'79 Kz650 Project

Played with the wiring a little today.

Started cleaning that stock rats nest up.
Getting rid of:
entire headlight/turn signal/horn assembly
turn signals
speedo. Going to run tach only
relocating ignition
only warning lights I will be keeping - neutral and oil

Put my drag bars on today and I am going to need to either shorten or re-route both throttle cables, and the front brake line as they stick way out due to being too long.

Any ideas? I was thinking about re-routing the throttle cables on the left hand side, then back under the downtube to the carbs. But if there is an easy way to shorten them then I would prefer to do that and keep them on the right side.

And I guess I could always get a shorter universal banjo front brake line, I have it routed like an S right now and it's fine, just doesn't look great.

Z1enterprises sells throttle cables that are 3" shorter, off a kz1000 of some sort.
Not sure if 3" would be enough though.

Thanks, I found them. They are 3.5 in shorter. I'm going to order a set next week. Hopefully I will be able to take the bike on a test ride this weekend.

I went to mount my 18" 650B rear wheel with the new hub and I was hoping the hub sleeves were the same, but I guess not. Does anyone sell these, or should I look for a used set? I was also hoping my hub would come with them if needed.

Going to finish wiring tomorrow night, move the 2 seat bars down 1 -1/2 inches and slant them to recreate the triangle. Add a few gussets, then take it out for a spin on Saturday if all goes well.

Then tear back down, paint/powdercoat, and finish it.

Back on the ground. Exhaust cut and mounted. Need to sandblast the chrome off, get it coated in high temp black, and wrap the headers. I wasn't going to use this, but it sounds amazing and doesn't look half bad...

Cutting my tank up this weekend. The plan is to narrow and shorten it a little.

Frame is finished finally. Some minor sanding and prep for paint. Need to finish the wiring, but waiting on some parts before I can. Then I'm going to strip it back down and paint everything.

i dont think them shocks will help much

gengomerpyle wrote: i dont think them shocks will help much

Flexible Flyer :laugh: Especially with no lateral rigidity running between the 2 upper shock mounts; what keeps the geometry from spreading? :dry:

Actually, "them" shocks set anywhere from mid to firm and the bike rides the same, if not better than stock. Reason being the shocks are still mounted on the same arch, just lower, and the only difference in geometry is the swingarm, which had considerably less affect than most who drop the front and take the stock rake out.

What keeps the gemoetry from spreading? Well even before I lowered the upper bars, with 200+lbs on the bike it moved less than 1/8 of an inch (forward movement, not lateral). That's without ANY support to the mounts. What makes you think lateral support is needed? Think about it, where is force being exerted? Sideways? Nope. Will I probably guesset them anyway, yeah. Do I have to? No. You can't deform a triangle without physically changing the length of one of it's sides. Basic geometry. If it fell off a truck or trailer then maybe, but it would first have to destroy the lower mount allowing the shock to have lateral movement (which it has maybe 1/16 when bolted down). After the handlebars, tank, and rearsets take most of the damage. That being said, my new battery and box will act as lateral bracing.

I've been designing hotrod suspension for some time now, and even though this was my first bike build it is the same concept.

Picked up a new plasma today, going to finish my tank soon. Have a few others to test out meanwhile. Have way too many projects taking up my time, and work unfortunately. I hope to have it completely done in the next few weeks.