'78 KZ1000 makeover

testarossa wrote:

How thick is that neck gusset plate stock?

16 gauge

This is what the race shop did to my frame back in 79.
notice the plate on the inside of the neck. it ties both legs together nicely . The guys who built this bike, competed against all of the big guys,Cooley and Freddy.

This is a neck from a Lange Hindle bike.
They didn't use much bracing back then.
but the circumstances were dif. they HAD to keep them light, and they were NOT afraid of a little flex.
He still got on the podium with it.

Mark, I cut the 1" tube at 3/4" long because I was too lazy to do it by hand, and if I cut it any shorter with my chop saw, the blade skews off and I dont get a vertical cut. Thats cute work from the race shop, I like the speed holes! I wasn't planning on adding to the existing front down tube sheet gusseting like the shop did to yours, and I'm still contemplating the extra neck to front cradle braces.

I'm sure what ever u do will be an improvement.

Here's a few of my frame for ideas / comparisons. This was also done back in the late 70's or early 80's by a professional racing shop. I noticed a huge difference from my other KZ 1000's with stock frames.

Thanks for the frame pics 79MKII. It looks like I'll have all the bracing your pro job has, in one degree or another. I wonder if there will be an appreciable difference between using round tubing versus plate steel like your frame. I'm working on the mid top tube cross braces today

that top neck pick is of interest to me ,as i was just hugging that spot for few hrs yesterday ,and was thinking about adding jmodel type vert bars ..your plates set up is strong in my mind and the cut outs for coils make sense too...some coils are a booger to get in a normal frame ...what with wires and connections all so tight..did you have to wallow those cuts out over the years???


79MKII wrote:

Here's a few of my frame for ideas / comparisons. This was also done back in the late 70's or early 80's by a professional racing shop. I noticed a huge difference from my other KZ 1000's with stock frames.

I've seen a lot of bracing with plate over the years but I think the tubing might be more widely used. Not sure on strength really. Maybe tubing is stronger?? I think as long as you have something rigid in the right places you're good to go.

I actually cut those coil holes about 10 years ago. I had a modded bracket that mounted the coils right below the the original location and just above the cam cover. I had to remove the coils to remove the valve cover to adjust the valves and I got tired of that. I think there's plenty of meat left to make a strong brace. And yes, I've had to adjust them from time to time. I got new coils on this last rebuild and had a rough time. I bought new Dynas and even with special adapters to orient them differently, the plug wire connections at the coil just wouldn't fit. I originally had Andrews coils so I searched high and low and found an NOS pair on eBay that fit nicely. Here's what it looks like with coils mounted:

and here are the dynas - you can see where the tower connections end up - the plug wires put on quite a fireworks display when they're all crammed together like that!

one think that i had to do with my plates, was bang them in a bit. they rubbed on the tank. so keep that in mind.
Did i send u Tony Foale bracing stuff? there may even be a pic of a 750 frame he did in there. he did mention that the brace material did not need to be as heavy as the bikes.
the frame rails are made a particular size due to flex over there entire length(witch turned out to be a little light weight). when u add a brace u are just trying to shorten the original rails length , so to speak, by limiting its ability to flex.

mark1122 wrote:

1 think that i had to do with my plates, was bang them in a bit. they rubbed on the tank. so keep that in mind.
Did i send u Tony Foale bracing stuff? there may even be a pic of a 750 frame he did in there. he did mention that the brace material did not need to be as heavy as the bikes.
the frame rails are made a particular size due to flex over there entire length(witch turned out to be a little light weight). when u add a brace u are just trying to shorten the original rails length , so to speak, by limiting its ability to flex.

That's another good point. Mine clear the tank but didn't leave room for the coils. There's always something you forget to think about, but many times you don't realize it until you try to put it back together! :ohmy: