650 Cafe Project

Everything I am seeing says the 550 is 9" at the pivot bolt and slides right in place. The 750 is just a bit bigger and needs different pivot bolts.

The seat is going to go with the wire frame all together. Since I just got my seat this will be out the door soon. I will let you know.

Finished grinding, cleaned up all the unnecessary tabs, mounts, etc...

I started with this:



Then I ended with this:



So that this would fit right:



Fits like a glove. I have to weld up a few points and weld a battery tray for under the hump in the seat. Because I cut the rear of my frame to fit the seat, I need to extend something out so the tray just doesn't hang out in the air and I need a place to mount my license plate.

Then powder coat. Its getting closer. This was a big step for me with the frame clean up. I only have a few free hours a week where I can make a lot of noise. The welding is going to be loud too but I am starting to have other things I can do.

Lookin good. I like the new seat. I would make a hoop and weld that onto the end of the frame. Make it follow the curve of the seat. It would provide rigidity to the frame and give you something to mount the battery tray on. Heres a pic of how I did mine.

Thompson,

I really like what you did. That pan drops out, right? Did you ever thing about doing hinges instead of pins so it rockers down?

I think I am going to do something similar but keep it mounted to the frame. I am going to go with a 3 point mount with the seat - 1 in the front and 2 along the back side of the frame and just screw them in. Weld up a nut in place on the inside to make it easy.

So its been a while. No pictures right now but I got the frame cleaned up, cut the steering lock mount off and filled it. Started to learn welding. Started to understand that there have to be easier ways to learn to weld than an inside weld on round tubing for a first weld, filling a hole for a second weld and totally screwing up the third weld.

I decided to have my fork seals replaced instead of doing it myself - I don't have the tools and since I'm not going to be doing it often the cost for tools didn't seem like a good investment. I guess its a good thing I did it this way as the prior owner put in one seal with a screwdriver and totally screwed everything up.

I don't have a way to bend tubing for my rear section, so I think that is going to get done also. I have about 4 welding points that need to get done that are structural and I am going to have that taken care of as well - I don't want to screw up that stuff when it is way beyond my ability. Fork Stops, a nick in my frame from excessive grinding, the rear seat section, and the exhaust mount.

I got clip-ons instead of the clubmans and just ordered a fender to fit with my forks. That fender is going to get cut up into little bits because it is so ugly and bulky.

Now I just need to find a way to make the seat mount onto the frame. I'm thinking about drilling holes through and tack welding nuts to the inside of the frame at 3 points. Any ideas?

sroberts152 wrote:

Now I just need to find a way to make the seat mount onto the frame. I'm thinking about drilling holes through and tack welding nuts to the inside of the frame at 3 points. Any ideas?

That's what I did on mine. Right behind the tank, I welded a flat strap across the frame with a weld nut in it. In the rear I put a tab with a weld nut under the bubble. Cool project!

whats next? eagerly waiting for progress.

Its been slow going for me. Just got my forks back, threw them on, put on my clip ons and my ugly stock ZX-6 fender to see how it looks.

I am going to cut the front fender down to something smaller and narrower, probably, right along the ridges - it has a nice metal bracket support. It was either this or for brace and no fender and the cost was $40 for this and $200 for the brace.

Clip-ons are Vortex. I like them a lot.

The clip-ons look great...can you turn the forks full range without them hitting the tank?

I like the fender too...

Actually, the forks hit the tank right now - not the clip ons. I have to set up the fork stops now. I have plenty of clearance with the clip ons.

I had some time last night to play around with color. I sprayed the top of the triple and a few bolts with satin black just to see how it looks.

Before:


Drying:


Bolts... went from almost a green hue:

I did notice this last night... the forks I picked up were off a 90-93 ZX6. They have 2 steering lock nuts on the top here. They seem to stick up awfully high out of the neck. When I put the top triple on, there is a pretty big gap there. Is this normal? Is this going to cause issue?



Once the parts dry I will try to get a picture.