KZ550 Cafe Retromod

I thought I'd post my project bike. My KZ550 is an 81 that I took down to the frame. If I could figure out how not to post upside down photos, that would be a plus.

Welcome.

Seems you figured it out.

Making the carbon fiber seat.

First I designed the seat in CAD and cut out the design out of MDF on a CNC router.

Then I prepared the MDF plug with a two part primer and buffed it to a mirror finish.

Then I made the mold out of fiberglass.

Then I made a quick part from the plug that will hold the seat foam and leather.

Now the really tricky part. I made the final carbon fiber part by vacuum resin infusion. I could not get the bag to seal after two days of trying. I didn't order enough .50 cent per yard vacuum bag (only got 1 yard) and finally I just said screw it and figured I'd see what would happen if I gave it a shot. The part infused PERFECTLY and the bag stayed sealed for 24 hours no problem. Definitely some kind of miracle.

Here's the part as it came out of the mold. It weighed almost nothing at this point. What is great about the resin infusion process is it only allows enough resin into the part to saturate the cloth leaving you with the lightest and strongest part possible. The carbon pattern got a little tweaked on one side but the point of the bike isn't perfection. A perfect part would look funny on this bike when its done. The leather seat will cover the curved part of the carbon fiber.

I then vacuum bagged some reinforcement layers on the inside. I used a coremat material and additional layers of carbon material. Two layers make up the surface then one layer of coremat where the seat will mount to the bike and where I will be sitting. Then I have a layer of heavy fiberglass material and then two more layers of 12oz carbon fiber. The part weighs maybe three pounds. I finish sanded it glass smooth and eventually it will be sprayed with a low gloss top coat.

Now I move on to mounting it on the bike, when its done the seat will be trimmed quiet a bit, it still looks a little bulky right now. Part of the design of the seat is to allow a simple box tube hoop to help retie in the rear of the frame and serve as a support for the seat. I don't want any external fasteners showing through the shell of the seat and I am working on mounting it now. I think I will use an epoxy to mount steel angle stock with locator pins welded in. The seat will lock down using an electric door striker like the kind at the front door of an apartment building. They use a 12vdc actuator which will tie into the microcontroler I am using to run the bike.

Wow, that is some amazing work!

Way cool, keep the pictures coming!