Blew the motor out of my 77 kz650 a bit back, one too many trips past 12 G's on stock valve train (oops), so the bike's been torn apart in my garage for about 6 months now. Just starting to acquire the parts I'm going to need to put her back on the road. Would have been easy enough to slap a new motor in it, but I've always wanted more from the bike than the stock suspension would allow, so I started looking at options for doing a vintage fighter type build with the heart and soul of a cafe racer. What I came up with is running gear from an 84 gpz550, which is basically a direct bolt in on the swing arm (will need to fab monoshock mounts of course) as well as the steering stem (just need to get races for the tapered roller bearings from the gpz). I've sourced a 80 KZ750 motor (fresh and ready to go from the look/sound of things) that will bolt right into the frame. Picked up the running gear today and mocked it up quick in the garage with my tank and tail. I still have to take the grinder to the frame and get rid of all the unnecessary tabs on the frame, and figure out how to fab the monoshock mount without losing all the space for the battery/electronics. Will likely end up having to go with a smaller battery as I don't think there will be room for the stock battery box once the monoshock gets fabbed up. Also planning on running just the stock tach, will have to fab up a mount for that, with no speedo. The fender will go away on the front, and of course everything needs cleaned up before it's go time. Going to run the same headlight as before (7" round with key mounted in the bucket), as well as clean up the upholstery on the seat. Planning on filling and flattening the seat pan and using a stick on pad rather than the half assed skin job I did on it the last time. First pick is the bike as it sat when I blew the motor, other pics of the mock up as it sits now.
