78 KZ650 Mono Rear Shock Cafe/Brat Style

Gordy wrote:

531blackbanshee wrote: here's some
www.delcity.net/store/Auto-Reset-Circuit...ZIKjH-Rw8aAstA8P8HAQ

leon

Thanks a lot. Interestingly they only seem to being sold in the US or Oz. Not found a uk supplier yet. I've ordered a blade style one instead to see if that would be better than my current setup.

The Shorai battery has turned up and blooming hell it's tiny. Weighs next to nothing too. I've spent some time today planning on where to put things, still not 100% on everything yet. Current plan is to make a battery tray and fix it to the crossmember that the rear shock hangs off. Then have the motogadget vertically mounted on one side of the frame. I think that would work best but I need to try it out and see.

If you can't find the relay let me know and I can buy one here and send it to you. As for mounting, I made a tray that sits under the seat. I also bought a LiPo battery, super small and light weight.

If you have an eBay account this guy ships world wide.
pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=171697873453&alt=web

kaw-a-holic wrote: If you can't find the relay let me know and I can buy one here and send it to you. As for mounting, I made a tray that sits under the seat. I also bought a LiPo battery, super small and light weight.

Thanks that is so kind. I've got this blade one on it's way. I will see how it looks and see whether it's going to work before deciding on the next path.

I've decided against mounting the battery to the seat as with my previous battery that made wiring everything much trickier. If I have it all in the frame I can remove the seat for quick access. That's the plan anyway!

kaw-a-holic wrote: If you have an eBay account this guy ships world wide.
pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=171697873453&alt=web

Many thanks. I think the KZ650 requires a 20 amp one. I've found a few on ebay, but they are all in the US and the shipping fees are three times the cost of the item. Plus you get stung with import duty sometimes, plus the fees that royal mail charge. It would make a cheap item eye watering

Irish-Kawi wrote: Wow Gordy this has been a really great read and impressed with your fabrication and skills putting all of this together! Thanks for sharing all the thoughts as well as pics, you have a beautiful family and quite the amazing wife to be so supportive of all of this too! I am blessed with my wife supporting my obsession with my bike and have a 3 year old "quality control inspector" like your little guy BWAHAHA

Really love the look of those new forks and the electrical items should be really trick and (hopefully!) fix the rest of your electrical gremlins, best of luck Gordy!

Brett

Wow don't know what to say, many thanks for the kind words. My littlest loves my motorbike, any chance to sit on it and make motorbike noises he takes.

A quickish update. I'm still waiting on parts to start the rewire. I'm hoping my birthday tomorrow brings some shiny treats for the bike....

The Shorai Battery arrived and I was blown away by it's size and weight.

New vs Old



Next to the m-unit it also looks so tiny.


In the meantime I got to work building the battery mounting box. I'm fabricating this out of sheet aluminium. After a couple of sketch drawings I got to work using the bending brake.







A quick test fit.

For some reason the forum told me too many links so I've split this into two posts.

Next I made the attachment strap out of aluminium as well.



Looks like this should work. I need some longer mounting bolts and some sheet rubber for protecting the battery from the metal, but it's a start.



Next job will be to drill the holes into the frame for the battery box to mount to. I'm not looking forward to that bit!

Looks good Gordy. What about welding a couple of tabs on the frame and drill into them instead ?

davido wrote: Looks good Gordy. What about welding a couple of tabs on the frame and drill into them instead ?

Thanks, I'd love to, but I don't have access to a welder or know how to do it. One day when I get a garage it's going to be the first tool I get. Also at some point in the distant future I plan to take the bike down to it's frame and get that cleaned up and resprayed. I will re think mounting points for seats etc then.

Gordy wrote:

kaw-a-holic wrote:

Irish-Kawi wrote: Wow Gordy this has been a really great read and impressed with your fabrication and skills putting all of this together! Thanks for sharing all the thoughts as well as pics, you have a beautiful family and quite the amazing wife to be so supportive of all of this too! I am blessed with my wife supporting my obsession with my bike and have a 3 year old "quality control inspector" like your little guy BWAHAHA

Really love the look of those new forks and the electrical items should be really trick and (hopefully!) fix the rest of your electrical gremlins, best of luck Gordy!

Brett

Wow don't know what to say, many thanks for the kind words. My littlest loves my motorbike, any chance to sit on it and make motorbike noises he takes.

Hey Gordy,

You are very welcome, and seeing your kids get excited is so rewarding and really feels amazing. My little guy at 3 loves my bike and always wants to sit on it and is making "vroom vroom" noises whenever he sees it or even other bikes on the road, its really really cool

Enjoy and keep up the great work on the KZ love what you are doing and really enjoying reading about it

Brett

The birthday fairies were with me.

Hello, maiden post here...

I too am looking to go with a Shorai battery, so I had a few questions about you and your's:
1) I see that your's is a LFX14L2... that is what the Shorai website recommends when you enter in the bike information, but I've had an online retailer recommend a LFX07L2; the main difference electrically being that the 14L2 is a 14AH and 210 CCA, and the 07L2 is 7AH and 107CCA. Question is, if I'm going to be a kickstart only does it really matter what my AH/CCA rating is? (Considering that kickstart only technically shouldn't require a battery anyways, and the 07L2 is $50 cheaper). I've believe the stock battery was anywhere from 10-12AH.
2) What other electrical system changes have you considered when swapping to a lithium battery? i.e. regulater/rectifier change or upgrade?

Thanks, glad to be a participant instead of only an observer.

QCkaw wrote: Hello, maiden post here...

I too am looking to go with a Shorai battery, so I had a few questions about you and your's:
1) I see that your's is a LFX14L2... that is what the Shorai website recommends when you enter in the bike information, but I've had an online retailer recommend a LFX07L2; the main difference electrically being that the 14L2 is a 14AH and 210 CCA, and the 07L2 is 7AH and 107CCA. Question is, if I'm going to be a kickstart only does it really matter what my AH/CCA rating is? (Considering that kickstart only technically shouldn't require a battery anyways, and the 07L2 is $50 cheaper). I've believe the stock battery was anywhere from 10-12AH.
2) What other electrical system changes have you considered when swapping to a lithium battery? i.e. regulater/rectifier change or upgrade?

Thanks, glad to be a participant instead of only an observer.

1. I'm not sure, I just went with what Shorai recommended. I'm going to be pissed off it's not got enough juice lol.

2. I've already replaced the regulator with a modern SH 775 one, basically when I'm finished there is going to be only one old electronic part left on the bike and that's the starter motor.

This months 'Practical Sportsbike' has a good write up on starter motors!