Dutchz Z1 road burner - new stuff

nice work dutchz, cracking looking bike!

Dutch ,
I just bought a used pair of the same shocks that you are using . Do you know what the spring rate on yours are ? Mine came from a flat track bike that probably weighs 200lbs than the GPz550 they are going on , so chances are that the springs will be too soft .

Your bike looks awesome

Thanks , Mike

Looking good Dutchz,
maybe drill and tap and fit button head allan screws to the bottom tree for adjustable steering stops
cheers

woops, didnt realize there were more pagers.sorry

hannah1 wrote:

Dutch ,
I just bought a used pair of the same shocks that you are using . Do you know what the spring rate on yours are ? Mine came from a flat track bike that probably weighs 200lbs than the GPz550 they are going on , so chances are that the springs will be too soft .

Your bike looks awesome

Thanks , Mike

Hey Mike,
I had to swap springs on mine too, the came off a Harley bagger so they were sprung too soft. The valving (damping)seems to be right on the money though, luckily.
I ended up getting 8.3/120 springs. That's taking into account 420lbs dry weight, 200lbs rider in full gear, and intended use. It's fairly stiff for uh... spirited riding. Any stiffer would have made it a pure track tool, and it's not. I'd recommend calling Works and talking to one of the techs (ask for Sandy, real nice and knowledgeable guy). Measure the spring thickness with calipers so he can determine the original spring rate and take it from there...
Good luck!

jimmybon wrote:

Looking good Dutchz,
maybe drill and tap and fit button head allan screws to the bottom tree for adjustable steering stops
cheers

You found the other pics already... Looks like a nice, clean solution too!

Good info , thanks .

The bike went untouched for about a year. I did a full motor rebuild, 1015 kit, Larry Cavanaugh head, cams, carbs last winter. I still had a few things I wanted to change/upgrade to get it where I want it: front end, front brakes, exhaust and some sort of half fairing. Trying to keep that 70s club racer look, so no Nissin four pots or upside down forks on this build.

This is how it looked before I tore into it (again):

I found an early police front end with beefier forks and clamps - 38mm and double pinch bolts. It's about an inch wider than the standard Z spacing which is good, because I am trying to cram some big dual piston calipers in there while still retaining the spoke wheels.

I cleaned up the top clamp for use with clip ons, installed race tech valve emulators in the forks.

Cleaned up the fork bottoms by removing the unneeded fender strut mounts.

Machined and additional groove at the top so I can put J-model dust boots on the forks. Don't like the look of fork gaiters that came on the police bikes (for this bike anyway).