GPZ 305 Cafe build "Lorelai"

warpedworm

I could agree with you but then we'd both be wrong
Here's goes my build thread for my GPZ 305 Cafe.

I've never built a cafe before so if anybody has any ideas or something I'm doing is driving them crazy, please speak up.
Also I am trying to do this as inexpensively as possbile, but hopefully not CHEAP.

I am starting with an '83 that one of my friends used to roadrace with, that I bought from him for $100 probably in '86 for a backup/spare to match the one I raced. At the time it had the side clutch cover blown off after he had rebuilt the clutch and forgot to tighten the clutch nut, WHOOPS!!.

I also have my race bike which my daughter and I are rebuilding for her to ride. She's only 5'4" so it will be a nice starter for her. It'll be pretty much stock outside of a Yosh pipe and a couple of other small things. She's been helping a lot, and this winter she'll learn how to rebuild and engine ;D I'll put a few pictures of her progress also.

The shed in the background is my shop, at the time of the pictures, it had no electric, a dirt floor and was full of lawn mowers/motorcycles/junk. As of today, it has a wooden floor/electric was hooked up Friday and I'm going to paint the inside put more lights in and clean the rest of the junk out.

Thanks for your help and support.

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What I started with

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Cut 7" inches off the tail section and 5" off the footpeg mounts to make the rearsets

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This is my clip on solution , just unbolt from the top and turn over, drops the bars about 5". The only thing I'll have to do
is notch out the serated (sp) washers that fit under them on top when I move the washers to the bottom to fit like a half
moon around the forks.

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Here's the tail section fitted with the 7" removed.

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Here is the tail piece and tank rattle can painted in cream to check out the colors, I know it looks white in the pictures

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Some random pictures. I rattle canned the Frame in Burgundy and body work in cream to get an idea what it
would look like. Just like the white the Burgundy doesn't look right in most of the pictures, looks pink. The one picture looks O.K.
Also the footpeg brackets I cut off, now have to fab peg and linkage for

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Was supposed to be a parts bike I bought a few weeks ago for $75, but turns out it runs, is mostly complete and will probably
be another project instead. So now I still need a few parts off of ebay :mad:

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Pictures of my shop progress, finally a nice place to work. As you can see not finished yet, but a good start, still have a lot
of junk to get out of there. It has been slowing down progress on the bike, but I'll get there.

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Daughters GPZ, and progress so far.

And FINALLY, my Italian girl: Cagiva Alazzurra 650. Sorry I had to ;D
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Re: GPZ 305 Cafe build/Lots of pictures

Cool bike. Looks good. I like the use of the stock seat and just shortening the subframe. Im building a cafe out of an 85 gpz 750. Its a little bit of a challenge to make those bikes look good as a cafe. Keep it up.
 
Re: GPZ 305 Cafe build "Lorelai"

Thanks for the comments

The tail piece is causing me some problems. I'm going to use it but don't know if I should cut off the pieces on the sides that
extend forward, and just use the very back hump section, or try and fab pieces that extend forward to the front of the seat
area and touch the tank.

My original idea was to make a 'glass seat using the original as a mold, and extend to the tank. The problem there is I have only
done 'glass work patching racing fairings. I'm afraid I would make a mess of it.
 
Re: GPZ 305 Cafe build "Lorelai"

I going to build my tach & speedo into the light housing using the stock units.
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Took them apart and going to see what I have to work with.
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Here is what I was thinking I'd set them up to look like, back to back with the tach
straight up for the redline.
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I'll have to cut into the light housing and mould them in.

Any ideas on how to make the lense and seal the whole thing?
 
Re: GPZ 305 Cafe build "Lorelai"

Haven't posted any build info for a while, busy winter, didn't get a lot done.

Here is a picture of 2 of the 4 Gpz 305 engines I'm working on.

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Re: GPZ 305 Cafe build "Lorelai"



Here is some more progress on my GPz. I have painted
the wheel cream and also the rearsets (obviously not done yet) and this is the
type of seat I'm going for. I just put together the seat with some old canvas I had
to get a rough idea of what it would look like. I like the wheel the cream color with the burgundy swingarm, but the outer edge and the very center of the spokes are raw aluminum, you can see what I mean on the front wheel.
There's not much contrast on the wheel, I'm thinking about painting the center
section on the spokes burgandy also.

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Re: GPZ 305 Cafe build/Lots of pictures

Nice work sir.. I like projects and I can see you do to.. hahaha.. I'm looking forward to seeing how the instrument panel works out..

tdc
 
Re: GPZ 305 Cafe build

I have only seen 2 GPZ305's in my life,and those were on the race track.Some 19 year kid named Troy? ,I think he was from Michigan?, rode like a lunatic with it.They were fast.I think they had weak cranks and starters in them if memory serves me right.
 
Re: GPZ 305 Cafe build

Little off subject,the roadracer was Troy Walker.Is that your buddy by chance?
 
Re: GPZ 305 Cafe build "Lorelai"

Troy was amazing on the 305, in '83 when they came out only two of them raced in our region and in '84 our class became the GPz class, with 6 or 7 of them. I think there was only one other bike that wasn't a GPz in the class.

There was only one other guy that could stay with him, (It wasn't me ;D ) Jerry Weber, Troy would usually win though. He would have to make a mistake for you to beat him. I got the bike I'm making the cafe out of from Jerry.

As far as weak cranks and starters, I've never had a problem. I put 11,000 miles on my race bike between racing and street use. I ran it for 4 years including WERA's endurance series races. We probably ran in 2 or 3, 6 hour races a year. The only
mechanical problem I had was, we leaned it way out once and it burned down a piston which stuck and bent the rod and cracked the sleeve. NOTHING MAJOR :( :( :( !!!

I have heard of a lot of cylinder head problems from not getting enough oil if you
don't change the oil and filter often and clean the screen filter in the sump.
I would think the guys racing them didn't have many problems as we always maintained them really well and changed the oil constantly.

Did you race in WERA?
 
Re: GPZ 305 Cafe build

:D Wow,small world! I have no idea where you live,but when I saw the 305 and you mentioned your ex- roadracer friend, I thought I would take a chance by asking!! I roadraced WERA and CCS from 1981 to 1984 in the Midwest region.Blackhawk Farms,Grattan,Road America,Indy Raceway Park and on occasion Brainerd.I raced Troy several times,he on the GPz and I on my Can Am 250 TNT[mine was red and black in 1984].We weren't best of friends 8) ,he was very good and entered my turf!! I think he crashed his on an exit ramp on the highway at some point?? Glad they have been bullet proof for you and fellow racers.I only heard the weak crank rumor once,and certainly saw nothing but great performance out of them.Well good luck on your project,and nice hearing about Troy and the other Gpz 305's. Jim Platek
 
Re: GPZ 305 Cafe build "Lorelai"

I raced WERA everywhere you did except Brainard and we also raced at St. Louis.
I think I remember your bike. Did you know Gary Gibson and Ed Key? I'm friends with
them, Gary used to race a CanAm Formula 2 bike in '84, it was black and yellow.

I wasn't a very fast racer, I was a much better mechanic. When Ed and Gary raced
Honda 250s in AMA pro I used to rebuild them and prep them for races. That was
a ball!

Do you have a project you're working on? I'm in Harvard, IL. were are you at?
 
Re: GPZ 305 Cafe build

You keep fast company! Lets just say I gridded in the same race a couple times with them and about the only time I saw them is when they blew by me at about 150.My air cooled single was no match for there liquid twins.I think Gary and I did have some fun in the pouring rain at Blackhawk though.I heard not too long ago Ed was still fast.Nobody could lap Blackhawk faster then him."HE DA Man" .
 
Have been trying to figure out what to do about the tail section, just cut off the pieces that extend forward or finish them to the tank. Here's what I think I'm going to do.

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The problem, what to do.


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Cut out section from old side panels

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Trial fitting

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rattle canned to get idea of look
 
Love the look of the bodywork, reminds me of the full bodykits (Tracy, MM etc.) that you could buy in the old days.
And if there is such a thing as "flow" between seat, sidepanels and tank, I think you nailed it!
 
Stripping the tank down, I knew there was some filler on it, as the guy that raced
it before had done some work on it. BUT... I didn't think it was almost the full
top side of the tank.

Kind of splitting my time between the cafe and my daughters resto right now.

Here's what I'm working with.

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Here's just a random shot of the cafe when I was moving it out of the shop to work on another bike.

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Nice! Like the direction you're going with it...not 100% on the color combo but kinda dig'n it. Nice work!
 
Getting closer to having to decide what color I'm finally going with and decided to try the blue frame I was thinking about before instead of the burgundy. Also trying the cream/white engine, I know even with the hi temp paint it will probably discolor but that makes me think it'll make it look neat.

So, tell me what you think of these color combos. (Please ignore the red front wheel)

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........ummm, the engine I'm using won't have the big hole where the clutch is supposed to be :p
 
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