'80 KZ550 Project

moving day!
Thanks goes out to Phil, a friend who drove up from the city to load my bike and gear. the whole way home after every pot hole I would be looking back praying my bike, or the actual trucks box, didnt come flying off...got so bad I was looking back even on the best paved stretch of road haha.



In the city, sitting next to a stock kz250 ltd

With a new job in the city I had a whole fabrication shop to myself.
fk'n Disneyland for fabricators.

I was allowed to store my bike at work, and even work on it after hours there!

Today is a big day. I get my kickstand mounted!
Stripped down again. Ive had this bike together and apart so many times now...

I made axle plate covers by cutting tubing in half and joining either side with flat bar, and using flat bar with recessed holes for covers.

I bought a sporty tank off the local Kijiji for a wicked price so I couldnt say no. I love the shapes of king sporty tanks or peanut tanks as well...

I trimmed my rear fender one night and went to town trying to figure out a mount. eventually I curved some flat bar and welded it vertical between both top and bottom cross supports.

Problem with the tractor seat! Its obviously too wide. I pondered how I would section it for about a year haha.

The shape it is now, its super comfy BUT, i cant bend my legs enough to touch the ground. The distance between my knee and bottom of my foot is just vertically challenged by about 4 inches...

so I cut the seat...




To mount the seat I used more flat bar, but I should have used a leaf spring.
I mounted a plate to the bottom of the seat and ran a mini shock instead of springs.

As you can tell with a different tank, bars, seat trimmed and rear fender trimmed my bike has taken on a whole new look!





drastic!



Im way too happy, and look way too young to be bad ass on this thing haha.
I bet ill finish the bike before I could grow a full beard!


Video walk around:

I got bored at work so I started messing with pre-mask and spray bomb..





I really should have left it at this:


and now just sitting on the bike.







Look how long the front end looks from here!

Rounded up some scrap metal I had laying around the barn,
put together a simple jig. everything slides in the middle. I built a cradle, axle locator, and a neck locator.



heres how the bike sits today

Started messing around with electrical.
Came up with a simplified bare bones wiring diagram and integrated a normal car type ignition switch, 4 position (ACC-OFF-RUN-START), also removed the neutral safety, and push button start...





I put the switch in the center of the mini keg..


I had to make a rack for the fuse block, ignitor, rectifier, flasher, and brake light failure switch thinger.
Ill leave my starter relay out and by the battery.

so with the door cut the edges are very sharp. Another friend gave me 3 feet of vacuum line to split and use as edge trim. Its a little rought right now but i promise it will be pretty later


Finally finishing up the electrical box, and not following the cardinal rule (never put a bolt you cant get to) I mounted it on a bracket I made.

I use an old belt to hold the thing shut!



Inside view! Im going to have to trim the keg down because my chain will for sure run into it and if not my keys will dangle into my chain. Oh lord I love hot rodin'

Todays list?

- Cut neck gussets
- Mount gas tank using new bungs
- Re-do the seat mounts
- Weld nuts to vertical flat bar fender mount, and trim fender struts
- relocate kickstand spring to bottom of the kickstand (clearance issues with foot peg)
If that goes over well I may be able to get the engine back in the bike, and if I can get the engine back in I can:

- Make shifter controls
- make a chain tensioner
- fix chain/keg clearance issues
- mount chain guard

nice lines on the frame.

keep the pics comin.

leon

hey bro!!! greetings from australia!! inspiring stuff man, amazing job! any youtube of you riding her? keep up the good work!!!

Thats looking great!! I've got a Kz1000 spare frame i'd like to hardtail and get together at some point when I've finished the csr I'm on. keep us posted I'd like to see the finished product!