KZ650 CSR modifications anyone?

Hi, I've been looking through the posts and noticed that there weren't much people who were modifying kz650 CSRs. I noticed lot of people were modifying late 70s 650 and up.
My goal was to eventually convert my '81 KZ650 CSR in to a Cafe racer but I don't see much people doing it. Is is harder to convert it to a cafe racer? Am I going to have a hard time finding part to swap?

If there are some people who have modified their CSRs can you tell me what you did and what parts you swapped it with. Thanks

Anybody have a CSR that's been turned into a cafe racer?

I've seen a few, maybe even LTDs that were converted to Cafe styled bikes. Just not as popular it seems.

I'm working on a csr cafe conversion at the moment. The CSR being limited production and crusier-esque is why I think most people don't cafe it.

FRom what I've seen so far here are my thoughts:

-The CSR Front end is raked out a little more with longer forks. This makes it look cruiser ish. This is good and bad. The original thruxton had same rake numbers and due to this when fitting shorter conventional forks like off a 77 kz560 it gives it a more aggressive lower stance. Downside is to get that look you need to swap out forks, brakes, wheel, speedo sensor, etc. But once done it looks great.

-Traditional cafe racers have a straight backbone frame, the CSR drops at least two inches at the seat unit. This makes getting the cafe racer straight line seat/tank look hard. I plan on getting a different tank and then modifying the CSR seat pan. I have a very good upholsterer friend.

-The CSR tank just plain sucks. Its ugly and small. And it doesn't cover the neck area at all. If you want to get a true cafe look you are going to have to modify a different tank and probably the frame also. I'm looking at using a yami xs tank.

-The CSR seat pan kinda also sucks as its shaped very cruiser-esque. Plan on modifying this for a cafe racer

-The CSR has a rear drum, personally I put this in the plus column as cafe racers look better with rear drum in my opinion.

-CSR has spoke wheels, proper cafe racers should have spokes. Hands down.

-CSR doesn't have a kick start, I wish it did as I like the look.

End of day the CSR may not be the easiest to cafe, but if you are planning on fabbing stuff and get a CSR cheap as I did, why not. Also most parts can be had cheap for other year kz's and you can always sell what you take off the CSR. As with any build it has to do with your skill and amount of work you want to do, nothing good is ever easy.

Hi thanks for the info. I want to eventually build a cafe racer. It would be awesome to own a classic racer.

I was doing some research and found that lots of people were using GSX-R parts to fit their bikes. However their bikes were not CSRs but late '70 kz750. I was wondering if the GSX-R parts would fit my '81 Kz650 CSR. If not what year KZ models or other bike parts would fit. I want to make my bike look similar to this

www.airtech-streamlining.com/kawiz/H1H21969-76.htm

Do you think it's possible? Even thought the backbone drops a bit?

Hey Muddy, do you have any pictures of your project?

No pics as of yet as I'm pretty early in the process. I have swapped the front end so far, next phase is working on a headlight and the front end wiring.

What Gixxer parts are you looking at using?

Also the airtech photo is a kawasaki triple, which is a totally diffrent frame from a kz/CSR. To get that straight across look from tank to seat you would have to cut the rear frame rails and weld something in. I'm planning to use a different tank and then modify the seat pan to look more straight than teh CSR stock pan. The tanks I'm looking at will hopefully hang over the rails a bit further also.

Anything can be done with a little imagination and work. But it may not look exactly like the airtech bike.

Shoot me your eamil, I have some pics of cafe racers using a CSR style frame somewhere.

Post edited by: Muddy, at: 2007/05/02 07:53

Check out dropdfocus' kz550ltd cafe here: Cafe'd 550

Hey I checked out dropdfocus' ride. Looks pretty good. Are the ltd frames the same as the CSR?

Also Muddy, I don't what GSX parts fit my bike. I don't know any bike that fits my bike. What other model bikes parts are interchangable with my CSR?

IT depends on what you are looking for. My front end swap was pretty much plug and play. I just won a cafe style cb750 tank off ebay last night, but thats gonna be a lot more work, I'm gonna have to at least weld new brackets on it.

Bare min for cafe, you could lower the front a bit, slap on clubman bars, re-style the seat a bit and call it a day.

What do you want to swap off the bike?

del

I guess the CSR's aren't modified much since they are best kept original, well I will only say that for my SR, which I hope stays the way it's always been, original

If you are interested in updating your suspension bits, you need to find a machinist. You can adapt your triple tree stem to the triples of many other bikes. You just need to machine sleeves, etc.

As for the back end, the same goes. It just depends on how much $$$ you want to spend and how much work you want to put into it. An easy swap would be the aluminum swingarm from the suzuki GS series from the early 80s.