TOPIC:

Alright, most of you got an eyeful of my mishaps on the SoCal ride in september. Thanks again to all the guys there for the help. I got away with some bumps and bruises, the bike was off a little worse but I limped her home.
Short list of the damage: bent fork tubes, bent front wheel, bent lower tree, bent top clamp, bent clipon, barend mirror gone, sheared of rearset mount, broken shift lever, broken shift linkage, torn seat, dented seat cowl, dented tank, scratched stator cover, paint damage.
Two months later, I'm finally back on the road. I've fixed what I could, replaced what I couldn't, learned how to lace a wheel and even made a new fork brace from scratch.
Here's some pictures of the damage.


Hmm something's out of whack...

Post edited by: dutchz, at: 2006/11/20 22:55

That's bent as well...

This was my eh... shift linkage for the ride home... 40 miles through the mountains and a giant cramp in the left butt cheek on every shift

Scratched stator cover. It's still scratched

Torn seat and dented seat cowl. I had the seat repaired and hammered and sanded the dents out of the cowl. You can't tell now...

Good to see you back in action!

First I set off to fix the bent triple tree and forks. The Z1 triple tree was bent badly, and the polished top clamp I made was warped and cracked beyond repair. I found a KZ650 triple tree at the local salvage yard and decided I wanted to use that instead of a Z1 tree. The Z1 and KZ650 have the same fork spacing, but the offset is different. On the 650, the forks are closer to the headstay, which reduces both wheelbase and trail. I vaguely remebered reading some racers' notes somewhere that did the same thing to improve cornering. Seeing as I can use all the help I get and I like the way my wife's 650 handles, I decided to give it a go. Beside, I got it cheap

I cleaned up/welded/semi-polished the top clamp like I did before for the Z1. New tach mount was also made.

Hey tganek... thanks! It feels good to be back.

Glad You're ok,Dutch...and welcome back to riding!
What put You down,btw...I don't remember...

My boss helped me straighten the fork tubes in a simple press. You kinda put them on two v-shaped blocks and spin them, then bend them the other way. They're as close to straight as they'll get and definitely good enough for these old forks.
In order to get my front end back together, I needed to fix my wheel, and the rim was bent pretty badly. The spokes were really rusty as well, so really the wheel was pretty much junk. I was already planning on getting some nice shouldered rims, I just didn't plan on it so soon. I ordered a rim and spokes from Buchanan's. I went with a nice 18x2.15 shouldered alloy. So a bit lower and fatter than stock (if you look at my bike it makes sense). I used the trueing stand at work and with some pointers from my boss and my co-worker and certified bike nut Dustin, I managed to get the wheel laced and trued. Here she is:

Hey ya Sandy, cheers. Youthful enthousiasm put me down haha.