history on cal fab swingarm

For anyone thats interested, Chris Redpath, the owner of MotoGPwerks in Anaheim California bought the rights to Calfab a couple of years back, he has been producing "improved" Calfab swingarms and they are awesome, I have one myself. He is currently making a batch for the KZ1000S1. I have nothing to do with the business, i;m just a happy customer, I just like people that go out of their way to make trick parts for our old bikes. If there's enough interest I'll post pics when they are finished...

Yes, please post pictures.

GregZ wrote: I picked up a cal fab swingarm and must say it is a real piece of art. Perfect welds and looks like a million bucks.
I cannot find any information about the company. Just curious about the maker. Any info would be appriecated
thanks
gregz

Not only did you luck out in finding a Cal-Fab arm, you have a "replica" version - with the bracing. The only step up from that was the "replica" with eccentric axle adjusters - my buddy has one of those custom ordered with optional eccentric axle adjusters and multiple shock mount locations on his CB1100F. Even in '90, his bike had a 6.25" wide Astra-light rear wheel and 200/50 tire (a racing compound Michelin F1 intermediate rain tire), and the '86 vintage Cal Fab had room for an even wider tire than that!

donthekawguy wrote: My dad ordered a new one way back when He put it on his 81 GPZ1100. It should have been in a museum! I ran into a guy with a Honda something or other with one on it and it still looked good after all these years. I wish I had one but they are scarce thats for sure. I think if someone could copy it and keep the price under $300 they would sell a ton of them.

I should probably read the rest of this thread first but the Cal-Fab name has been purchased by Moto GP Werks in California. He builds high end Japanese vintage bikes. Many of them high end race bikes. A few of us here have his Yoshimura pipe. He has improved the design of the Cal-Fab swing arm in my opinion. They are now heat treated after they are built.

kano wrote: you can copies at www.kipkawa.co.uk


S1 swing arm allows use of 6" wide rear wheels for modern tyres . uses four bolt clamps and has quick adjuster feature , adjusts both side at the same time .

Nope. Down and out due to health issues. Closed as of July 2016. Bummer.

kaw-a-holic wrote:

donthekawguy wrote: My dad ordered a new one way back when He put it on his 81 GPZ1100. It should have been in a museum! I ran into a guy with a Honda something or other with one on it and it still looked good after all these years. I wish I had one but they are scarce thats for sure. I think if someone could copy it and keep the price under $300 they would sell a ton of them.

I should probably read the rest of this thread first but the Cal-Fab name has been purchased by Moto GP Werks in California. He builds high end Japanese vintage bikes. Many of them high end race bikes. A few of us here have his Yoshimura pipe. He has improved the design of the Cal-Fab swing arm in my opinion. They are now heat treated after they are built.

I posted this today ..

For anyone thats interested, Chris Redpath, the owner of MotoGPwerks in Anaheim California bought the rights to Calfab a couple of years back, he has been producing "improved" Calfab swingarms and they are awesome, I have one myself. He is currently making a batch for the KZ1000S1. I have nothing to do with the business, i;m just a happy customer, I just like people that go out of their way to make trick parts for our old bikes. If there's enough interest I'll post pics when they are finished...

For deep pocket types, check out [strike]CMA[/strike] - now Metmachex - swing arms in the U.K.

For bottomless pockets - A.C. Sanctuary / Nitro Racing in Japan...custom order only these days...

for all practical reasons - buy a used GSXR part from e-bay....

Or have one made, either bracing a stock arm, or to custom sizes.
Leon and others here are making them.

Here is a stock '79 kz650C3 arm I had someone brace.
Makes the bike much more stable over bumps at high speeds.

I prefer aluminum swingarms myself, here's one of mine, obviously not for a Kawasaki, this is one of the newer Calfab arms, the latest ones have a different swingarm mount?adjuster setup...

A couple of pics of the new Calfab S1 1000r swingarms currently being built at Motogpwerks.. These obviously aren't finished yet...

Hi I'm Chris ,
Just a one man shop ,currently I have 140 swingarms coming through the works not counting 17 bike builds that I need to pull finger on
Lucky I have a S1 at the shop so I did copy that swingarm and added a couple differ met things due to safety ...my Calfab swiinarm

s are the only ones (including Japan ) that at 2 stage heat treated and aged

S1 oil coolers,rear sets ,spondon race calipers also coming through the works

Nice work there dude - the beautiful craftsmanship and the engineering to back up the looks - I wish I had the cash right now - we'll have to talk when I do....

Damn, just realized what has happened here - I got into KZ's because it was getting far too expensive to trick out and modify my CBX's....yeah - that worked really well.... :silly: