GPZ 305 Cafe build "Lorelai"

It's a compliment, don't worry.

I'm just pulling your chain.

I took is as a compliment, I'm just worried about my manliness. ;D

warpedworm said:

I'm just pulling your chain.

I took is as a compliment, I'm just worried about my manliness. ;D

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If you look like your avatar, I would be too..

I got some lettering for the cafe in a couple different styles, not sure if I like either one.





The engine is almost done, just have to finish the carbs.

After I finished grinding this little P.I.A. out......



...........and since the engine isn't going to be all one color, the stuffing and taping to try
and keep all the slimy/oily parts free of paint and nasty stuff, and finally get the block
primed.





And here is the head and rockerbox finished.





Hope to get finished painting the engine and start reassembling it by this weekend.

Mounted the speedo & front fender







Had to reblast the swingarm and forget the clearcoat on the steel items, I instead
primed and painted them aluminum. The swingarm/kickstand/bars.
Got the rear end all finished and torqued, putting all the small pieces on.













Got the crankcase and cylinders painted.





Started putting the engine back together.

looking good

I have been searching for the right integrated, tail/turn/brake light for the cafe ever since
I started on the project, and low and behold the answer was right in my garage on my
ZR-7s. I found an integrated version of the ZR light on ebay and measured the ZR light
out and made a cardboard version to see how it fit the cafe and tada 8). By Jove, I think
I've got it.

Engine done & Installed!! ;D

Got my integral taillight today, it's for a Kawi ZR7s and will work great on the cafe.



It's going to take a little more modification on the rear frame and tail section. I'll
have to fit it up under the tail farther than this to give me some room for the suspension.




Here's the sprocket cover.

Cool.

Nice job' was following it in the early days and then lost your thread, great tip about turning the handle bars up side down, if I ever take mine off again I'll seriously think about doing it.
Just introduced myself and bike in the Australian intro thread if you want to see mine.

Cheers

Rich

I have not checked the rest of the thread yet, but you said these bikes were raced....were they raced with the belt drives or converted to chain? (if possible) if so how durable were they for racing, any legal issues or other problems to overcome for racing? just curious because i never really thought about belt drives on race bikes, oh and the bikes looking good by the way!!!!

How's this build coming along? I recently started a GPz305 project and I'm very interested in learning more about how you cut your pipes. I'd like to do that with mine, but I'm not sure where to begin.

Thanks! Hope you post an update soon!

This is great, nice to see people getting creative with more contemporary bikes. Not every "Cafe" has to look like it is parked in front of the Ace Cafe while its owner is in for a cuppa. This should be seriously fun to ride.

novacafe said:

I have not checked the rest of the thread yet, but you said these bikes were raced....were they raced with the belt drives or converted to chain? (if possible) if so how durable were they for racing, any legal issues or other problems to overcome for racing? just curious because i never really thought about belt drives on race bikes, oh and the bikes looking good by the way!!!!

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Belts make some sense on small bikes with lower power because of the weight savings. They had a run with kevlar, but seem to fall out of favor, then return. BMW has no problems with belts on the modern F800s.
For racing, there is no more efficient system than chains.

For a white bike, a chain would be a disaster.

novacafe said:

I have not checked the rest of the thread yet, but you said these bikes were raced....were they raced with the belt drives or converted to chain? (if possible) if so how durable were they for racing, any legal issues or other problems to overcome for racing? just curious because i never really thought about belt drives on race bikes, oh and the bikes looking good by the way!!!!

Click to expand...

I raced my 305 with belt drive for 5 years. I ran about 10 weekends of racing a year which included practice and heat races on Saturdays and practice and finals on Sunday. This would amount to about 4 hours on track. My team also ran between 3 to 5 six hour endurance races a year with the same bike. Used the same belt the entire time and actually that belt is
the belt on my other project bike for my daughter, "Jett". (which you can link to from my signature if you'd like)

One of the guys I raced against, the guy that won everything, was welding on his bike and
burnt a small noch about a quarter of the way across his belt and raced it for another year without failure.

Like Caferay said for racing the chain would be more practical. If you wanted to change a
belt for some reason you would have to remove the swingarm. Also there wasn't a lot of
pulleys available to change gearing, although all but one road course we raced on the gearing was real close. The only place it was really wrong was Road America.

Eddie Lawson won the AMA 250 GP championship for Kawasaki using a belt drive bike, I believe IIRC in '82.

I would change all of my street bikes to belt if I could, Harley and I believe Victory use belts on several models. I am looking in to converting my Cagiva Alazzurra to belt drive now.
You don't get the driveline lash you get with chain, it's clean (like caferay said on a white bike it would be pretty bad), just make sure it is aligned and check the adjustment maybe once a year (and it probably won't need adjustment) and durability, going on 30 years (20+ sitting dormant) with
my daughters bike. Another advantage is rain has no effect on it, try that with a chain.

After my shop door was frozen 5" deep for most of our horrible cold winter, I'm finally
getting to work on the cafe and the other bikes again the last couple weeks. It got really old going and and chopping ice away for an hour and and then working for awhile.

So here's some progress, I'm just trying to get it running and finish up some of the detail work later.

Got some carbs installed from one of my other bikes and UNI filters. I have to design
a new wiring harness when I get everything organized. For now I'm just using the old one to get it running.

She's ALIVE!!

I'm working on Lorelai and got her running, but the gas tank I'm cleaning/painting Cream colored with blue stripe etc. for her is not done yet.

(What the plan for her is):




So I grab the tank off of my daughters Gpz project to use to take her for a shakedown ride around the yard.

(Daughters Gpz):



Well...................I had an AH moment














What do you think? :-\