1977 KZ1000 new life

Stu Pidasole wrote: jesus mike, why dont you just do it the easy way? lol

I may be putting words in Mike's mouth, but it seems to be a common trait in good machinists. They don't "get" taking the easy way out. I can tell that Mike is a tool and die man from the way he's attacking this project. Pay attention guys, this is an old school method of building a model off an existing part. These days, modern shops have digitizers or Coordinate Measuring Machines that create a digital model of the part. Mike is doing it like they used to before the technology took hold. This method requires that you use that lump of squishy grey matter between your ears. An orangutan can be trained to use a digitizer. I'm not kidding. This type of machine work is a dying art. PAY ATTENTION! What does the world do if the Y2K crisis had come to fruition? Pay guys like Mike big bucks to get their collective ass out of the crack they got stuck in. He's offering you a glimpse of some skills that are not freely passed along in the trade. I have literally seen old salty machinists stop dead in their tracks when they caught you watching what they were doing.

So Mike, does your Bridgeport have a DRO? That makes your job a little easier. Love the gauge pins. One of my favorite measuring tools since most of the parts I make are too small to get a bore gauge into.

A good machinest has allready made that part in his head and I'll bet he's got every setup it's going to need done in his head. I've been in the trade for almost 30 yrs and he has my attention. It's nice to see a fellow machinest step forward and parade his work. You deserve to be recognized. You do some really nice work, Need a job?

Wow thanks Josh,Les very cool that you can appreciate what it takes to build something from nothing. But I have to tell you Josh I wish I had a digitizer that would make my life easyer for sure, and yes my mill does have a dro but I still set my dials because I don't trust the dro 100%. And you are correct again Josh I have been building injection molds now for almost 22 years that is where the reverse engineering comes from. I was very lucky in my early years to work under some realy old and tuff "salty" tool makers, It is sad to say but I am 41 years old and I have not seen any young guys come up threw the shops in 15 years or so and all the old guys are dead and gone. Don't get me wrong I have seen younger guys doing some kick ass cnc work but put them on a surface grinder,manual lathe or mill and they are out of the element. Hell don't even ask them can you run an EDM they just look at you like you are crazy.

I have built tons of bikes over the years and with the birth of the Hayabusa I have been focused on parts for that bike for some time, the demand is so high for them. But my true passion is the old school KZ'S AND GS1150'S the first muscle bikes. You can bolt parts on a Hayabusa or GSX-R all day long and you still don't have anything different than the next guy. Thats why I am building another old kaw YOU CAN'T BUY WHAT WE DO, plus this fourm helps me show what it realy takes to build a oneoff bike, not an OCC or some other chopper peice of sh!t that they bolt together. Thanks again and I will try to show as much as possible. Oh and if anyone has a digitizer they want to sell hit me up "lol"

The shop that I work in has a digitizer for sale right now. If you are serious, I can put you in touch with the right people. I'm afraid that the price might be a little scary. I'm pretty sure that they spent $40K on the thing about 3 years ago. Very light use. It's a Romer but I can't remember what model, and it runs PC-DMIS software.

531blackbanshee wrote: i cannot stand the lack of feel that you get from a hydraulic clutch.
probably just stems from my quad racing days .
not so critical on a streetbike,but when racing on dirt where you have to slip the clutch a direct cable gives you much more feel.so now days i just don't seem to be able to justify any extra effort to install a hyd.slave for the clutch.
now if i was having trouble pulling in some stout springs i might change my mind,maybe :whistle: .

leon

a full set of covers,yum! :evil:

I agree. A simple washer added to stock clutch springs will do a lot for hookup and not make the lever difficult to pull in. Hydro clutches are cool with respect to no cable to break but the cost isn't justifiable IMO. Everybody likes different stuff...that's why there's so much stuff available

rslingshot wrote: Wow thanks Josh,Les very cool that you can appreciate what it takes to build something from nothing. But I have to tell you Josh I wish I had a digitizer that would make my life easyer for sure, and yes my mill does have a dro but I still set my dials because I don't trust the dro 100%. And you are correct again Josh I have been building injection molds now for almost 22 years that is where the reverse engineering comes from. I was very lucky in my early years to work under some realy old and tuff "salty" tool makers, It is sad to say but I am 41 years old and I have not seen any young guys come up threw the shops in 15 years or so and all the old guys are dead and gone. Don't get me wrong I have seen younger guys doing some kick ass cnc work but put them on a surface grinder,manual lathe or mill and they are out of the element. Hell don't even ask them can you run an EDM they just look at you like you are crazy.

I'll second the fact of no young kids coming threw the shops with any idea of what's really going on. Were starting an apprenticeship program but I have reserve of being able to spend the time it takes to tune up a basic machinist let alone an apprenticeship. There is just none to be had.

Ok so today I made an offset sprocket, basicaly I made a fixture to hold a factory sprocket in the lathe so I could cut it down to a 2.0 o.d., then I got some 2.5 o.d 2.0 i.d. pipe and machined the inside for a press fit of the sprocket that I turned down in the lathe. Welded that inside and then I was able to machine the other end to fit the sprocket blank that I picked up last week, once I had a good fit, I tacked it on in 4 places.

I started with a 3 inch but now that it is on the motor it looks like too much of an offset , this is why I only tacked it on no big deal just grind the tacks and cut some more off. It looks like it will end up being around 2.5 or 2.250 offset either way I will have to channel the frame at some point. Remember I am only makeing this sprocket so I can measure my proper offset once I get what I need I will have a couple of sprockets made to what I want.

very cool mike. seems like a lot of work. itll all be worth it in the end. thats what i tell myself anyway.

Ooooh, I see some chatter marks in your sprocket. Naughty, naughty. :whistle:
Just kidding, I know it's a mock-up part. Good thinking, making your own dummy sprocket. The real ones cost too much money to order a whole bunch of different sizes just to get your chainline right. Are you going to have an issue with the lower chain run interfering with your rearset location? That last picture looks ominous to me.

Ya she was singing to me pretty good when I was cutting on her, I didnt care I just wanted to get it to where I could get some measurements. Yes the chain will interfear with the rearset mounting , What I plan on doing is makeing my bearing support plate longer and use it as a mounting point for the rearset and a little added protection for my foot and leg.

I ran into steering stop issues after the fact and it was a bitch to correct. Watch out for chain smacking the pivot point on the swingarm as well, Looks great so far keep em coming!!

Mark

Well I cut the frame out for chain clearence friday and tacked in some 3/16 steel plates to hold everything in order while I build the outboard bearing support plate and cover. I will be running a 2 1/2 inch offset sprocket so now need a plan on how to make my cover. As I showed on my last couple of post I picked points on the factory cover so I could do a cad drawing, well that has been done also and I have decided to make a support plate like the ones you normaly see except a little longer, that will give me a place to mount the rearsets,a little protection from the chain and be a mounting point for the factory looking cover..

So today I got a sheet of 1/2 inch delrin and layed out a mock up bearing support plate, it has the basic shape of a regular one again just a little longer. I think now that I have that I need to make a new more beefy and taller tranny plate cover,that will eliminate the need for long mounting spacers. What I have decided to do is cut just the top half of a factory cover and bolt it to the bearing support plate this is just cosmetic.After all the mockup is done I will machine the bearing support plate and "dummy cover" out of aluminum. Once this is all done I will be able to take it apart finish boxing out the frame channel for the chain, any other bracing or welding and send it out to powdercoat. Oh I forgot,I also got a new front tire friday ,it's a Pirelli Diablo 120/70zr17,If I would have been thinking I would have gotten it mounted today, oh well.