Freebyrd's 81 KZ1000 Build

Thanks for moving the thread!

Thank you Mark, I do remember seeing you do the same thing before. It's for my 1000 project, but 3 and 3/4 sounds like a pretty good place to be at. I think I had measured about 4"-4.125" on the clamping section on the handlebars, so I'll probably go with around 3 and 3/4". I'll double check it again though.

Since we are in the middle of getting another foot + of snow as I type this, time to order parts and do more research...

Now with the rear shock mounts on my newer swingarm. Before we had discussed the angle that the shock should sit at. Is this with no weight or load on the shock? Since the arm WAS mono shock and I am going to go dual shock, what should my angle be? The air assisted shocks I may use are the same eye to eye length as the stock KZ shocks. I'm not sure if in the future I will save up and get a real nice set of shocks, but for now, I think I will use the stock pogo sticks.

Since I am not a fabricator (I could ATTEMPT it), would the Z1enterprises shock mounts be my best solution? I see they sell a pair of aluminum mounts for $103. Should I have these welded up for security? I was debating trying to do some kind of thru-bolt system with them if I choose a different length shock in the future so I can adjust these and fine tune it. But I'm not sure if that is strong enough or ill advised.

Any and all comments and opinions welcome!

ideally u want to copy the same angle that the shock were on the original bike, with no weight. the shocks springs and damping are designed to work with a certain load. by changing the angle and contact points, u change the load. so if i change your shocks later u will have the same dilemma.
maybe u could weld a plate on the bottom of the Z1E mount,that extend front and back. then u could drill and bolt the plate to the arm , and move it later?
have u looked for ZRX shocks at ZRXOA.com ?
The type of shock is dependent on the type of riding u will do. if this will be a cruiser,it wont matter much, the closer u get to track riding, the more u will want better shocks.

Thanks for the response Mark!

I almost won a set of ZRX shocks the other day on ebay but they jumped way up at the end of the bid and I bowed out of that. I'd love to do track riding, but I don't even know where there are any tracks around me? I think they do some riding a couple hours away from me, but this is definitely not a bike that will see much if any track time. It may see the occasional drag strip (though rare).

I like the plate idea, I'll have to think about it and draw out a solution I think may work. I'll have to take some measurements.

I guess with this being mainly a street machine, shocks for the mean time will not matter too much. I'll stick the stockers back on for now. So if I am using the kz shocks, I should imitate the original angle the KZ had?

yes copy the kz shock angle. this should also put the swing arm at the right droop angle.
put the stock arm and shocks back on and measure the shock angle and the swingarm angle.
draw an imaginary line from the front drive sprocket center, backwards through the swingarm pivots, center, all the way back past the rear axle. the rear axle should end up below this line. that is what i will call the swingarm droop . if all 3 of these axis were lined up, the chain would be at its tightest point. as the rear axle deviates from this line, the chain will get loose.
if the swingarm droop is severe your chain will get very tight as the shock compresses to a zero droop angle.

if u copy the stock kz droop angle u can adjust the chain slack the same as a stock KZ.
i have longer ZRX shocks, so my arm droops down low. this caused me to use a chain support roller under the chain, so it would not rub on my zrx swingarms lower brace. also if i tighten my chain to 1 1/4" of slack, it will be too tight and stretch the chain excessively when the rear droop angle becomes zero.
does this make any sense?

I think I follow you Mark! Very good explanation!

IIRC the swingarm is just about the same length to the axle as the stock KZ one, so I should be able to copy the angle and positioning exactly, but I will verify this before solidly mounting it. It should be very very similar using the KZ shocks.

Hopefully using the stock shocks I won't have any clearance issues with the chain like you had. We will see! I should get some time this weekend in the garage to verify. Thanks!

So I finally got some time to do the handlebars and they came out awful. I drilled two holes about 3.75 inches apart and installed the clamps with the rubber dampers on each side like the picture in previous posts, and the handlebars are extremely loose. Lots of play especially forward to back in the mounts.

Mark, how did you get yours solid? Do I need to sleeve the holes? It's already a fairly tight fit sliding them in the holes, but it's very loose.

Any ideas?

Perhaps you're running out of threads before the clamp base gets tight? Do you have a washer between the clamp and the rubber, and one between the nut and the rubber? This will help capture and compress the rubber into/around your mounting hole.

I added some washers to get enough threads to clamp it down hard. Maybe I need even more washers, or some other type of solution? Take a look. Here's the top



Here's the bottom. Tough to see the way it mounts, but the rubber is on top and under and there are washers behind the rubber and before the nut



Let me know what you think... Thanks!

You definitely need more washers, or the bolt needs to be threaded back. Those rubber dampers need to be compressed.

I stopped tightening them because I hit a lot of resistance and didn't want to break anything, maybe I did bottom out the threads. It was about 15 degrees outside, and didn't want to investigate much longer that day.

Unfortunately I don't have the equipment to thread it up anymore. How would you do that anyway? I'm going to need a loooooot of washers then, that does make sense Josh about them needing to be compressed, I just didn't know how much. Hopefully I can get some time on it this weekend Sunday. Just never enough time.

If I use a ton of washers, it might look pretty silly, and will there be any issues with strength or stability with tons of washers? I'll have to brainstorm some more!

Thanks guys!

I guess that the risers are made for a bike with a significantly thicker top clamp. I don't think that there would be any issue with lots of washers other than appearance. If the bolt portion isn't hardened, then it could be threaded further back with a Die Nut. That would be the more sanitary way to do things. Find a machine shop who could thread it back and then remove a little bit of the excess bolt from the bottom if you don't have access to the tools yourself.