KZ650

[WackoTie]

I'm posting this about halfway through my build, so this first post might be a lot with pieces missing here and there. Anyways this guy was asking for $350 for a running titled 1979 kz650 c3. I drove about 2 hours to go pick it up. It didn't want to turn on but it turned over, and sounded sound. I ended up bringing him down to $200 and got the bike running the next weekend after a carb cleaning and re jetting. He put on pods and it had aftermarket pipes.

I ended up getting a 4 into 1 along with an exhaust made by Lossa Engineering

Once I got it running I started mocking a rear cowl.

I realized the 1st cowl was to thin and decided to go with some thicker scrap I had lying around that I had to shape with a sledge hammer and railroad tie block. I cut the frame in the process and soon after braced up the rear.

I also decided to change to clubman bars and go old school with spokes. Being that my mag wheels were set up for a rear disc I fabbed a simple brake stay as well as replaced the spacer to accommodate the drum. In the pictures you can see I also put rearsets, and tied them together with threaded rod and rod ends.

I bought some taller shocks to raise the rear so is there any easy way to accommodate the change in angle in the front?

Mind you, all this is being done at home with no real sort of fancy tools, as well as it being made on a college student budget.

 

[doc_rot]

How much taller are the new shocks? You stole that bike for $200

 

[WackoTie]

There 14" so 1" taller. I've checked the slack and there is still clearance in the closest spot.

 

[doc_rot]

thats not enough over stock to worry about, it will make the steering a bit quicker, perhaps a little more unstable, but probably not noticeable. If you are worried about it you could drop down to a 120/80/18 which will have a smaller diameter than stock.

Just a word of caution on the rearsets. I rode a 650B2 for several years. I used to ride with my feet on the passenger pegs on the freeway on long hauls to help change the seating position and the bike was noticeably more unstable with my feet that far back in turns. it would start to wobble unless I pinched the tank with my legs. YMMV but i think some where in between the stock and passenger position would be most ideal. just my .02

 

[WackoTie]

Ok thanks for the heads up, I'll keep that in mind.

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[WackoTie]

Put on new levers and grips

 

[adventurco]

Cool man. Seems like a good buy. I would forget about the small stuff for now and focus on your seat since it seems like that's the one big element you're missing.

IMO your current mock of the cowl is too small. It just doesn't match the tank, and makes everything look kind of out of scale. From an aesthetic point of view, you might want to consider sketching out the lines from your tank back to the seat area and getting a scale from there. Just my .02


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[WackoTie]

I thought my lines were all matched up...

I guess I'll step back and take another look. Maybe make it a bit longer? Or just weld it to the frame and make it seamless so it doesn't look too wide at the front?

 

[adventurco]

The lines actually don't look bad. Especially nice from the rear. Maybe the sense of scale seems a bit off to my eye since there's no pad yet or anything connecting the bottom line of the tank to the fairing.


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[WackoTie]

This is the kind of seat I'm going for. I don't want a side skirt coming from the rear cowl. That's why I haven't set one up yet. I'm still undecided on the placement of my electronics under the seat so that needs to be laid out before I attempt the seat.

 

[doc_rot]

I think the seat looks fine if thats what yer into. I would not weld it directly to the frame though

 

[roaries7]

How hard was it to fab up cowl? Looking to do similar look for my cb750k.

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[WackoTie]

Nah I don't plan on welding it. Because my battery is taller than my tray, about 1/4" will stick up past the frame so my seat bottom will need a recessed cut. And we'll the placement of the battery isn't quite final in the tray.

And for the cowl, it has its imperfections. It took me about 3 hours pounding it with a sledgehammer to get it to my liking, and I'm going to have a bit of work with the bondo to smoothen out the marks. But I'm sure if you had some thinner metal, a sandbag and a proper hammer it would be easier. Anyways, the way I see it, where there's a will, there's a way and that's the whole point of customising a bike in my opinion.

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[canyoncarver]

In for another KZ build, partly because I have a few KZ650's in my pile that I might get to one day.

 

[MattCB750OT]

Love the lines. Keep doing what your doing minus using passenger peg mounts! Spend the extra time and do it right

 

[WackoTie]

Shortly after I installed the bars and grips, my headlight came in so here it is.
I put it on before going in to work and realized it sits a bit high (2nd picture). I've since lowered it but don't have a picture to show for it.

And I got some inspiration off of a cafe racer tv video for a tail light so this is my swing at it.
Screenshot from the video highlighting the taillight

My plans on how mine should look

1 of the fins crudely mocked to test lighting

And I took a short 30 sec clip of the running light and the brake of the 1 fin. Keep in mind plan on putting 5 side by side in a grill like fashion under the rear cowl, so there should be a bit of reflection going on in the underside.

Couldn't upload video, so here's a YouTube link
https://youtu.be/CmmxLET87dU

 

[oelkuch]

Nice build. I too am.building a kz650 a 77

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