TOPIC:

So coming into fall of 2018 I had the Z1 in a pretty good spot. I had upgraded the brakes, electrical, and forks over the summer and managed to get the bike on the dyno to finish tuning the CR29s.
I'm and idiot though and can't be happy with things the way they are.
Here's what the bike looked like before we began ruining things.



The plan for the winter then, was to upgrade the rear wheel from drum to disc. I picked up a 76 KZ750b (same as a KZ1000) rear hub, a grimeca caliper, and a PMC rear master cylinder kit to use as the basis for the swap. I would need to machine some spacers for the rear wheel so I rode the bike over to my friends machine shop and we got it up on the lift.



For the purists out there, everything I change on the Z1 is reversible and I often buy second parts so I don't have to disassemble or modify the original. (though this leads to an ever growing pile of original stock parts that I need to find a place to store).

Since this forum doesn't like too many links per post, I have to break this up into a few sections.

First I'll go into detail of the rear wheel.
I picked up the hub a few months ago on ebay. It was in pretty good shape, but could use a cleaning.



I hit it with my home soda blast setup and it cleaned up nicely:





Since the spoke angles on the Z1 and KZ rear rims are different, I'd have to go with a new rim in addition to spokes. So after installing new wheel bearings, I sent the hub off to buchanans to be laced up (time is more valuable to me than money right now).

I went from a 3.00 x 13" DID to a narrower EXCEL 2.50 x 18" rim.
The results were spectacular.







So I couldn't just have an Excel rear rim and a vintage Akront front rim...

I ordered an H2/Z1 front hub (at least I'm pretty sure its an H2 hub due to it being black) and had that laced up to an Excel rim as well. I'll get pictures of that once I pull the current front wheel off and swap over the discs.

As for tires, I'm running Avon Roadriders.

The Master cylinder assembly I ordered off of japan.webike is great. The bracket bolts right up to the Z1 frame and it should work perfectly with conventional peg/brake lever. Well I'm running tarozzi rear sets so it wasnt quite right:



It was a simple fix however, just a matter of cutting off the tab of the tarozzi "actuator" and welding on a new one:







And a coat of paint:



And complete:

After that it was a matter of bolting it up and finding a spot for the reservoir.

All bolted up:



and the rear master cylinder reservoir mounted to the oiler reservoir bolt holes.



I should add that I'd also gone full aluminum inner fender, tool box, and fender eliminator by this point (as well as refinishing the battery box):

My machinist had a few big print shop jobs at this point so I had to occupy myself with other things until he could do up the spacers.
Thats when I decided to restore the gauges.

The previous owner must have gotten in a minor fender bender at one point:









So I sent the gauges off to Z resto and bought some new parts to compliment them:

The gauges came back from Z resto and were beautiful.



I also cut down a section of old handlebar to use as a filler for the empty stock handlebar mounts:



I used the end plugs as well to give a more finished look:

I also went and did a few more minor things, like refinishing the (tired) engine cases in a brushed aluminum finish:



and replacing the missing high beam switch (although I may look at eventually replacing the entire rocker switch internal, since the plastic tab is partially broken):



I just glued it on:



Then the bellypan from Tannermatic arrived:



I'll have to wait until I get the rear disc complete before installing that.

While I loved the UNI filters, I had to trim away a lot of the side cover to get everything to fit.
I ordered some new K&N filters to allow me to use sidecovers that had only been minorly trimmed (the fuel line still needs to be trimmed and clamped by the way):





And I installed a 2" competition baffle (it was a tight fit, I need to touch up the paint a bit now):

Most currently, I have some new decals...









Silver and white instead of gold and white. I'm holding off on the upper two white stripes until I can find a good dark grey vinyl to cut and use instead of the normal black. (the color of the bike is Audi Moro Blue).

And I put the first coat of paint on the sidecovers:

So thats where we stand as of today. The things I still need to do are as follows:

-Axle spacers
-Instal chain
-Make rear brake line
-Rebuild Grimeca caliper
-Adjust locking post on Giuliari seat
-Swap front discs over to new wheel and balance
-Replace stator grommet
-Instal Randaks grips

I think thats it?

Like I said, everything I've done to the bike is reversible and the bike is completely restore-able to stock.

I like it!
Nice upgrades.
Fairing is staying silver, matching the side covers?

yep