 2, it should speed up.

Man that wheelset is going to be Killer! I cant wait to see this bike done! Nice project

So I made my tyre selections.

Dunlop D209 Qualifiers, 120/17/70 on the front and 150/17/60 on the rear. I could have gone 160 + etc but as I've said from the beginning, there's a fine balance on this build between retro Zed and modern tech.




Dunlop Logo lined up with rim logo as it will be painted white - details!



Fitted to forks - though nowhere near properly aligned I think the calipers will sit near enough on the discs and clear the spokes. Nothing a custom yoke and a few spacers won't remedy.





A few pics mocked up altogether to get an idea of shape and colours. Dodgy iPhone super wideangle camera distorts everything - bike looks stretched and overly long - I'm after the shorter stockier street-muscle look. Style wise, I may go even shorter on the tail. I decided that some things must not change and that was the Ducktail, sidepods, twin-shocks and single headlamp. Those coupled to the engine mean it'll be Zed all the way.










The forks are 29.1" from from tube (not adjusters) to axle clamp centre. Originals are 30.5". So I will gain that back with a 1.5" drop in the yokes but the wheel is also 2" smaller than the original - the rear only 1" smaller than original.

So all in, I'll be 1" steeper in the rake. Wheelbase will also be extended slightly as the yokes will push the forks further +20mm so the 50mm forks will clear the tank.





Starting to wonder if I shouldn't have gone for an 18" wheel up front to get closer to original Zed spec but I do like the small wheel on the front. I have a cool trick for the front fender which I will save for later.


Love it from the rear - a meaty tyre just makes everything look awesome.

























And...


















The Lawson colours are winning against the JPS Pinstripe look!

I had to search my memory bank for a minute to remember what JPS stood for. Then it struck me. One of my favorite race cars from back in the day. Either paint scheme looks good to me.