M
miss alliekat
Guest
78kz said:Claude's cafe from another forum I frequent:
I sent him the link to here.
So cool.....! i want one .... please ....
Kawasaki KZ1000st Cafe
- Thread starter 78kz
- Start date
So cool.....! i want one .... please ....
biker_mike
New Member
Hey kzreeder that's one great looking bike...I hope my project comes out half as nice.
I have a question, from the photos it looks like your useing clip ons on top of the upper tree?
If so then you raised the tubes in the trees...maybe a bunch. I was wondering how the bike handles and if you have enough clearence
to the front fender.
Thanks
I have a question, from the photos it looks like your useing clip ons on top of the upper tree?
If so then you raised the tubes in the trees...maybe a bunch. I was wondering how the bike handles and if you have enough clearence
to the front fender.
Thanks
M
miss alliekat
Guest
prrrrfect...
i love this, it looks like a handful but a real steam train. I will show this to a friend she like Kawaski's. she is bulding a KR1 racer with alll the right bits. Beautiful xx
i love this, it looks like a handful but a real steam train. I will show this to a friend she like Kawaski's. she is bulding a KR1 racer with alll the right bits. Beautiful xx
SoyBoySigh
Been Around the Block
Bump! This is one cool old shaftie café bike. Not that I go in for the checkered flag look, the paint scheme is still pretty good with the faux aluminum paint on the tank. The 'ST may have been a shaft drive & was a good chunk heavier than all the other KZ versions, but it's still pretty cool. A very wide-set fork and thicker tubes than most other KZ's - too bad that it's a leading-axle design but the wider yokes have gotta be an improvement. I've been diggin' through lists seeking out as wide of a pair of yokes as I can find for a custom front end project, and found the period magazine reviews which described it as the most stable solid handling KZ of the whole bunch, that even with the shaft robbing power it's still more potent than the basic Z1 900cc version. Which is a positive way of looking at it, rather than as a MkII with a power-robbing shaft final drive. One has to wonder how simple it would be to apply some type of outrigger-bearing shaft-to-chain conversion kit ala Magni MV Agusta, or the XS11 conversion kits which copied the idea. If it's worth the trouble of converting to chain, one has to wonder whether it's any more hassle, possibly even less, to convert to a belt-drive conversion. Dunno whether the KZ750LTD/KZ750B twin's belt-drive would be up to the power of the 1000cc four-cylinder engine, but those old belt profiles are reproduced in far better materials these days. I'd bet the correct belt needed to do this is sitting around on a shelf at Gates Industries as I type this. At least it's good to know that there's a rear pulley set up for it, matched to the wire-spoke hubs or the cast-mag rims (if you're crazy enough to wanna KEEP the seven-spoke boat anchors?) and a front pulley that matches SOME of the KZ type output shafts. But the key would be to do a shaft-removal conversion that DOESN'T split the cases apart, wherein the bevel drive mechanism is simply removed and the bevel type output shaft is adapted to a belt pulley mount directly off that shaft. But I suppose the method of splitting the cases is already well known. The same thing's done with the CB900C and CB1000C engines for my beloved Honda DOHC fours. What a pain though. Same deal with the outrigger-bearing kits.
There are those who love a shaft drive, but in this day and age I've gotta look at it as a fuel efficiency issue just as much as it was once seen by the muscle-bike crowd as a system of robbing horsepower and adding weight. While the more "automotively inclined" types who disliked motorcycle maintenance tasks, who didn't RELISH a chance to fondle & finger-bang the cycle components they'd been ogling all along, viewed it as a way of avoiding regularly scheduled chain-lube sessions - THESE days it's gotta be viewed as a question of efficiency! And the belt-drive takes that to an Nth degree, improving on the chain to the same degree that the chain improves on the shaft.
You'd think we'd see more of that kind of thing. But maybe those KZ750 twins didn't hold up as well.
I've converted to the KZ belt-drive on the Kid's "KZ440LOL" here, with wire-spoke 16" rims & maxi-scooter tires, 4LS drum, it's a real odd-ball. Trying to jam in all of the things I wanted to do with wheels and brakes and tires in the one project, but it still bugs me that it would be a far greater improvement to swap to a belt on a bigger bike - and the one project didn't serve to get my belt-drive "jollies" out of my system, it's only got me hankering even MORE for a belt conversion on my own "CB900K0 Bol Bomber" - and those features which I'd most like to add to my Honda, being a belt-drive AND a kick-starter, only has be lusting after a bigger KZ. Something which I'd thought my original experiences with the 440cc twin would have CURED me of. One day I'll get around to a kick-start conversion on the little KZ twin, just to complete the picture with a battery eliminator and kick-only starting so as to shave a ton of weight both crankshaft-wise and chassis-wise - But just like the belt, I'm sure it'll only chap my ass even more that the Honda lacks these features. Much as it's gotta be a bitch to deal with on cold mornings, that kick-starter on an early GL1000 or Zed will always tempt me away from my Hondas.....
Well anyway at least there's SOME portion of the KZ1000ST that I'm after for the moment. With the wire-spoke wheel swaps and brake upgrades I'm doing on both of these bikes, I need wider yokes when and if I can get 'em. Though I don't care to add too much weight to the front end on the smaller bike, and I want to keep a period-correct look on the both of 'em. Which is very limiting to say the least. So yeah, I'm thinking maybe if these wider yokes from the KZ1000ST could be milled out from 40mm to take a pair of 41mm anti-dive tubes, it could make for a pretty decent set-up for wire-spoke rims with opposed-piston calipers. Though I suppose the width is about on par with a lot of the later 43mm non-USD type crotch-rocket forks. 40mm is an odd size. Right between the 39mm tubes on my Honda and the 41mm stuff I'm thinking of grabbing off one of the Goldwings. The KZ yokes list as being even wider than the Goldwing version though. So it might just be the trick....
Well whatever - I thought maybe YA'LL would appreciate it if I bump this thread, if only for the nice pics. It's a far nicer café conversion than practically any other shaft-drive leading-axle monster I've seen. Just looking at how much fuglier are the CB1000C, CB900C, XS11, and even BMW - café conversions; it goes to show that this KZ's got some pretty good "bone structure" underneath. Some sporty geometry where others deferred to the chopper-esque cruiser lines with lower seats and more raked-out steering angles....
-S.
There are those who love a shaft drive, but in this day and age I've gotta look at it as a fuel efficiency issue just as much as it was once seen by the muscle-bike crowd as a system of robbing horsepower and adding weight. While the more "automotively inclined" types who disliked motorcycle maintenance tasks, who didn't RELISH a chance to fondle & finger-bang the cycle components they'd been ogling all along, viewed it as a way of avoiding regularly scheduled chain-lube sessions - THESE days it's gotta be viewed as a question of efficiency! And the belt-drive takes that to an Nth degree, improving on the chain to the same degree that the chain improves on the shaft.
You'd think we'd see more of that kind of thing. But maybe those KZ750 twins didn't hold up as well.
I've converted to the KZ belt-drive on the Kid's "KZ440LOL" here, with wire-spoke 16" rims & maxi-scooter tires, 4LS drum, it's a real odd-ball. Trying to jam in all of the things I wanted to do with wheels and brakes and tires in the one project, but it still bugs me that it would be a far greater improvement to swap to a belt on a bigger bike - and the one project didn't serve to get my belt-drive "jollies" out of my system, it's only got me hankering even MORE for a belt conversion on my own "CB900K0 Bol Bomber" - and those features which I'd most like to add to my Honda, being a belt-drive AND a kick-starter, only has be lusting after a bigger KZ. Something which I'd thought my original experiences with the 440cc twin would have CURED me of. One day I'll get around to a kick-start conversion on the little KZ twin, just to complete the picture with a battery eliminator and kick-only starting so as to shave a ton of weight both crankshaft-wise and chassis-wise - But just like the belt, I'm sure it'll only chap my ass even more that the Honda lacks these features. Much as it's gotta be a bitch to deal with on cold mornings, that kick-starter on an early GL1000 or Zed will always tempt me away from my Hondas.....
Well anyway at least there's SOME portion of the KZ1000ST that I'm after for the moment. With the wire-spoke wheel swaps and brake upgrades I'm doing on both of these bikes, I need wider yokes when and if I can get 'em. Though I don't care to add too much weight to the front end on the smaller bike, and I want to keep a period-correct look on the both of 'em. Which is very limiting to say the least. So yeah, I'm thinking maybe if these wider yokes from the KZ1000ST could be milled out from 40mm to take a pair of 41mm anti-dive tubes, it could make for a pretty decent set-up for wire-spoke rims with opposed-piston calipers. Though I suppose the width is about on par with a lot of the later 43mm non-USD type crotch-rocket forks. 40mm is an odd size. Right between the 39mm tubes on my Honda and the 41mm stuff I'm thinking of grabbing off one of the Goldwings. The KZ yokes list as being even wider than the Goldwing version though. So it might just be the trick....
Well whatever - I thought maybe YA'LL would appreciate it if I bump this thread, if only for the nice pics. It's a far nicer café conversion than practically any other shaft-drive leading-axle monster I've seen. Just looking at how much fuglier are the CB1000C, CB900C, XS11, and even BMW - café conversions; it goes to show that this KZ's got some pretty good "bone structure" underneath. Some sporty geometry where others deferred to the chopper-esque cruiser lines with lower seats and more raked-out steering angles....
-S.
