So I bought this bike to give to my wife. We have enjoyed 2uping on my Harley for a number of years and she has showed an interest in her own bike for awhile. I thought a smaller bike with a low seat (she's short) and not too much snort would be good. As it turns out, she enjoys sitting behind me more then she wants her own bike. I'm fine with that, but it changed the final product in my head. Not that I was going to skimp or make a crappy bike, but now I gotta figure out what I want. My older boys are into cars, dirt bikes and crotch rockets right now. The oldest, who is in the marines, built a Savage 650 and rode it once. Now it's a dead duck. I'll fix it when he's closer to leave. Anyway...
I like the slammed look. But I didn't want to get rid of the rear suspension, in case my wife changed her mind (which she will). As an experiment, I wanted to see how much I could drop the bike just by extending the rear swing arm. The height of my KZ440 from the ground to the center of the upper shock mount is 25.5"
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I cut the swing arm towards the rear where it straightens out. I have specs for all of this, just not with me now. I found some pipe that was close to the OD of the swing arm tubine (1 and 3/16ish) and some inner pipe that fit inside. I drilled holes and plug welded it and grinded it smooth.
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Extending the rear swing arm 3" drops the height of the bike to the center of the upper shock stud to just under 24". I like the look of the bike with the rear wheel back there, but that funky frame is going to give me fits.
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So, in the process of building a sand-blasting cabinet, I decided that I was going to ditch the 2 carb setup and go with a single carb. I'm going to be honest here and tell you that I'm a cheap bastard. If I can't find it laying around in one of my junk piles or can't fabricate it myself, it's not going on this bike. I love metal fabrication and really enjoy doing it. I don't have a tig, that's my only problem... or a tubing bender.... or a decent lathe... or a decent milling machine... oh well. I wish I was rich. Being in a small town in Montana keeps my options limited. I don't have access to much of anything, so if I can't make it, I gotta do without. I'll post updates on my single carb conversion I'm doing with a Mikuni VM34. My intake manifold may be ugly, but I hope it works.