Wonderings about the KZ 900

[Dragone]

and since the orange was in the kawi line up in 03?  why not

[cobra23]

Ahh yes got the Rotor Machined to fit the CR 450 Caliper this weekend..1 more thing done many to go.

[z1rider]

hey cobra, anymore updates on the kz? pics would be greatly appreciated too.

[cobra23]

Well.

I've been re wiring my buddies Honda 90.....eeee gaaad. anyway turned into a can of worms, another week it should be done. My buddy he is a tool and die guy has his own little machine shop. We are gonna build a set of shock mounts for the swingarm.

Put a chain on and its rolling stock.

Then tear down to paint the frame. Slow process. I'll crank up a couple mre photos this week.

Thanks for the interest, it helps motovate me, you know you stare at it all the time it don't seem too special. All the good comments put it back in to perspective.

Any paint guru's out there, i would like to put stripe on it, just like the Ducati Monster, you know off center, the shelby stripe.

[cobra23]

AHhh

Took it all apart yesterday and today, time to paint the frame.

Powder coating?? is there a reasonable (priced) source for that around Reno? How well will the coating hold up to the header heat baking the frame rail?

Oh yea, the Honda 90 is turning into a Bonneville Salt flats project...

[cobra23]

Ok it's Saturday night,

Thought I would post a photo or two..

The frame has been modified. First I ordered a gusset kit from Kosman, had it tig welded in by a good freind of mine. Then Powder coated it silver/grey.

After that was complete, we decided on a ZRX swing arm because they look like the S1 of the 80's Eddie Lawson super bike era. I actually owned an Eddie Lawson Replica, which was heavily modified. 160 Horsepower, yea that was a wild ride. It was pretty mild til you hit 6000 RPM, then "WHAM".

So the swing arm we figured was really stiff. This would put more stress on the tailsection, so round two, we boxed int the shock mounting area, and added a few more gussets.

Of course welding in the bushings to fit the swingarm, and the new Gussets toasted the powder coating.

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[cobra23]

Bored yet??

Ok here is a better veiw of the rear tail section of the frame, which we fabricated the gusseting for. I am in the process of smoothing all the welds, so the finished frame will look real nice.

Most of you probably don't remember what a stock KZ frame looks like. We trimmed all the fat off, brackets, foot rest's for passenger, all kinds of excess crap, lost about 12 pounds doing that.

The gusseting must weigh close to the same, so we got a real nice frame, that weighs the same as a stock one, but a whole bunch stiffer.

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[cobra23]

Ok here is one of the engine,

When I got the bike it was really scaled over from moisture, so I just started cleaning it up, then my buddy says...you'll never get that thing clean....

I am a Patternmaker, or was, in Washington. It is very hard to leave your work; you think about it all the time, one big jigsaw puzzle. So to forget about work, I would just go out into the garage and start polishing with a number of tools. Most of it was done with a die grinder and an assortment of buffing wheels. Dirty Dirty job. My buddy has a Baldor industrial Buffer, we used on the cases, the rest was very time consuming.

Anyway he lost that bet. It looks much better when it is clean, I just pulled it out of the frame today so it's all smudgy.

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[cobra23]

The bike has been under constrsution for a long time. I started it, then was deployed for 18 months. Got back home to Washington State after some fun in a very big city in a very hot place.

When was time to align the front to the rear, which was done with a strange looking jig built on a weekend. I got real fussy about it.

Troy Knapp who raced GSXR's supplied me with all kinds of donor stuff to figure out what would work best on the forks. Troy thought I was taking the alignment too seriously, so he grabs a marks alot while I'm busy and writes "ass Crack over centerline of rear wheel" on the frame. Funny guy.

Anyway, a year later I moved to Reno. So the bike project was on hold again while I sorted out all the moving issues.

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[trent]

i cant wait to see this thing. You will be a proud PAPA when its done....

[z1rider]

keep up the good work cobra!

[cobra23]

Ok gearheads...Motorheads.......body and fender artists.....

Got small problem with the KZ... The sanblaster at work is about 12 inches too short to do the frame. I powder coated it a few years ago, then of course decided to do some more orthopedic surgury on it. Powder coating is real hard to sand off.

Soooo...any body out there available to sandblast the frame for a reasonable price??

[trent]

I know where there are a couple.. How long does the cabinet need to be?

[cobra23]

The frame is 54 inches long X 29 inches tall.

We are going to do a little work on it this weekend, well Friday, in Reno. that would be a great time to take it somewhere.

Thanks.

[trent]

Sorry Ted Ive been out of town working...