Another 81 GPZ. Losing the fat.

Your rear tire look larger than stock, are you running oversize, if so what size?

Ps. If you've got any more of those front Metzlers hanging around...

I used to use plexiglass a lot back when I made tack boxes for horse equipment. Something I did that you might consider for this project is to reverse paint the plexiglass. What I did was to paint the backside of the panels with auto paint. It works pretty slick because you can be a total hack with a spray gun and it will still look good. It is like having 1/8" of clearcoat on your paintjob. Just lightly wetsand the plexi to give the paint something to grab onto.

violentvintagecycles wrote:

Wow Lou, where do you live?? Im movin next door! Great lookin, cant wait to see the results!
Lou, I was told you would be the guy to ask, would you have a spare throttle assembly laying around? I have kz550a3, missing the starter button. Was wondering if you even had a spare start BUTTON, or horn button?

I still have a spare button I made on this old thread:[url=
kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...&catid=4#176638]Home made starter button[/url]

That thread has links on where to buy rplacement starter buttons too. Is it only the start button that is broken on the assembly? Then I would just rplace the button. If you want I could sell you the one I made, but I'm sure the other ones available are better.

oh, and Chicago.

JohNLA wrote:

What a great write up and very cool looking tail.
I know you plan on painting it but I must say the transparency is pretty wicked looking.:woohoo:

Any recomendations on what plastic to use for replacing the winshield? I have a heat gun so it is on my list of things to try.

Definitely polycarbonate AKA Lexan. Don't use acrylic. It will shatter if it gets hit with a rock. The Lexan will only scratch. Try your local home center, they should have sheets of the stuff in the windows and doors section. Plan on experimenting to get the knack. I bought acrylic to practice on since it's cheaper, but the final product should be Lexan. Also, I recommend mocking everything up in cardboard first.

Saki Jockey wrote:

Your rear tire look larger than stock, are you running oversize, if so what size?

Ps. If you've got any more of those front Metzlers hanging around...

I'll give you the front Metzler, heck I'll give you two of them, but they are old, worn, and starting to get tiny cracks. I am going to get a new Dunlop GT501 front before I do any serious riding.

I think the rear is close to stock but it looks bigger for some reason in the photos. It's probably the camera angle plus the wheels are painted black which creates an illusion.
I think it's supposed to take a 120-90-18". But I have other gpz550's with 130-80-18". The wider 130 slips less on acceleration, but is less stable than the narrow 120 in turns. I haven't decided which I like better, but the 130 does look cooler.

The Gringo wrote:

I used to use plexiglass a lot back when I made tack boxes for horse equipment. Something I did that you might consider for this project is to reverse paint the plexiglass. What I did was to paint the backside of the panels with auto paint. It works pretty slick because you can be a total hack with a spray gun and it will still look good. It is like having 1/8" of clearcoat on your paintjob. Just lightly wetsand the plexi to give the paint something to grab onto.

Yeah I played with that idea on an acrylic test piece. It looked very cool. I didn't even sand the acrylic and I could not scratch the paint off. I purposely shattered the acrylic to see if any paint would flake off. Not a single flake of paint came off. The paint was about 1 week old at the time. I wonder if would have flaked off after hardening for a few years.

I haven't painted the Lexan yet, but that backside idea is out of the question. The Lexan, being much softer, scuffed a lot during the fabrication. It actually has a light imprint of wood from the bender, so it has to be sanded. I'm going to leave it clear for awhile just for the novelty. I'm thinking of putting a green fluorecscent lighting tube in the tail to light it up.

Here's a shot showing the brake reservoir bracket.

Here's a shot with the tail and seat assembled, but not painted yet.
(Kz400 in the background. Will post a thread on that later.)

and here's all of the electronics stuffed under the seat. I really had to work to retain the hinge-ability using the stock latch and prop-rod. I used the battery box mount as the hinge mount. This allowed me to make the seat about 2 inches narrower. The seat is supported in six locations. I wired the whole bike in about 3 hours so it looks a little messy. But with the seat down, everything is out of sight.

The black capacitor is a spare in case the blue one blows up. I have two fuse holders tucked in there as well. 20 amp main and a 5 amp just for the capacitor in case it shorts out. I also have a detector to tell if the capcitor stops capacitating, but it isn't mounted yet. The small black block is the ignitor.

Those indoor shots suck. I'll reshoot them outside when I get a chance. Plus my buddies KZ400 in the background needs some major cleaning.

I really admire your work, Lou. You're an inspiration for a lot of us out here in KZ Land...

Thanks a lot Justin!