'81 kz440: brat cafe build

Re: '81 kz440: bobber --> cafe

CrescentSon said:
How you gonna fill the gap in front of the seat?
i don't know that im going to at all, at least for the time being. i kinda like it with the gap. i'm still toying with ideas though, so we'll see what happens with it.

crackerman said:
Looking good. Diggin the tank. I like the exhaust but your going to burn you leg off unless you got nice heat shield. My scrambler pipes get nice and hot and they have a heat shield. Not a big deal, but you'd never want to wear shorts.

yes, heat shields are definitely going to be a must, haha. i'm planning on making my own at some point this winter.

i usually only get to work on the bike for 3-4 hours each saturday, so work has been slow. i welded a few bungs into my frame to mount the rear master cylinder, also welded up my rear brake pedal to work with where the MC is now mounted. just have to fab up a short connecting rod between the pedal and the MC, then bleed it all and i'll have a rear disc brake!
 
Re: '81 kz440: bobber --> cafe

If you have any of the seat material, a separate pad wedged in there could look good. The gap just looks unfinished.
 
Re: '81 kz440: bobber --> cafe

Your exhaust is awesome I really want something similar for my ride. As for the gap between the seat and the tank...consider doing something off the wall, like mounting your speedo there. You can just glance down if you really need to see how fast you're going. Then just keep the single tach up top for a cleaner look. Just a thought. I've been racking my brain for a cool place to relocate my speedo.

Awesome build. Keep it up.
 
Re: '81 kz440: bobber --> cafe

haven't given much proof of progress yet, but here's a couple pics. i've been working on cleaning up my wiring, and figured i better do it proper and make some sort of tray for my electronics and such. here's what i came up with today...

405043154.jpg


just tacked up for now. i have a little work left to do on it, but it's in and secured and i'm really happy with it so far. i drilled and tapped 4 small holes in my subframe which is how the tray is secured to the bike.

i also took a pic of my recently finished rear disc brake setup. i've had it all laying around for a while, but finally welded some bungs into the frame so i could mount the master cylinder. i forgot to get a pic of the pedal, which i also had to modify a little, but you get the idea...

405043153.jpg
 
I have joined just to ask about your monoshock setup. I am currently doing the same thing with a swing arm and shock from a ex500 as well as converting the rear to disc. Any pics or info tou could share would be great....
 
fodder said:
I have joined just to ask about your monoshock setup. I am currently doing the same thing with a swing arm and shock from a ex500 as well as converting the rear to disc. Any pics or info tou could share would be great....

THIS guy!! ;D
 
^^ haha, what's all that? anyhow, i'd be happy to help with pics, but if you could let me know more specifically what you'd like to see, that would help me. what kind of bike are you doing the swap on?
 
7aliveatlast7 said:
^^ haha, what's all that? anyhow, i'd be happy to help with pics, but if you could let me know more specifically what you'd like to see, that would help me. what kind of bike are you doing the swap on?

He's a good friend of mine. We built my bike in his barn, and are in the process of building his. I sent him a link to your thread, and told him he has to research his own bike!! ;D

He's got an 80 KZ440, and we're trying to figure out how to mount the front of the monoshock arm. We were going to try and use the center stand mounts, but the geometry doesn't work. We have the swingarm fit, it just needed some grinding on the frame.
The upper shock mount should be cake, but I'd love to see pics of what you came up with!!
 
I'd love to see some closeups of your 2 into 1 collector and where the muffler joins. Really really nice work! I never hit you up about skinning my seat because I once I got the seat pan finished I couldn't wait to put it on so I tried it myself. Thanks again for the offer.
 
How well did the EX250 swingarm fit? What types of things did you have to do to make it fit? Did you use the Ninja's pivot bolt or the KZ's? Thanks!
 
I don't know what's involved on a KZ, but an EX250 swingarm will fit an XS650 frame if you grind 6mm off the pivot- 3mm on either side, and 6mm off the spacer as well. It even has the same pivot bolt diameter. I don't imagine the KZ is much different....
 
KZ looking great!, what year is the gsxr forks off of?? sorry if it was previously posted, skimmed through the posts and must of missed it. Thanks.
 
Mr. Sinister said:
He's a good friend of mine. We built my bike in his barn, and are in the process of building his. I sent him a link to your thread, and told him he has to research his own bike!! ;D

He's got an 80 KZ440, and we're trying to figure out how to mount the front of the monoshock arm. We were going to try and use the center stand mounts, but the geometry doesn't work. We have the swingarm fit, it just needed some grinding on the frame.
The upper shock mount should be cake, but I'd love to see pics of what you came up with!!
ha, cool to see friends helping each other out, sounds like you've got a good thing going! I had the same thought of trying to use the centerstand mounts, but you're right, no can do there. however, I cut those mounts off, made some longer tabs, and welded them to the same cross tube the centerstand mounts were on. i'll pm you some pics to show you what it ended up like.


compoundcycles said:
I'd love to see some closeups of your 2 into 1 collector and where the muffler joins. Really really nice work! I never hit you up about skinning my seat because I once I got the seat pan finished I couldn't wait to put it on so I tried it myself. Thanks again for the offer.
hey man, no worries about the seat, I actually meant to comment on your thread about how great it looked. nice job! and I will get you some pics of the 2-1 collector. basically all I did was cut wedges out of a straight piece of 1.5" tube, put the wedges together to form two curves, then welded the curves together to form a 180* bend. then I cut a 1.5" hole at the top of the 180 and welded in a short piece of tube to act as a sleeve for the muffler to slip over. actually, I should stop saying "I" and making it sound like it was me who did all the work. I simply cut and tacked it all together and had a friend TIG weld it up.


diggerdanh said:
How well did the EX250 swingarm fit? What types of things did you have to do to make it fit? Did you use the Ninja's pivot bolt or the KZ's? Thanks!
the swingarm fit PERFECTLY! I mean no cutting, no shaving, no nothing, it literally slid right into the 440 frame. it was dumb luck, but the swingarms were exactly the same width at the pivot point. I actually could not use the ninja pivot bolt though, as it was larger in diameter than the kz's. so I just swapped the bearings and used the kz bolt.


LeChu said:
KZ looking great!, what year is the gsxr forks off of?? sorry if it was previously posted, skimmed through the posts and must of missed it. Thanks.
they're off a 2007 gsxr 750. try allballsracing.com, they have a fork compatibility chart that shows you every year/make/model of fork that will fit your bike.
 
7aliveatlast7 said:
ha, cool to see friends helping each other out, sounds like you've got a good thing going! I had the same thought of trying to use the centerstand mounts, but you're right, no can do there. however, I cut those mounts off, made some longer tabs, and welded them to the same cross tube the centerstand mounts were on. i'll pm you some pics to show you what it ended up like.

Dig it, I'd appreciate that!!
That was our thoughts as well, using that same spot, but longer/lower tabs.
 
7aliveatlast7 said:
the swingarm fit PERFECTLY! I mean no cutting, no shaving, no nothing, it literally slid right into the 440 frame. it was dumb luck, but the swingarms were exactly the same width at the pivot point. I actually could not use the ninja pivot bolt though, as it was larger in diameter than the kz's. so I just swapped the bearings and used the kz bolt.

Cool, that's great news. I read on the KZ Twins forum about a guy using EX500 swingarm and he said that it would just slide into his KZ400 if he took one of the dust caps off the swingarm. Sounds like it was just a hair too wide for the frame without a little tweaking. He had said the same thing about the pivot bolt, the Ninja one was a little too big for the KZ400 frame. Awesome, good to know. Sounds like accounting for some manufacturing tolerances a few mm either way in the frame and in the swingarm then the EX250/EX500 swingarm should fit into a KZ400/440 using the KZ's pivot bolt and proper bearing. Thanks for the info.
 
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