78 KZ650B Cafe - Redux

[sbruton]

Some of you may remember last fall I bought a bone stock '78 B model from a fellow in town and spent the fall and winter giving it a cafe make over. The intent was to get it 90% complete, ride it for the season and then make changes as required. It started out like this....

Over the course of last fall/ winter it ended up like this, after a few variations:

This winter I pulled it apart and am starting to do some final touches, which brings me to where I am today... a garage full of parts, my engine on a stand and a frame:

I finished grinding the balance of the unused brackets/ tabs etc and gave it a first coat of paint:

I'll be changing the paint scheme and making a few other minor changes and will post updates as I progress.

Thanks for looking!

 

[sbruton]

I played hooky from work yesterday, dropped the kids off at daycare and spent the day in the garage!! It was a GREAT day!

I painted a few bits, polished some parts and started to re-assemble...

Polished cases and placed the engine in the frame:

Painted the upper and lower triple clamps and put the forks back on:

And a new headlight:

And some spanky new signal lights:

 

[AdrockMK2]

Looks awesome, love the brown frame.

 

[greasemonkey75]

The front directionals are interesting. I have thinking of where to put mine. Is like to see what it looks like with tank on.

 

[sbruton]

Hi Greasemonkey,

I just dropped my tank on and snapped a pic. Ignore the colours as they will be changing:

 

[AdrockMK2]

That's actually where I've located mine too on my KZ400 project (thread coming soon). Drilled out the stock reflector location.

 

[sbruton]

yeah... exactly. It works pretty well and should be able to keep the wires reasonably hidden. If you look just above it, I drilled out the other hole to locate a toggle switch for my ignition.

 

[fuggers]

I love the brown frame, what colors are you changing the tank to?

 

[sbruton]

Thanks!

It's a little difficult to describe, but the colours will be Navy Blue, Light Blue with 2 brown stripes - one wide stripe (~ 1") and one narrow stripe (~1/4").... I hope it works out!

 

[sbruton]

I found a little time tonight to tidy up/ simplify my wiring harness and rid of some of the extraneous stuff:

I peeled back the covering on the main harness to expose all the wires:

Then carefully traced back many of the extra wires etc that I no longer need and removed all the extra's:

Then started to cover it back up with braided loom, heat shrink and some tape:

Next will be to finish covering up the wires, test all the circuits and then zip tie all the wires in place.

 

[fuggers]

That brown looks great, are you going to leave the frame open? Hide the battery in the back?

 

[chucker]

Lookin' good, Shaner! That frame color turned out great.

 

[sbruton]

Thanks fellers.

Fuggers - Yeah. The frame will remain open as you see it. I have a small 5aH gel battery that sits under the seat hump. I have removed the e-starter so I don't require the big battery to turn over the engine.

 

[marla_do]

looks sweet. nice job on the wiring.

whats the color code / brand paint on the frame?

 

[sbruton]

Thanks marla_do!

The brown is a duplicolor rattle can product CBGM0544 Cordova Brown Metalic....

 

[sbruton]

I bought a bunch of new parts a couple of weeks ago (tires, sprockets, chain, oil, filters, braided line etc) and finally got some time to make a bit more progress.

New Spitfires and a nice braided line for the front brake:

Wheels mounted, front brake bled, new rear sprocket: (ignore the goofy colours of the seat and tank, they will be repainted shortly)

My pipes were in tough shape and I like the look of the stockers so I decided to mod them. I had a friend of mine cut the mufflers and end caps off, remove the cross over pipe and punch the baffles out and then weld the ends back on. I'm interested to fire the bike up with them and see how they sound. If they are too loud I will try something else, but it's worth a try. I also wrapped the headers and painted the pipes black and hope to get them mounted tomorrow....

More to come shortly!

 

[sbruton]

I wrapped, painted and installed my pipes yesterday. I kinda goofed on the header wrap and cut the first piece too short so I wrapped them all the same length. I would have liked the wrap to come further back - but what can ya do? I may use some of the excess to add some later but for now it will do:

I will post some vid later so you can hear them. I like the sound of them but have not ridden the bike yet to really get a feel for them. Personally I think it suits the bike, but probably would not go this route for a long distance type bike.

Next on the list is new chain, new C/S sprocket and finally PAINT!!

 

[sbruton]

I installed my chain/ sprockets over the weekend and started to paint.... Here's a sneak preview - (the brown strips on the tank will match the seat):

With any luck I'll get everything mounted up this week for a maiden voyage on the weekend. Then I can start tuning (carb sync and possible jets)...

 

[GreatDane]

Great project! I own a KZ650 too ('79 D with an F-engine), so this nice an inspiring. I'm really looking forward to see the bike done, I'm a bit sceptical about the scheme, but I'm ready to be surprised when you're done (it's all about different taste, which is a good thing)

Have fun building!

-Kasper/GreatDane

 

[STRETCH-CB]

hell yeah, looking great.