TheNinj
Nameless Clueless
Hi guys,
Since I've been getting lots of great info from this forum I thought it only right that I posted a quick thread about my 1980 z650 cafe racer project. It's the first time I've built a cafe racer and my intentions were never to make an absolute prize winning minter but to take a good donor bike and create something that suits me using as much of the original as I can. I also wanted to try and do as much of the work as I can, even if that means stuff like paint wont be as good as a pro shop, that's the ethos of this bike, it's a bike to be run around the peak district in the summer for fun and it's something that I've wanted to make for years.
I only started this project a few weeks ago and it's by no means finished yet but heres a rundown of what I've done so far:
The bike is a 1980 (MY 1979) z650 B3, with around 45k on the clock, this is how it looked when I picked it up:
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
The bike had been stood for unknown years and so I stripped the carbs and gave them a good clean, lots of gunk removed! The airbox rubbers were pretty shot too so they got replaced because I first wanted to make sure the bike ran OK in it's standard form before pulling everything off. Once I got it running OK I started looking for some parts.
Stuff that needed sorting:
I noticed that the speedo cable didnt fit the speedo drive, which is odd and I'm still trying to work that one out
new flasher unit
new coils
I wanted to replace the Lester mags with original spoked wheels because I prefer the look so managed to get hold of some through ebay (Lester wheels are for sale btw
Cleaned out tank
fitted inline fuel filter
So after that I managed to get it through its MOT (with no advisories!) and ran it around for a bit. It wasn't running great until I figured out that the two inner cylinders were needed the mixture adjusting and then it ran much better. until I ran out of fuel
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
So then I got to work turning the bike into the cafe bike I wanted to make.
got some adjustable clipons, headlight clamps, smaller indicators and a fibreglass cafe racer seat which I intended to use but when I put it on the bike I just couldn't make it work, so back that went to the shop and I swapped it for a brat style seat, which as it turns out didn't really work either:
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
I just didn't really like the way it looked, plus it would have been difficult to mount the way I wanted it to so while I pondered what to do I set about re-locating the electrics. I made a steel tray out of 2mm (i think) steel sheet from the local B&Q (I know) using an old packet of cereal for a template. Cut it out with my trusty angle grinder
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
I Also got to work de-tabbed the rear triangle. Also I got some cheap MOXI pod filters off ebay for about £10 which I though would work well enough (more about that later) But I still hadn't worked out what I wanted to do with the seat. I couldn't cut the rear loop until I'd figured this out so I decided to go the custom seat route and build a seat pan from aluminium after I chop the frame and install the rear loop which I had made (a very nice chap off ebay).
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
I welded the hoop and also cut some box section to fill in cut on the shock mount triangle (was rather happy how that came out)
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
Then made the seat pan to fit (actually did this before filling in the triangles):
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
Sent the seat pan off to the local Trimmers to get a nice seat made to my specs and while that was off concentrated on re-locating the electrics and attempting a spray job on the tank.
Bought a ridiculously expensive Shorai lithium battery and managed to cram all the electrics under the seat:
Nameless z650 cafe racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
Note the idiot proof plus and minus stickers (may have attempted to install the leads the wrong way!)
Then decided to tackle spraying the tank, I work in the creative industry so I designed some very simple retro/modern graphics for the tank, I really like the idea of calling the bike "nameless" so got that cut from vinyl at a local sign shop and then went down to local Halfords (auto store) and bought some Rover Arum White paint, priomer and lacquer and got to work on the tank. Filled in the badge recess, 3 coats of primer, light sanding in between and then 4 coats of Arum White before leaving to dry overnight and adding the graphics. Finished off with a few coats of lacquer. It's not perfect, a bit orangepeely in places but it's a damn sight better than I thought it would come out!
Nameless z650 cafe racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
I also added an LED rear light strip for the brakes/light and indicators which is cool! Got that off ebay for £16, its a stick on thing but it's never coming off! Also drilled the rear hoop to run the cable through to the battery box to look neat.
Nameless z650 cafe racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
So after a week at the trimmers (he was busy) I got the seat back and put everything back on the bike:
Nameless z650 cafe racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
And thats where I am at the moment. I've still got to sort out the fuelling because those pods messed up that! It's great up till about 3/4 throttle but after that it breaks up and bogs. I'm currently runnig 15 pilots and 117.5 mains with the needle at 4 but even then it seems too lean at full throttle. I've got some bigger jets coming in the next couple of days which I hope will cure that. But in the mean time heres a few shots of it's current state (next thing is to get rid of that exhaust, or at least chop the brown silencer off but I'm not sure I want to run an unsilenced bike!)
Nameless z650 cafe racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
Since I've been getting lots of great info from this forum I thought it only right that I posted a quick thread about my 1980 z650 cafe racer project. It's the first time I've built a cafe racer and my intentions were never to make an absolute prize winning minter but to take a good donor bike and create something that suits me using as much of the original as I can. I also wanted to try and do as much of the work as I can, even if that means stuff like paint wont be as good as a pro shop, that's the ethos of this bike, it's a bike to be run around the peak district in the summer for fun and it's something that I've wanted to make for years.
I only started this project a few weeks ago and it's by no means finished yet but heres a rundown of what I've done so far:
The bike is a 1980 (MY 1979) z650 B3, with around 45k on the clock, this is how it looked when I picked it up:
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
The bike had been stood for unknown years and so I stripped the carbs and gave them a good clean, lots of gunk removed! The airbox rubbers were pretty shot too so they got replaced because I first wanted to make sure the bike ran OK in it's standard form before pulling everything off. Once I got it running OK I started looking for some parts.
Stuff that needed sorting:
I noticed that the speedo cable didnt fit the speedo drive, which is odd and I'm still trying to work that one out
new flasher unit
new coils
I wanted to replace the Lester mags with original spoked wheels because I prefer the look so managed to get hold of some through ebay (Lester wheels are for sale btw
Cleaned out tank
fitted inline fuel filter
So after that I managed to get it through its MOT (with no advisories!) and ran it around for a bit. It wasn't running great until I figured out that the two inner cylinders were needed the mixture adjusting and then it ran much better. until I ran out of fuel
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
So then I got to work turning the bike into the cafe bike I wanted to make.
got some adjustable clipons, headlight clamps, smaller indicators and a fibreglass cafe racer seat which I intended to use but when I put it on the bike I just couldn't make it work, so back that went to the shop and I swapped it for a brat style seat, which as it turns out didn't really work either:
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
I just didn't really like the way it looked, plus it would have been difficult to mount the way I wanted it to so while I pondered what to do I set about re-locating the electrics. I made a steel tray out of 2mm (i think) steel sheet from the local B&Q (I know) using an old packet of cereal for a template. Cut it out with my trusty angle grinder
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
I Also got to work de-tabbed the rear triangle. Also I got some cheap MOXI pod filters off ebay for about £10 which I though would work well enough (more about that later) But I still hadn't worked out what I wanted to do with the seat. I couldn't cut the rear loop until I'd figured this out so I decided to go the custom seat route and build a seat pan from aluminium after I chop the frame and install the rear loop which I had made (a very nice chap off ebay).
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
I welded the hoop and also cut some box section to fill in cut on the shock mount triangle (was rather happy how that came out)
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
Then made the seat pan to fit (actually did this before filling in the triangles):
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
Sent the seat pan off to the local Trimmers to get a nice seat made to my specs and while that was off concentrated on re-locating the electrics and attempting a spray job on the tank.
Bought a ridiculously expensive Shorai lithium battery and managed to cram all the electrics under the seat:
Nameless z650 cafe racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
Note the idiot proof plus and minus stickers (may have attempted to install the leads the wrong way!)
Then decided to tackle spraying the tank, I work in the creative industry so I designed some very simple retro/modern graphics for the tank, I really like the idea of calling the bike "nameless" so got that cut from vinyl at a local sign shop and then went down to local Halfords (auto store) and bought some Rover Arum White paint, priomer and lacquer and got to work on the tank. Filled in the badge recess, 3 coats of primer, light sanding in between and then 4 coats of Arum White before leaving to dry overnight and adding the graphics. Finished off with a few coats of lacquer. It's not perfect, a bit orangepeely in places but it's a damn sight better than I thought it would come out!
Nameless z650 cafe racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
I also added an LED rear light strip for the brakes/light and indicators which is cool! Got that off ebay for £16, its a stick on thing but it's never coming off! Also drilled the rear hoop to run the cable through to the battery box to look neat.
Nameless z650 cafe racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
So after a week at the trimmers (he was busy) I got the seat back and put everything back on the bike:
Nameless z650 cafe racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
And thats where I am at the moment. I've still got to sort out the fuelling because those pods messed up that! It's great up till about 3/4 throttle but after that it breaks up and bogs. I'm currently runnig 15 pilots and 117.5 mains with the needle at 4 but even then it seems too lean at full throttle. I've got some bigger jets coming in the next couple of days which I hope will cure that. But in the mean time heres a few shots of it's current state (next thing is to get rid of that exhaust, or at least chop the brown silencer off but I'm not sure I want to run an unsilenced bike!)
Nameless z650 cafe racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr
z650 Nameless Cafe Racer by Andy Turner, on Flickr