Kawasaki Z650 Seventies Special

The frame is almost finished now, just a couple more braces to add, then the usual brackets when I get the rest of the bodywork..
 

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I love what you are doing there, but the frame is still a stiff as a wet noodle. Why not just take just the headstock, strap that to the jig and make a new frame from scratch. No joints in the frame where you least want them. No 60's frame design and so on.

Just askin' - for a friend :)
 
A fair point, the reason is purely legal, here in the UK if you change the frame or modify the 'main loop' it should in theory have to be treated as a new build, and be re-registered, which in turn requires a very strict 'Single Vehicle Type Approval' test... covers stuff like noise, emissions, projections etc.. Not something most builders in the UK want to go through. The changes we have done to date are possibly just over the acceptable limit of change, but in the real world it wont be an issue.

BTW the engine will be solidly mounted in the frame, that should help its rigidity.
 
Also if given a free hand and a much bigger budget, I'd be ordering one of these..
 

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Keep it coming!

Will do, not much progress in the last few days, except I spent £10 on a 60cm length of 316 marine grade stainless bar. This has now become one of the engine mounts. My friend owns a real machine shop and keeps an old Capstan lathe for odd jobs, he let me use it to cut the threads on the bars (I made all the engine mounting 'bolts'). It uses a cool spring loaded die which springs apart when the thread is cut to the correct depth. Cant recall the name of it, but great bit of kit, probably made in the 1950's, you can see it attached to the capstan on the extreme left of the pic.

Pic from my phone so a bit blurry..

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Had a battery box fabricated along with an electrics box to keep it in, both in stainless steel. While the frame was on the workshop table, I asked the welder to clean up the frame welds, a lot happier with the frame now. Though it still needs more cross bracing and the seat area finishing, which will have to wait until I know what seat / tail unit its having.

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oday I could finally mock up the rolling chassis having been given a pair of 41mm forks of the right length (they need rechroming so weren't worth much). I found the billet yokes on my mates workshop shelf where they'd sat unused since he made them a decade ago. Waste not, want not...

By todays standards the forks a little spindly at 41mm, while the yokes are equally modest. Just what I wanted for the bike, as they'll fit the style I am aiming for. With a complete rebuild, a one off fork brace and progressive springs, they'll be far better than those fitted as standard back in the seventies and early eighties
 
The rear wheel was made for a drag bike project some years ago by my mate, once I'd convinced him to sell it to me, we had to make a matching front. The problem is finding suitable rims to bolt to the billet home made centres. In this case, I bought a damaged Astralite wheel and cut out its two rim halves to use in this front wheel. As Astralites are made from two halves rivetted together. Pic below of the new wheel coming together. Something else that's a bit different about these wheels, is that aftermarket 'built up' wheels, use bolts and nuts to hold the rims to the centres. But in these wheels, each rim bolt doesn't use a nut on the opposite side, instead the billet centre has holes drilled and threaded to take the bolts, on alternating sides of the wheel.. so no ugly nuts on display, and less chance of an air leak.

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The machining is done by my mate in his small home workshop, he is self taught, but makes some cool stuff.. ie..
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Finally got the pair of custom Razor-R shocks built by K-Tech, they were built to the spec for a ZRX1200, but with slightly lighter springs. Since the bike will be lighter than a ZRX1200 and its unlikely I'll ever be carrying a pillion. We did a quick mock again just to make sure the length (365mm) worked with the front forks, which they did fortunately. I'd hoped the side panels and tail section would have arrived today, but they are still on their way.

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Nice progress. That tool is a self opening die head which I think we called a die box when I used one back in the late sixties in a capstan lathe for small productions runs.
 
Nice progress. That tool is a self opening die head which I think we called a die box when I used one back in the late sixties in a capstan lathe for small productions runs.
Yes I was later told its called a Coventry die box.. clever bit of kit.
 
Finally worked out where the forks are from.. a GSX1100 Powerscreen.. bit obscure that one. They will do for now, but I may fit something better in the future.

The Z1 side panels and tail unit arrived, they are very well made, come from Japan I think. Sadly and not unexpectedly the tail piece wont fit on the now widened frame. I was hoping the tail unit would have some flex so it'd go over the seat rails, but no chance. The frame has been widened from 10 to 12 inches.

If the tail piece had been made from fibreglass I'd have been tempted to cut it in half and widen it to fit, but its made from ABS and its too nice to cut up in any case. What to do? I've ordered a fibreglass version of the tail piece and that'll be widened when it arrives in a few weeks time. Whether it'll look ok or ugly as sin once widened I don't know yet. Another option is to use the tail piece I have as a template to make a copy in alloy. That wouldn't be an exact copy, but may look ok.

Finally, I could forget about the Z1 tail piece and fit something entirely different. Haven't found anything yet that would look good combined with the Z1 tank and side panels.... then again I could go mad and order this kit from Airtech...
https://www.airtech-streamlining.co...nders-parts/MadMax-JimGoose-kwaka-replica.htm
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