Back in early January I bought a frame from a 1978 Z650, complete with its all important V5 log book. I didn't buy a complete bike, barn find or otherwise, because I planned to change most of the parts on the bike, except the frame and bodywork.
Over the previous few months I'd been slowly buying the parts I'd need for the bike, including forks, swing arm, wheels, brakes and most of the bodywork. Still looking for a tank at a good price, while the side panels and tail section are reproduction parts made in ABS, with improved, stronger mounts.
The goal of the project was to build a bike which still looked like a Z650, but with much better suspension and brakes. While making more power, and being as light as possible, without resorting to the expense carbon wheels and Ti parts. The simplest route to more power was to use the 650's bigger brother the Z750 engine, the most powerful of which is the GPz motor, by chance I knew of someone with such an engine he didn't need..
Not sure yet if I'll go to a 810cc conversion, as the only pistons I can find are from Wiseco, and they are three times the price of a standard set of pistons. Target is at least 80bhp.
Its not easy to find out the weight of individual parts of a standard bike, but again the target is to get as close as possible to 400lbs dry weight.
An additional target was to complete the bike this year, as my projects have a habit of dragging on for years.
The frame arrived on a pallet one cold, wet January morning, and it didn't take long to start work, first by narrowing a ZRX1100 swing arm to fit the frame, and making spacers so the 16mm pivot bolt will work with the 20mm bearing in the swing arm. But first some crash damage to the underside of the swing arm had to be repaired.
I checked the price of a new pivot bolt, since I didn't have one, then decided to make one in stainless steel. Even with having to pay for a bit of welding, it turned out half the price of a new standard pivot bolt. I'll make the engine bolts in stainless too, as its the same process.