Z650 / 1170 Project

Bought a fibreglass replica of a BMW R90S cockpit fairing, seems to fit the front end ok, without the need to modify the fairing. Still got to make its mounts, along with completing the mounts for the 7 inch Z1 headlight. Wasn't sure how it would look on a Zed, but looks ok. My mate said it reminded him of bikes in the first Mad Max film..

meanwhile made the undertray and rear splash guard in stainless plate, just before the frame went off to be powder coated. Which has now been done, just not had chance to go collect it yet.

Took awhile but finally got the correct inlet manifolds to fit the Mikuni RS34 carbs, along with a Dyna S ignition. The frame is away being powder coated, so when its back, the engine can go in the frame and the final assembly can begin.

 

thats some good looking stuff. cant wait to see it complete.

wrote:

thats some good looking stuff. cant wait to see it complete.

Me too !

Finally got the Gpz1170 engine in the Z650 frame, though it put up a fight. We had to remove the sump and cut back a tab that had been added to mount the Z1 side panel. The latter being done after the engine had gone off to be rebuilt. There's enough left of the tab that I can drill and mount a replacement for the piece we had to hacksaw off. Thankfully it behind the side panel so will be hidden from view. Note that the front rubber engine mount has been replaced with a solid mount, using top hat spacers.

 

Got the fibreglass seat base upholstered locally, turned out well..

Finally got the engine/frame back home today, so started to test fit parts, to see how it all looks.. when I hit another unexpected problem, this time the lovely upholstered seat - with its fibreglass base which was made on the frame - doesn't fit on the frame anymore, not by a little, but by a lot. Took a few seconds before I realised what had happened.. it'll have to go back to the upholsterer to be completely redone. My fault, as I'd made an assumption, which wasn't the case.

Can you guess why the seat wouldn't fit the frame??





 

Decided to rebuild the bolt up rear wheel, with new fasteners, only to find the cap head bolts holding the hubs in place wouldn't fit.. sigh. turns out the old cap heads had been machined to fit snugly into the recesses made for them in the hub. So had to machine all 12 bolts the same way. Its done now.

Meanwhile mounted the Dyna coils, once I'd made 4 stand off spacers. They are very close to the cam cover, but can reduce the spacers by a couple of mm to gain a tiny bit more clearance. Not sure if that's still going too be too close to the engine..

Pre covid we made a one off swing arm spindle for the bike, which has gone missing, cant find it anywhere, and boy I have searched high and low for it. Oh well, lets make another. Still had a length of EN24T 20mm bar, so passed it through the frame to see where I need to cut it to length.

Only to dismayed to find another problem. The bar, which is straight, wouldn't pass through the second swingarm mounting hole in the frame. Looks like the frame is slightly twisted!!

No idea how this could be, as it was straight before it went off to be powder coated. Not that it matters, as now I need to find a solution, hopefully without fully stripping the bike down and putting back on a frame jig... never had a bike give me so many problems...

Meanwhile, I carried on with the build and tried not to worry about the frame.

Fitted the stainless under tray and splash guard, the latter may need to be cut back a bit, once I know the upper chain run.

Plan A to fix the swing arm pivot on the frame failed. Used a length of 20mm steel bar and a big hammer to tweak the frame straight. Had zero effect on the frame.. we did a good job on bracing it.

But we did manage to bend the 20mm steel bar 

Plan B was attempted today with success. I used a 20mm flap wheel in my hand drill to carefully alter one of the pivot holes to allow the spindle to line up. Took over an hour of slow work and careful checking, but it worked and the spindle is still a good fit in the frame. 

Got confirmation today that the exhaust I ordered will arrive on Monday, never seen one in real life, only in pics, so hope I like it on the bike.

The Delkavic black ceramic 4-1 exhaust system I ordered ages ago finally arrived. Was probably stuck in the Suez canal for a few weeks.

Looks really nice, but cant fit it yet as the bike is still sitting on its sump.

Front forks from a R6 were ok, but have gone off to be rebuilt with new seals, and the fork lowers are to be powder coated satin black.

Finally got around to making up the dyna ignition leads, bit tricky as there isn't much room between the coils and the cam cover, but got there in the end.

Decided the billet yokes would look better black rather than polished. Took a lot of work to do, as had to round off all the sharp edges of the yokes before they could be etched primed and painted. Because paint doesn't like sharp edges, it tends to chip and flake otherwise.

Finally got the home made wheels finished, and the fronts R6 discs mounted. Cant fit them yet as the forks have gone off to be rebuilt and the lowers powder coated.