Doctorot's '78 KZ1000 build

Got some good progress in this weekend. Forks painted and rebuilt with new seals and bushings. I broke down and bought the motion pro seal installer; its a super nice tool, no regrets. Rear brake is bled. brake front brake setup is nearly complete just waiting on a hose. carbs back on; cables and fuel lines finalized. exhaust massaged and back on. I got some repop switches for a kz900 as mine were completely worn out. Folding foot-pegs on. With the moveable brake lever there is plenty of clearance for the kick stater but I will likely bend the kicker for a little more room. Something about kick starting 100+hp excites me.... in a sexual way. hahaha. Still lots to do but its getting close. Hope to start it up by the end of the month.

great progress,the caliper mounting bracket pocketing looks really nice.

leon

I tackled the cluster wiring tonight. I have been dreading dealing with this, bunch of fiddly stuff. The gauge glass is now sealed with silicon to keep water out. The covers have a small hole drilled in the bottom so water can escape if it does get in there some how. I'm quite pleased with how sanitary it is looking. wiring is not my forte.

Where did you get the gauges?
Steve

Gauges by Speedhut, with custom faces. they are very light.

sanitary indeed !

leon

I bought these CRG bar-end mirrors years ago. I never liked the look of bar end mirrors... but these are convex glass and very nice; so I made some stems from scratch. The Brembo MC and clutch perch had a M10x1.25 left hand thread which is damn hard to come by in the US so I drilled and tapped them for 7/16"-20 but I needed a lock nut and anything off the shelf looked too big so I got OCD and made some locknuts from scratch out of SS304. These may be the only 7/16"-20 nuts with a 14mm wrench in the world. I also made some small locknuts for the upper part where the mirror connects, but for those I used some 304 hex stock I had laying around. I used silicon bronze to join everything together because its all different metals and figure it will help with stress cracking. Pretty happy with how they turned out, a lot of time in something most people will think I bought

.........and that would be the best compliment.....to have something you build that looks like factory issue.
They really look good....nice proportions and simple......just right IMHO

Lots of small things have been finished,including all the wiring in the front. Two things of note; One, I made some spools for the rear stand after knocking the bike off the stand. Luckily it fell into me and no damage was done but it damn near gave me a heart attack. With the spools and the stand it is VERY sturdy and cannot slip off as it did before. Two, I wasn't happy with the foot of the kickstand I made so I cut it off and remade it, the shoulder bolt also took some machining to get the spring to clear it. I made the stainless ball from scratch on the lathe for a throwback to the original kickstand. I think I might still need to add a tang on it to make it easier to kick out.

The only things left are:
Replace a few bolts with ARP to match
install clutch cable
install left footpeg/linkage
finish wiring.

6 YEARS LATER AND ITS ALMOST DONE

Wow!
Almost makes me embarrassed to admit that I own a wrench. Beautiful work, sir.

Nice work on the lock nuts and mirrors. When you have access to a CNC set-up the details start to get easy to improve. Making your own hardware is fun!