The Kawazuki Project.

Just want to get a thread started for my upcoming project. A little background on the bike first. I bought my KZ900 in Feb '09 for 500 bucks. I had to dig it out of a barn out in buufuu Iowa but I didn't care because all I knew was that it was a KZ and it was bigger than my fathers KZ650. Got it home and got schooled on not only what it was but also why I'm an moron. She came home with me looking like this.





Over the next 5 months I poured every last penny I had into the bike in hopes of riding that year. Not knowing hardly anything about motorcycles I'm surprised that she got to a semi finished state that quick. A pic of the day I first rode her is below. Jul '09






I learned my bike quite well those first few weeks and even better after I lost my job (Sep '09). I prepped her for winter storage and waited for those spring days to arrive. Then the 2010 riding season had come around and after getting her back up and on the road she decided to test my patience over the year. First round came when my #4 exhaust valve head decided it no longer wanted to be one with the stem. Luckily I caught this within a few seconds but there was already damage done. So all new valves, gaskets, seals, rings, and a new piston was ordered and promptly put on the bike. she was fine for a month or two when after a short "I'll school you in the way of old bikes" drag with a new 600 GSXR decided to claim the sprocket cover. I can't really blame this on the bike as it was my fault since my pride got the best of me. But it did kill a huge chunk of the remaining season since I was still unemployed at this time. When I did manage to procure a new used one I was back on my merry way. Then in Oct '10 on my way back from a friends house I was traveling through a wooded area and as I was coming around a nice turn doing about 40mp/h my front end was met by a deer that was trying to get across the road. the bike went down and myself with it but no real damage was done except for a bruised leg and ego (I had never laid a bike down prior to this) and some broken turn signals and a nice dent in the tank. I was bandaged and the signals fixed but the riding season was pretty much done. The 2011 riding season really hasn't been a busy one as I've been plagued with petcock (giggity) issues and fear of a repeat of last year. Here is how she sits today.






In February I picked up a project 1993 Suzuki GSXR-600 for 600 bucks. I figured it would be nice to have a spare bike when something does go wrong with the KZ but as time has gone on the time and effort I planned to spend on the GSXR I find myself wanting to spend it on the KZ more. So the plan is to have the front end, swingarm, rearsets, and possibly carbs all swapped on to the KZ. It should be interesting to say the least and I look forward to pushing my fabrication skills to the limit.






A pic of the "Donor" bike

it looks like she cleaned up pretty good. sounds like you have a whole winter worth of work ahead of you, have fun take alot of pics and good luck.

The Gsxr front end should only take some conversion bearings that can be bought from AllBalls Racing. You'll need to figure out steering stops though.

Testarossa has done a similar swap for the rear on his bike. He used a '95 Gsxr750 but it should be the same setup as the '93 600.

Carbs won't work as the watercooler engines use different carb spacing than the Kz. If it was a oil cooler Gsxr then you could use the carbs.

Hope this helps you out a little.

Later, Doug

That Suzuki will make a good donor for the parts you need. Make sure to get lots of measurements on the pickup points of the rear suspension. You'll want to set it up on the KZ as close as you can to the same geometry as the GSXR. It's fortunate that you have the whole donor bike so that you can get those measurements. It should be fairly easy to replicate the mounting points for the rear shock. You'll just have to fabricate a new crossmember on your KZ frame.

If you need any ideas just click the link in my signature. It takes you to my build thread which is very similar to yours. I just uses a 1995 GSXR 750 as my donor which should share a lot with the 93 600. Good luck with your project.

welcome!

cool project,keep us posted.

leon