My mate Jeff decided to use some of the junk.. er valuable old spares ,.. he has to build a café bike. I got involved as he knew that I too had some 'valuable old spares' that I could donate to the build.
The 80's Gpz1100 Unitrack wasn't an ideal start to the project. For reasons lost to history, its engine mounts had been cut off, along with the entire back end, including the shock mount. The original engine was still present, but had no internals, it had no carbs, no exhaust, no wheels, no front end, no electrics, no bodywork. Still, got to use what you've got, and that's what we did.
So what did we have?
We'll start with a Kawasaki ZXR750 swing arm and shock, so that can be made to fit the frame. Next a dented Zephyr 1100 tank would need some work to fit the frame, but it'd look pretty good.. so on it went. For the front end, the original plan was to use a pair of ZXR USD forks in one off home made billet yokes, but they turned out to be way too short, so something else would have to be found.
But before all that, new engine mounts would need to be fabricated and welded to the frame, along with alloy engine plates.
That's where we are up to, having only made a start last week.
Since I'm making new rearsets for my Norley, the original pegs and levers I used (made by the German company LSL), while being too modern in design for my bike, will look fine on the Gpz1100. Though of course they'll need work to fit the frame.
The ZXR750 shock will be mounted to the strengthened frame via a pair of brackets to be machined from 1/2 inch alloy plate.
While the seat unit (still to be decided upon), will be mounted to a sub frame which will be bolted to the back of the frame. This is to make changing the back end much easier in future... changing the seat height or seat unit itself. We did try the Rickman seat unit from one of my old projects, which looked good, but it was wider than the rear of the tank, and would need too much work to make it worthwhile to use.
Its also having a few cool parts that are cast offs from other bikes.. such as the billet clutch cover spacer... used to give space for a lock up clutch.
The 80's Gpz1100 Unitrack wasn't an ideal start to the project. For reasons lost to history, its engine mounts had been cut off, along with the entire back end, including the shock mount. The original engine was still present, but had no internals, it had no carbs, no exhaust, no wheels, no front end, no electrics, no bodywork. Still, got to use what you've got, and that's what we did.
So what did we have?
We'll start with a Kawasaki ZXR750 swing arm and shock, so that can be made to fit the frame. Next a dented Zephyr 1100 tank would need some work to fit the frame, but it'd look pretty good.. so on it went. For the front end, the original plan was to use a pair of ZXR USD forks in one off home made billet yokes, but they turned out to be way too short, so something else would have to be found.
But before all that, new engine mounts would need to be fabricated and welded to the frame, along with alloy engine plates.
That's where we are up to, having only made a start last week.
Since I'm making new rearsets for my Norley, the original pegs and levers I used (made by the German company LSL), while being too modern in design for my bike, will look fine on the Gpz1100. Though of course they'll need work to fit the frame.
The ZXR750 shock will be mounted to the strengthened frame via a pair of brackets to be machined from 1/2 inch alloy plate.
While the seat unit (still to be decided upon), will be mounted to a sub frame which will be bolted to the back of the frame. This is to make changing the back end much easier in future... changing the seat height or seat unit itself. We did try the Rickman seat unit from one of my old projects, which looked good, but it was wider than the rear of the tank, and would need too much work to make it worthwhile to use.
Its also having a few cool parts that are cast offs from other bikes.. such as the billet clutch cover spacer... used to give space for a lock up clutch.