1977 KZ1000 Street/Strip Project

Ordered my rear tire!

Shinko Stealth 003 170/60/17



Should be here sometime next week.

The Kat wheel is in, just need to get some pictures taken.

I need the tire to check for chain clearance, to order the right sprocket, so I can check something else, then buy something else, then buy some more, stuff stuff buy buy ARGHHH!!!

:laugh:

Projects are fun.

tachrev wrote:

It's been a year, time for an update.

It sat under a cover all summer long, no money to spare for insurance or tires!

I now have the bike at my friends shop, so I can actually start doing some serious work to it.

Here is the mockup of the swingarm:

The wheel is actually going on my friends Norton, we just stuck it on my KZ to see how a 17" would look.

The swingarm is from a 98 Katana 600.

Also, we added rearsets:

These came from a ZRX, and the hug the frame like they were made for a KZ.

We used coupling nuts and a little metal spacer welded to the frame to mount them up.

I'll get some pictures of that when I take them back off.

Looking to swap my Gemini header for a Street Sidewinder, if anyone is interested.

Mines in good shape, the muffler is a little beat up though.

Good ground clearance for cornering, not so good for a lowered drag bike! :silly:

Next update: Swingarm fitting and 02 Katana 600 4.5" wheel!

PM Sent!!! :woohoo:

Im interested in the wiring for the tach. Did you need to wire it to both coils or could you just do it to the #1 coil? pardon my ignorace but is it not that simple? or does it need to be wired to both?
Thanks;)

hal0tw0 wrote:

Im interested in the wiring for the tach. Did you need to wire it to both coils or could you just do it to the #1 coil? pardon my ignorace but is it not that simple? or does it need to be wired to both?
Thanks;)

No problem. Here is the post from when I set up the tach, it explains it.

tachrev wrote:

Got my electronic Autometer automotive tach installed yesterday.

First I made an adapter so the automotive tach would work with the KZ dual coil ignition.

Here's the circuit I used:

I used 005 diodes(600PIV) instead of 007's(1000PIV)...it has worked fine up to 10K rpm so far.

The diodes keep the fire signals for the coils from backfeeding between the coils, but the tach can get the signals from both coils.
They are like electrical one way valves.

I removed all the stock gauges and brackets, and the speedo and tach cables.

I unplugged the dash harness inside the headlight bucket, and wired the tach in the bucket as well.

This tach has signal, key on power(for setting the shift light), dash light, and ground.

A couple notes. This will work for a 4 cylinder tach, or in my case, you have to make sure the tach is set to work on a 4 cylinder.

Some have switches, or jumper wires you have to cut/connect.

If the tach is set for a 8 or 6 cylinder, it will read low.

The parts in the diagram above I got at Radioshack, for a few dollars.

Let me know if you have any other questions, I'll try to help!

Thanks. I get that you wired it to both coils, what I dont understand, being that the KZ has 2 coils, is do you NEED to wire it to both. Ive wired up tachs in my cars that you just hooked it up and boom it worked...:laugh: I never thought twice about what would be different about a motor with 2 coils. Can you wire it to just on coil?

Thanks for my helping me out with my laziness, im just too tired to go in the garage, dig out my tach and figure it out myself:S

If you only wire it to one coil, the tach will run half speed.

It will only get two ignition pulses per revolution instead of all four.

If your tach has a 2 cylinder mode, it might work without the adapter.

Boy does this photo ever bring back memories of my younger days with my girls....

OH!!! Now man, THAT is a great picture!!!
-KR

I need to have the queen take some pics of my girls helping me with my bike, for those kinds of memories

Thanks everyone! The girl's really love my bike.

They always want to help me whenever I am working on a car or motorcycle, too.

Maybe they will stay interested, we'll see.

Here's another update, finally. Parts have been coming in as deals and money are found, and some progress was made.

Ordered a 5/8 offset 530 sprocket from PBI. Looks great, awesome deal at ~$40!!



It was also decided that it would be best to go the mono shock route since my last post.

Chain clearance with the collection of regular shocks was not so great.

I did a lot of research into lever ratios and rear suspension, since I wanted to run a linkless monoshock setup for its simplicity.

To do this, I purchased a FZ6R rear shock, since this bike is also linkless, with the appropriate high spring rate (985lbs!) I would need.

The FZ6R is similar in weight and had the suspension design I was looking to emulate.

Most linkage setup reduce the swingarms leverage on the spring, so the springs and shock would all be way too soft to even hold up the bike properly.

I also acquired a GSXR750 front end, so I'm getting pretty excited about the end result.

The 750 twin front end the was on it lowered the bike nicely, the the 19" wheel didn't match and looked huge with the bike so low. It just didn't look good.



Another bonus it that the entire Gixxer front end weighs almost the same as just the front mag wheel did on the first setup! Plus I probably have more brakes in one rotor than I had in the whole bike with the stock stuff.

Mockup with all the bodywork and my new GSXR750 front end.



This weekend we tacked up the brackets for the rear suspension and she held her own weight for the first time in months!







My friend whose shop I have it in is doing the welding for me and made a lot of the brackets.

The stock battery box even fits in the stock spot (so far.)

You can also see the sidewinder header I got from oldkaws4ever. He now has my Gemini setup. I know it is way less common, but it just wouldn't work with as low as the bike is gonna be.

The sidewinder matches the look I am going for.





The next step will be to modify the triple tree so we can put the top nut on over the bearings.

The diameters are the same as the KZ stem, it is just a little short. So close!

Lots of other things to do as well...

looking good!