My first 440 "cafè'ish" build.

You could use one light for oil and neutral, but that would seem very confusing.

No no you silly goose, just One indicator lamp for both signals opposed to a stock KZs left and right arrows on the dash. Lol..
But thank you none the less Lou! You are a gentleman and a scholar! Might have to get a shipping addy from you and send you an indestructible fuel Tee between the carbs?

Last week on Thursday, went through my wiring again and found that my reg/rec was not grounded? Immediately I was like "sumbitch" no more interruptions when I'm wiring! So grounded that directly to the frame. Didn't even bother retesting everything that I've read all over the place, put everything back together and the bikes been great battery wise...till yesterday..
So the past week the bike has been running fantastic, been getting a lot of thumbs up from many people while riding or parked. Yesterday morn riding to work, I goofed and thought I had enough gas to actually get there. So ran outta gas on the freeway, and needed a jump? Thought I had my charging issue resolved. One test I did again was the volt check at idle then at (roughly 4-5k? No tach, and can't find my digi timing gun) anyways, at idle with a good charge, checked at the batt terms. volts are at 12.45-8, no electrical load other than the coil. When revved up and held, the volts actually drop? Dafuq?? Maybe around 35k the volts went as low as 12.38 still without load.
Did the test you mentioned above Lou, what I'm got was 12.22-60 from neg. post to white/red and 12.14-50 on the reg/recs signal(brown) ground on reg/c was .024? Hope this makes sense.

I really wanna start building my exhaust, and of course been adding to my list of things to change, move, add or redesign. But so far, this is really my only set back on the back. I'm impressed actually considering this is my 1st bike build....ever! BMX bikes don't count ;P
Oh and another thing, rear brake setup is working great. Over the weekend had to really stop fast, and the rear was up to the task.
Another thing I'm might give a shot since it's really easy to change on my setup is reversing(GP) the shift pattern? We shall see..off to work (which feels like the outside of a preheated oven with the door open) and more wiring tests..

I'm still here. long over due for an update. My excuse for being absent so long is that I've been enjoying riding my KZ the past 2.5 weeks after my "battery not charging" problem. Well that's a doh on my part in 2 areas. Firstly, I never really look for a "born on a date" on my battery and didn't even think about getting it's health checked since it started my bike fine for a little over a week (with a charge and a half) The half charge from having it set on high (forgot the amp.hr) for less than 30mins on one of the record high forecasted days in my neck of the woods that was pretty f@%# miserable. Tested even the effortlessly patients' patience. (is that right?) Long story short, got a new battery from my local dealer and now she runs great. only thing that bothers me is a super fast rattling noise that can even be heard on the freeway going on inside my headlight bucket. I even got the carbs dialed in to acceptable combustion usage pretty well.

Thought finally can move on and start fab'ing up the headers. But of course ran into another problem material wise cause didn't think to check that the factory pipes are dual layered? I've got 1.75" bend .049 wall for the start but been the stockies are 1.5/8id. I had the right diameter bend in stock in a tight radius, but gave it a try aesthetically anyways. I have a couple ideas I'll post later. So moved onto finding a muffler to buy. idk why I'm having such a hard time with how I want the muffler to look? I went through so many pages of google?! :dry: Well I remembered that I had some stock Harley pipes for consumption and started operation on one.


left side of pic is one of the mufflers guts minus the packing. right side is obvious. 3.5" can


Smallest and cutest catalytic convertor I've seen.

I've never actually built then used a muffler? Should be interesting.

Enjoyable pic..


Out on a ride..



ed

damn those welding goggles are cool.


i suspect the noise in your headlight is one of your gauges rattling itself to death. happened to me... twice.

I missed that post 3 weeks ago... been super busy lately... but not really getting anything done... how is that possible?
Anyway, bike looks great! Glad to hear you've been riding it and the rear brake is working flawless.

So are you getting close to 14v when revving it? I suppose you are if you're able to ride it around without issues.

Interesting looking mufflers. Do those 4 "wings" just keep it centered, or is there a baffle or something that attaches to them?

Oops :huh: . sorry Doc, the last pic was suppose to be one of me on the freeway that a friend took. Fat finger syndrome is to blame. On a side note, I was actually gonna post this to share with all the fellow fabricators on here. Bitchin goggles, Auto-darkening 5-11 and has an attachable facemask as to not get instant sunburns.


Lou, no worries, just glad there's more people that feel the same . Thought I was alone in that category. :whistle:
Yup, I'm getting my voltage, finally and exactly as thought about those fins. I actually added those in cause originally the stock baffling ran the whole length to keep it center.


ed

wire wheels look great i love mine ,they look so classic perfect for a cafe racer

pretty sweet looking welding goggles.
do they fit well?
i always hated the way old time goggles felt so front heavy like they were trying to roll off your face.and then crappy little straps that wouldn't hold em on anyways.
i am still welding with an old jackson hood with a tinted lens.
i have auto darkening hoods but got tired of messing with them.
i had them act up and flash me a couple times(prolly low battery).
and just haven't revisited them .
i have seen some guys using the speedglass hoods and thought i would like to try one but the price of admission is a bit hard to swallow.
the ones you posted tho seem reasonable enough .
i wonder how well glasses fit under them???

leon

531blackbanshee wrote: pretty sweet looking welding goggles.
do they fit well?
i always hated the way old time goggles felt so front heavy like they were trying to roll off your face.and then crappy little straps that wouldn't hold em on anyways.
i am still welding with an old jackson hood with a tinted lens.
i have auto darkening hoods but got tired of messing with them.
i had them act up and flash me a couple times(prolly low battery).
and just haven't revisited them .
i have seen some guys using the speedglass hoods and thought i would like to try one but the price of admission is a bit hard to swallow.
the ones you posted tho seem reasonable enough .
i wonder how well glasses fit under them???

leon

I know exactly what you mean with the pricey speedglass hoods..smh. I sent my 9000 across the shop cause I couldn't get my face anywhere near where I needed to weld while doing an exhaust on this rock crawler late last year. I mean it did its job and dimmed, but I just couldn't fit my head, hood and torch all at the same time. So for the price of one speedglass, I got the Sevoré goggles and a savephace (same place that does paintball masks) AD hood.
The goggles actually fit pretty well. There's enough space between the goggles and your face for the small Rx focals.


and they look nice with face mask attachment also.


The only thing that I don't like when using them is (even though it's vented well enough) they occasionally fog up when I have them on too long. Physically the headband attaching hinges seem fragile as fuck!? and so far I haven't came up with any creative way to make it stronger.

Oh I was suppose to put some pics up of my clip ons disassembled...soooo here's how it works.


another angle..


notice the 2 little ball bearings that sandwich between both pieces and lock into place to the correspondings holes.


ed

very trick adjustable clip on mounts there sir! :evil:

thanks for the info on the goggles as well.

leon

531blackbanshee wrote: i am still welding with an old jackson hood with a tinted lens.
i have auto darkening hoods but got tired of messing with them.
i had them act up and flash me a couple times(prolly low battery).
and just haven't revisited them .

The guy that taught me to weld only uses a tinted lens, no autodark. He used to work for one of the top exotic welding specialists in the area so he def know his shit.

[/quote]The guy that taught me to weld only uses a tinted lens, no autodark. He used to work for one of the top exotic welding specialists in the area so he def know his shit.[/quote]

Used the tinted hoods when I was doing collision repair. I remember tacking some rust repair on an old 240z (love those cars!) I had when I was still a cocky teen, it was bright as hell outside and I thought I could do things a lil faster by not using the hood to tack since it took so long for my eyes to adjust from bright sun to hood down, let my eyes adjust, tack. So instead I did the "hold the gun where I needed a tack, shut my eyes and look away :whistle: NEVER again..flash burn is not cool. So past 12 years or so, been spoiled using auto hoods and have a good stock of cr2025 and 2045 batteries when either one flickers.

Back on topic..much needed update. Bike is running fantastic so far, I think I dodge a few bullets with my carbs and pods? Did a lot of plug chopping, I'm definitely not sizzlelean or thick sooty carbon rich. judging by the NGK plug color chart I have and the almighty google, I'd say on the rich side of normal. I also haven't had any back stabbing electrical problems the past 3 weeks. One little issue I had was a vibrating headlight. Thought I fixed it, but it came back with a vengeance! So swapped out the stock bucket and hl for a 7" H4 I had. The night after that swap, low beam goes out..smh. Thought the 7" looked too big anyways . Took apart the stock one and noticed not much plastic left for a bushing in both pivot joints. Used a rubber grommet(ones to make holes in firewalls safe)on both holes...omfg! it's so peaceful now! I swear i almost wanted to cry on the freeway..hahaha! but now.... I can hear shit, like my chain is rubbing either on top close to the pivot of the swing arm or the foot of the center stand or maybe both? I'll see in the morn.
Other than that, I have no regrets of how much I've spent yet alone the time I invested into this project, my very first motorcycle build, I'm lovin my KZ and the thumbs up I get on the freeway and compliments at stops. Best part is that I'm not even done with the bike yet!? I think my red springs are hypnotizing? lol..Couple nights ago decided to take a super scenic route home. Half way through, 2 crotch rockets and a converted DRZ zoom pass me. I was 10 over the posted limit. I'm sure 2 of the 3 riders were novices, since I was able to safely stay behind one of the riders R6. The supermoto must've been the experienced rider cause he was parked in the shopping center lot eating a burrito. they didn't believe me when I said it was a 440.
Late night..


Front..I gotta remember to take the side reflectors off before taking pics...lol


Some header stuff going on..


decided to do a single..so here's the merge I made..


ed

Those clip ons and that merge are very clean!!! Jealous of your machine skills, mucho custom parts!!!!

I sent you a PM....

This is my favorite build log, keep us updated! I got lucky with my carbs and pods too, except for the leaky fuel rail....

Chris