82 Kawa 305 Cafe Build

Sigurd8404

New Member
Started the work on the 305 this past weekend. She was beautifully stock (Pic #1).

Removed the grips, controls, blinkers, bars, stock risers out of the triple tree. Took the headlight and the gauge cluster off for ease of install for the clip-ons and ran into the stock headlight bracket being in the way of the clip-ons (Pic #2). Didn't really think about that before I started the tear down. However, I realized this morning that I actually have a set of aftermarket fork clamp headlight brackets new in the package laying around in one of the many parts boxes in my garage, so it's not a big deal.

Went to mock up the Bonneville seat pan, and the frame sweep makes it sit at a ridiculous angle (Pic #3). So I started to make a mock up of the frame angles so I can trim down the seat pan to sit nice and flush on the frame rails (Pic #4). Going to make a more solid and exact template yet to ensure the perfect angle and that I don't fuck up the pan.

Then I removed the tail light, bracket and rear fender. Re-mounted the rear fender tucked under where the pan will be and re-ran the tail wiring to tuck nicely (Pic #5). The rear fender sits in a nice spot in my opinion when seen from the rear (Pic #6), however I will need to trim it shorter under the seat so it tucks well without overhang being seen from the sides before I "permanently" mount it (Pic #7).

Planning to get the top of the triple tree off, the headlight bracket off and get the new headlight brackets and the clip-ons on tonight, get the controls back on the bars, re-mount the headlight on the new brackets and get the gauge cluster back on. Then hopefully get the passenger foot peg assemblies off to clean up some of the rear end.
 

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dont do it....

go this way in style.. way easier
 

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I agree, but I'm not a huge fan personally of the flat, brat style seat on a cafe. Nothing against anyone who does it and you can still make nice looking bikes that way, I just prefer the cowl look.

That last pic will essentially be what it will turn out as once it's trimmed, same concept but the pic looks like a 2 piece seat and rear fill in section. If I fuck up trimming the seat enough I probably won't front the money to get another one and go with the flat, brat style. However I'd probably build a rear cowling section to mount over it then eventually.

Thanks for your input!
 
So, this weekend I went in and dimpled the handlebar so the throttle housing fits on the bar, mounted out perfectly with no issues. Covered the seat pan in painter's tape and measured out and mocked up the lines to trim it down, didn't get a chance to trim it yet however.

Took off the front blinkers previously with the bars, as they were bar mounted and there's now no room to bar mount them on the shorter clip-ons, so I did some measuring and test fitting and ended up swapping the front and rear blinkers. After removing the rear blinkers, I had to de-tab the rear blinker mounting points from the frame (Pic 1). Ground down the left over welds to be smooth (Pic 2) and will have to do a bit of re-painting on it once I get everything finalized. I'll end up taking about an inch out of the rear frame anyways to get the frame hoop to sit flush under the seat pan once I get the seat pan trimmed down, so I'll probably cut out at the area where I ground off the tabs, then sand down and paint over the welds when I re-attach the seat hoop.

Took some time to fuck with gently removing the wiring from the blinkers and re-mounting it in the other blinkers, but ultimately it all worked out well. The rear blinkers threaded right in to the headlight housing bolts (Pic 3). Then the front blinkers were mounted on the rear frame after a slight angle adjustment to make them sit nice and pretty. Built an expedient license plate bracket to get the mounting positions right, will have to rebuild with a slightly thicker gauge because the sheet metal I had lying around was a little flimsy.
 

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Trimmed the seat yesterday, turned out nicely. Going to sand the lines out smooth and use the sander to bring the back of the pan down just a little bit. Ultimately a win though. Once I get all the sanding done on the edge of the seat pan I'll have to cut about 1 1/2" out of the rear tail section to move the frame hoop flush under the pan. Then it'll be time to start building the seat.
 

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Nice! I like the way you solved this issue. It will look very clean while not leaving a huge gap under the seat if you had used a flat pan.
 
looking pretty good dont be afraid to raise it up more, and make sure you have enough room to slide back on the seat.
low seats start taking control away from the rider
and there is nothing more stupid looking than those kawasaki's with a flat seat, that follows that horrible swayback old horse frame shape ugh
 
Been awhile, been busy and hadn't had a lot of chances to work, then when I have gotten the random chances, I've totally been forgetting to update.

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Got the seat pan mounting points built and attached, working nicely. Built my own seat out of thin sheet metal base, glued foam to it, shaped it and reused the leather from the stock seat. Trimmed it up and used pop rivets to secure it tightly into the bottom of the seat pan.

Tucked the wires, adjusted the idle after all the playing with the throttle cable she was stuck idling around 4000rpm, had to get a little more play through the cable to the throttle barrel. Got everything worked out there except currently the front left and rear right blinkers aren't flashing. May have crossed wires or something, should be a simple fix.

Took her for her 1st, the 2nd, than 3rd test ride(s) last night, everything worked perfectly fine minus the blinker issue. Got the grips installed last night. This morning I rode her over to one of my friends with a welder, cut the rear frame loop off and took out 2" of frame and had him weld her back together for me. Now the frame loop sits nicely under the cowl and the license plate is right under the taillight.

Only thing left now are the bar end mirrors, once those get in I can get the mirror I have left on it off, that mirror is rusted in there currently, so I'll end up having to cut her out once the bar ends get here. Then paint. Gonna sand down the cowl, tank and side covers, prime and paint with a deep blue metalflake. Possibly a white racing stripe, I don't know if I would do center or offset if I did then. Thoughts on paint?

Sent from my LG-E980 using Tapatalk
 
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