KZ400S Cafe Build - St. Patrick

Powderfinger

Been Around the Block
Hello Everyone,

I am new to the cafe racer scene but I have ridden motorcycles most of my life, some street but mostly dirt bikes doing cross country racing.

I saw this bike on Craigslist in March listed as a started cafe racer project and I liked the looks of it so I drove about an hour to Frostburg MD and bought it for $400.00 with a title.

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Since then in no particular order I have:

Chassis:

Built rearsets, aluminum pegs with steel levers pivoting on the pegs
Cut off the rear cowling and made it removable
Made a battery holder inside the cowling
Made a small tray for electrical components
Cut down the front fender
Made a rear fender out of aluminum
Made an aluminum and plywood seat pan, the padding and cover will attach to the plywood, edge of aluminum will be exposed
Mounted a taillight to the cowling
Drilled the frame and machined aluminum bushings for rear turn signals



Engine:


Removed the top end intending to replace the rings and gaskets, I started to put it back together and broke the front cam chain slider so I had to completely disassemble the motor, it was probably a good thing because there was a lot of gunk in the bottom case so everything was cleaned and reassembled.
Put on a set of Mikunis from a Yamaha Banshee, they are a bit small but good for now and the price was right
Used the stock 2 into 1 head pipe, some bent pipe I had, the front part of the stock muffler and I made a baffle to make the exhaust.
I bought Uni Foam filters for it.
Dyna ignition coil
KZ650 kick starter



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That is where I am with it now, there is still a lot of work to do but I've taken it on a few test rides around the neighborhood and it's running pretty good so next I will tear it down and start finishing things.
 
Re: KZ400S Cafe Build - first try at this

It looks good so far! It's also really good you've got an idea/goal to work toward. It helps a lot to have have a fuck of an idea on what you want to do.
 
Re: KZ400S Cafe Build - first try at this

Thanks! Yeah, I have the plans, It's just tough to find the time to make them happen.

I checked out your CB125 build, looks good, looks like your making steady progress
 
Re: KZ400S Cafe Build - first try at this

Looks like a solid start man. Keep on keepin' on.
 
Re: KZ400S Cafe Build - first try at this

Like the way your going with it but the muffler doesn't look right to me. Keep up the good work.
 
Re: KZ400S Cafe Build - first try at this

Yeah, from some angles I like the muffler from some not so much. I was thinking about shortening it about 4 inches to where it extended just past the shock.
 
Re: KZ400S Cafe Build - first try at this

Still haven't tore this bike down yet. I ended up finding a couple NOS Supertrapp mufflers on ebay so I changed the exhaust. I also moved the rearsets location up and forward. I used my ring roller to roll pieces of tubing and fit them to the frame for the arched rearset mounts.

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Not shown but I also got some better shocks from a Kaw Zephyr 550, they gained me some tire clearance but I need to space them out a 1/4 inch to gain some chain clearance.


Maybe someone can save me some tire research, what would work right on this bike? This is a 76 KZ400s, both wheels are 18, I am looking for something a little wider than stock on the back and that balloon on the front has got to go. I need to mount the front so I can lower the fender.
 
Re: KZ400S Cafe Build - first try at this

Continental Conti - Go's is what I have on mine.

90/90/18 front
110/90/18 rear

On the other 400 I have Pirelli Sport Demons.

100/90/18 front
120/90/18 rear

That is with different forks, swing arm and rear hoop.


.
 
Re: KZ400S Cafe Build - first try at this

Nebr_Rex said:
Continental Conti - Go's is what I have on mine.

90/90/18 front
110/90/18 rear

On the other 400 I have Pirelli Sport Demons.

100/90/18 front
120/90/18 rear






.



Thanks for the info. That's a hell of a KZ motor your building!
 
Re: KZ400S Cafe Build - first try at this

I have done some more fabricating on this bike, I made new lower shock mounts to allow clearance for the larger shocks. I put gussets on the subframe and steering head. I made a set of clip-ons and I made custom headlight/turn signal mounts. I also built a swingarm brace.

Here are some pics of the headlight/turn signal mounts, they are made of 1.5"x .120 tube bored out to 33mm ID to slide over the fork tubes, 1"x.065 tube, 1/8 "sch40 pipe and some 1.250" aluminum stock.

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Re: KZ400S Cafe Build - first try at this

When I bought this bike the rear cowling was welded to the frame, I liked the shape of it but it was going to make mounting the battery and servicing it tough so I wanted to make it a separate piece so I carefully cut it off and made it removable and built a battery box. This was done a while back but here are some pics I finally organized.

When I bought the bike

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I cut off the cowling, did some grinding and cut this piece of 16ga to fit the shape of the hoop.

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The hoop was pretty rough looking and I could have made a new one but I decided to go this route. I ran a piece of 1/8 by 1 inch flat bar around the hoop and tied it into the flat piece on top.

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It took some careful welding and grinding but I got a nice clean edge all the way around.

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Then I laid out a bolt pattern and cut the middle.

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Then I used that as a pattern and made a bottom for the cowling. It is lighter steel though, 20 or 22ga. I don't seem to have any process pics of that though but here it is welded up.

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Then I was able to build the battery and fender mounts. (The battery is from Mcmaster Carr, I saw it on Millenium Falcon's KZ400 build)

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I like how the "flat hoop" came out, it's a little different but I think when painted it should look pretty good.
 
Re: KZ400S Cafe Build - first try at this

I finally tore this bike down over Thanksgiving and finished the welding, a lot of the work was just tacked together until I could roll the frame around. It is pretty much ready to blast and powder coat.

I am leaning towards gun metal grey on the frame and chrome with semi gloss clear on the swingarm and fork lowers but then I get thinking I ought to put the color on the frame and make the tank more subdued.



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Re: KZ400S Cafe Build - first try at this

Oh man this is looking sweet! I have a kz440 cafe and I'm diggin' what you're doin!
 
Re: KZ400S Cafe Build - first try at this

Thanks guys, I will be pretty busy with work through Christmas but between then and new years I should be able to get the frame done. So until then I can keep changing my mind on the color:)
 
This must be a KZ400 day. I was importing these pics this morning and while I was waiting I saw jchaplin's awesome fiberglass work.


Anyhow this is what I have been up to

I coated the frame a while back with antique white and then a gloss clear, then I did the swingarm, fork tubes and lower triples with gun metal grey and then a semi gloss clear.

I put new seals and oil in the forks and reassembled them. I added 12mm preload spacers on the old stock springs.

Then I moved onto the Zephyr 550 shocks, they were pretty ugly when I got them, I took them completely apart and cleaned everything really well, then reassembled, new oil, bled. I just charged them with air for now(I want to play with the pressure some then I will have a friend put nitrogen in them)

The shocks had no top spacers when I got them so I machined a set. I coated the spring retainer rings with a texture black and then did the springs with gold vein.

Anyhow here are the pics of where I'm at now with this.

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Your frame mods are pretty rad. I can't tell from the before pictures, did you have the head bracing in then? Just wondering if you noticed a big difference. I keep looking at my swingarm with thoughts of a brace, too. I've got an LTD so the frame is different all around, it has a lot more formed frame members instead of tube, especially around the swingarm area.
 
dielectric said:
Your frame mods are pretty rad. I can't tell from the before pictures, did you have the head bracing in then? Just wondering if you noticed a big difference. I keep looking at my swingarm with thoughts of a brace, too. I've got an LTD so the frame is different all around, it has a lot more formed frame members instead of tube, especially around the swingarm area.


Thanks. I have not ridden it with any of the bracing. When riding it before it just felt really flimsy compared to my KTM which is understandable.

I think it will handle better, I guess time will tell. This bike will probably get a better front end at some point but I wanted to build it with the stock stuff first because everything was complete and in good condition.
 
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