flip_rip
New Member
Hey Guys!
Starting a new thread for my KZ650 project. The idea behind this one is to create a very minimal KZ650 that is at home cruising down to the local hipster coffee shop with a lady friend on the back, or ditching that idea and hitting the canyon roads balls out and getting its lean on! I want it to look sick in any location, whether its DTLA or in the hills above Malibu, or at full lean on The Crest. The overall look I guess is a bit of cafe and tracker vibes, with an emphasis on road performance.
I am really picky about how a bike rides, and I want this one to strike a balance of performance on the twisties but not be too uncomfortable to ride up the coast to SF. It needs to be versatile and I for sure want to take it out on date nights.
The NX is almost finished and I think that will turn into my dual sport/lightweight baja adventure bike, and will hopefully have a vintage supermoto wheel setup in the near future. So the KZ is more road mannered.
The PO had visions of making this bike some kind of cafe racer and has since stripped out most of the handle bar controls and did a whole bunch of weird wiring things. Also it doesn't run and has no spark...but for $500 with a clean title and registration until Jan 2018 I feel like I'm doing okay.
I'll be keeping it super minimal, so no turn signals, no brights (just one bright headlight setting), no air box, hidden battery, ideally some trick hidden switches for the kill/starter.
I'll chop and loop the frame and de-tab as needed, but I would like to keep a version of the stock duck tail, I really like how that looks.
Up in the air right now are wheels/tires. I though about maybe taking the rear rim and lacing it to the front hub and doing either an 18f/18r wheel setup with a 18x2.15 in front and 18x3.5 rear, or going to an 18x2.15 front and a 17x3.5 rear to gain that better tire selection. I'm also not opposed to keeping the stock 19/18 wheel tire setup, but there seems to be only one or two sets of sticky tires in those sizes.
I'll rebuild the front forks with calibrated spring rates, and will upgrade the rear shocks. I was thinking of going a tad longer with these to give it an agressive stance, but not take away from how it handles.
Lightweight is a goal, but not a rule. I'd like to keep it quick and lively and shave some weight, but I'm not looking to drill speed holes in everything haha.
First up is replacing the whole ignition system to the DynaS and green coils and upgrading to a 3 phase reg/rec unit. Then a manual cam chain tensioner (the chain is rattling in there and I'm really hoping its not more than just a bad auto tensioner). Then I'll remove the head and do a full port and polish job with new valve guides and seals and seats, and shim accordingly. All but cylinder 4 have compression above 175psi, cylinder 4 is at about 125psi. More detective work lead me to leaky valves, hence the head work. I'll probably skip the full top end rebuild for now, as it only has 17k miles on it. Of course a carb rebuild and jet is on the list, but recently finding more info on the Keihin CR29s has me pretty intrigued....I just know know if I want to drop $1000 extra on it yet haha.
New paint, LED lights, a hella black magic headlight, new gold chain, sprockets, gauges, pegs, Renthal bars, fork brace, and a custom seat will round out the package.
As always, photos for days of everything will follow this and hopefully I'll leverage insight from fellow KZ riders here!
Oh and I was able to put this bike into the back of my Trooper without a ramp haha! Its already been and adventure with this thing!
Starting a new thread for my KZ650 project. The idea behind this one is to create a very minimal KZ650 that is at home cruising down to the local hipster coffee shop with a lady friend on the back, or ditching that idea and hitting the canyon roads balls out and getting its lean on! I want it to look sick in any location, whether its DTLA or in the hills above Malibu, or at full lean on The Crest. The overall look I guess is a bit of cafe and tracker vibes, with an emphasis on road performance.
I am really picky about how a bike rides, and I want this one to strike a balance of performance on the twisties but not be too uncomfortable to ride up the coast to SF. It needs to be versatile and I for sure want to take it out on date nights.
The NX is almost finished and I think that will turn into my dual sport/lightweight baja adventure bike, and will hopefully have a vintage supermoto wheel setup in the near future. So the KZ is more road mannered.
The PO had visions of making this bike some kind of cafe racer and has since stripped out most of the handle bar controls and did a whole bunch of weird wiring things. Also it doesn't run and has no spark...but for $500 with a clean title and registration until Jan 2018 I feel like I'm doing okay.
I'll be keeping it super minimal, so no turn signals, no brights (just one bright headlight setting), no air box, hidden battery, ideally some trick hidden switches for the kill/starter.
I'll chop and loop the frame and de-tab as needed, but I would like to keep a version of the stock duck tail, I really like how that looks.
Up in the air right now are wheels/tires. I though about maybe taking the rear rim and lacing it to the front hub and doing either an 18f/18r wheel setup with a 18x2.15 in front and 18x3.5 rear, or going to an 18x2.15 front and a 17x3.5 rear to gain that better tire selection. I'm also not opposed to keeping the stock 19/18 wheel tire setup, but there seems to be only one or two sets of sticky tires in those sizes.
I'll rebuild the front forks with calibrated spring rates, and will upgrade the rear shocks. I was thinking of going a tad longer with these to give it an agressive stance, but not take away from how it handles.
Lightweight is a goal, but not a rule. I'd like to keep it quick and lively and shave some weight, but I'm not looking to drill speed holes in everything haha.
First up is replacing the whole ignition system to the DynaS and green coils and upgrading to a 3 phase reg/rec unit. Then a manual cam chain tensioner (the chain is rattling in there and I'm really hoping its not more than just a bad auto tensioner). Then I'll remove the head and do a full port and polish job with new valve guides and seals and seats, and shim accordingly. All but cylinder 4 have compression above 175psi, cylinder 4 is at about 125psi. More detective work lead me to leaky valves, hence the head work. I'll probably skip the full top end rebuild for now, as it only has 17k miles on it. Of course a carb rebuild and jet is on the list, but recently finding more info on the Keihin CR29s has me pretty intrigued....I just know know if I want to drop $1000 extra on it yet haha.
New paint, LED lights, a hella black magic headlight, new gold chain, sprockets, gauges, pegs, Renthal bars, fork brace, and a custom seat will round out the package.
As always, photos for days of everything will follow this and hopefully I'll leverage insight from fellow KZ riders here!
Oh and I was able to put this bike into the back of my Trooper without a ramp haha! Its already been and adventure with this thing!