1977 KZ400 Build "Logan's Run"

noahdog said:
Nah,they went in the bucket with all the empty beer cans it took me to calm down and figure out how to fix the problem. ;)

All said I guess it's much better to find these problems in the garage than on the road.

Amen to that man!

Looking good so far dude. The rearsets look tits.
 
I had a crazy thought last night after I mounted the backing plates for the rearsets. There's a 1/4" empty space between the rearsets and the back plate so I was thinking of mounting an amber LED to the back plate to illuminate behind the rearsets, shining through the opening in the aluminum brackets. My question is the legality of the lights. My thinking is as long as I use an amber LED wouldn't they just be "running lights"? I was also thinking some LED arrays around the bike under the tank and behind the fairing to show off some shiny parts on the bike. 8)

This all started because my electrician buddy Dave added some blue 12V neon lights under the tank to light up his valve covers and carbs. We also removed the bulbs in his instrument clusters and soldered blue LEDs into the original light bulb bases to turn his gauges blue. It turned out sweet so I'll have to take some close up pics for the under $50 mod thread when we do mine. He also added a switch and blue LED indicator under the gauges for the under lighting.

What are your guy's thoughts?
 
This is just me, and I sometimes change my mind when I see something done tastefully, but I am not a fan of unessisary illumination on bikes! Its too.....fast and furious for my taste! It's ok for some fighters that are more show than go, but on the vintage ones, well, its just not for me. If you like it, go for it!

Cresent has talked about lights on his, and I think it will be sweet on his bike, but lets face it, his bike has created a whole new genre!
 
I too have thought of using lights under my tank and tail to show off the shiny bits. It will also help to add visibility at night. The rule of thumb is to not use blue red or white. but green and yellow should be ok. At the same time though I would check with your local laws. Its not a bad but needs to be tastefully done.
 
Got some more work done today on the bike. I went to Home Depot and found a set of Irwin brand metric tap and dies so I was finally able to thread the steel rod I'd been planning on using for a brake linkage. The Harbor Freight set was crap and just stripped out but the Irwin set made quick work of threading the rod. A little torch action, some bending and voila we have brakes. ;)

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The brake lever will even clear the exhaust once I cut off the mounting bracket and weld it further forward to bolt to the foot peg. ;D

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And here's a pic of the shifter side with the extra steel plate behind the rearset for stability.

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where did you move your kickstand? I can't seem to find a place to move it to so it doesn't bother the shifer.

j
 
beater said:
where did you move your kickstand? I can't seem to find a place to move it to so it doesn't bother the shifer.

j


I haven't welded it back on yet but so far the plan is to just weld it on futher forward on the frame, probably up near the very front. I still need to weld on some sort of catch for the center stand spring as well since that originally hooked to part of the passenger peg frame like the exhaust. :mad:
 
I took out the centerstand. that was 5lbs I won't miss. The kickstand is pretty far forward already, but I am in the same boat..
 
My bike was missing it so I actually picked up a center stand off Ebay when I decided to chop off the kick stand so I could keep working on the bike in an upright position. It may come back off when I'm all done and put a kick stand back on somewhere but for now it's quite handy to have the center stand.
 
Re: 1977 KZ400 Build "Logan's Run" Color Decisions

So I'm trying to come up with a color for the bike. I'm leaning heavily towards a burgandy/wine color with a candy clear coat. There's an auto store near me that mixes Duplicolor paint to match standard auto color codes. After going through the color code PDF on the Duplicolor site I'm only finding one color that comes close to what I'm envisioning. It's a Dark Cherry Red by Hyundai which is ironic since my daily 4 wheel cage is a 2002 Hyundai Elantra. Here's the color, what are your thoughts?

DarkCherryRedPaint.jpg
 
Very classic, I love it. Kinda wish I hadn't gone with plain ol' black on mine. You gonna throw any stripes on there?
 
I'm kinda thinking of putting a silver stripe either down the middle of the tank and seat or maybe offset a couple of inches to one side or the other.
 
I like the color and the offset silver stripe idea. maybe one wide and one thin stripe?
 
Yeah, if I go offset I'm thinking maybe a half inch stripe next to a 2 inch one with 1/4-1/2" in between.
 
My suggestion would be an off-set stripe about 3-4 inches wide in a nice dark gray or charcoal with thin white pin stripes to boarder the transition! Should look great with that crimson! Black would look great as accents on that color as well, createing a nice 4 color scheme overall!
 
tWistedWheelz said:
My suggestion would be an off-set stripe about 3-4 inches wide in a nice dark gray or charcoal with thin white pin stripes to boarder the transition! Should look great with that crimson! Black would look great as accents on that color as well, createing a nice 4 color scheme overall!

Pin stripes might be a little beyond my painting skills right now. :-[ This will be my first attempt at painting a bike with a spray gun and compressor. I did the SR250 restoration in all rattle cans which turned out pretty well but I probably spent more on spray paint than I would on cans of paint to run through the sprayer.
 
You don't have to hand stripe them, lay out your tape for gray stripe, lay the gray, then some clear, remove tape and wet sand, then lay out tape for both "pin stripes" on the transition area, spray white, clear, remove tape, wet sand, clear all again! Done!
 
That sounds do-able I guess. The next question is do I have the stripe down the fairing as well?
 
noahdog said:
That sounds do-able I guess. The next question is do I have the stripe down the fairing as well?

Well its yours, you don't HAVE to do anything, but if it where mine, that stripe would continue over every paintable surface it crosses! Just makes for a more custom and nice look. Makes it like you left no detail unfinished!
 
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