Phoenix reborn.

This will not be a full build. Im simply going to take over where Jon (Kaw-a-holic) the original builder left off and style it to the bike that i want from the ashes of the last. This bike has been reborn more than a few times now and its rebuild before this is one of KZRs best and its all here if you haven't had a chance to take a look.
www.kzrider.com/forum/11-projects/592092-phoenix-fighter
It was a real journey for both Jon and the bike and unfortunately ended in the bike being dropped and for personal reasons Jon need to sell it on. Well 5 months in covid times later it arrived in rainy Galway about a year ago. Iv been tipping away on her for the last year, in between other projects in my life and a full time job. I was going to do a full crank up build but i just want to have her on the road for this summer, if only for 1 summer before it goes back for a full rebuild. I don't want this to seem like in second guessing anything that Jon did, im just tailoring the bike to me and the roads that it will be riding on. Here she is as she landed in my back yard a year ago.

This is a sneak peek of her now but ill be jumping back a bit to start the build.
 

As I remember it Jon was looking at extenders or longer forks before he "high sided" trying to avoid hitting his buddy that stopped in front of him. Looks to me the front end is too low causing all the weight to be on the front tire in a panic stop. 
Steve

100% mate, with the exhaust that was fitted the ground clearance was under 10cm, im looking for the forks off a Gsxr1100 93/94 they are 775mm from top to axle or the same forks for the 95 on that are 765mm, both are hens teeth right now but im always looking, the 93/94 would be ideal. A fair few on the ebay but on close inspection they are from the 91/95 that is 730mm and thats whats on the bike right now.

The extenders would help slow the steering down and lowering the shocks could level out the bike closer to stock. Did he hit the collector?
Steve

No thank the gods... its a beautiful exhaust...so its all good, not sure what the reason was the pre tension was dialled out a bit so maybe they bottomed out. It was at a low enough speed otherwise the damage to him and the bike would have been way worse. To be honest the front and back set up will be only for this year, ill swap it all for a different running gear in the winter, the exhaust ill be running will be a bit more forgiving than the one that was on it. I have 16cm of clearance now and the shocks preload is a lot more ridged.

First thing that needed to be sorted was the body work. The tank and tail took a bang and Jon kept the side covers but i got aftermarket replacements, the one promise i made to Jon was that the bike stayed blue in some form or another.

I wouldn't put all the blame on the suspension for the accident, not slagging the old owner but I've seen some really stupid accidents where friends out on a ride have run into each other. If he high sided he probably locked the rear and slid sideways . I've had someone ride into me as well, I used to like riding up front, but I consider myself better than most on the brakes, not trying to blow my own horn here, and because of this, I don't trust ANYONE riding close behind me. Almost 100% of the weight SHOULD be on the front wheel under hard braking, if its not, you're in trouble, I use about 90% front and 10% rear brakes when stopping hard, sometimes no rear at all, I let the down changes slow the rear, because all the load/weight is shifting forward and taking weight of the rear wheel, locking the rear isn't going to stop you as fast as having traction, that's a fact.
I'd be more concerned with the triple clamp offset first, It looks like he put a complete front end on that bike, so the offset will be around 35mm, increasing trail, which slows steering, it has a 17 inch front wheel which quickens steering response, so you get two different forces working against each other, the trail wants the bike to be stable and hold a straight line well, and the smaller front wheel wants to turn in faster... I'd be using a rake and trail calculator before doing anything to work out fork height, rake angle and triple clamp offset. It can be a bit to get your head around but its worth it in the end.... When working with the front, you can start with suspension height, once you've decided on that, work out, with a digital angle meter, what the rake is sitting at, work out your front tire diameter then feed that info into a trail calculator to find out your offset and trail, make adjustments to offset in the calculator until you get the desired trail numbers, you want somewhere around 100mm of trail, that should work well with the 17 inch wheels.

There's a guy in Australia that sells kits for  lengthening upside down forks....

www.extremecreations.com.au/fork-extensions


 

Yes iv seen his work, in fact I was going to message him about the gsxr 1000 extension for my bandit 1200, what his lead time is etc.. unfortunately he doesn’t do the gsxr1100 but I have a machinist that would for me, i would do it my self but it’s outside of my pay grade right now, maybe in a year or so. im in the middle of drawing up a few numbers on rake and trail if you don’t mind looking at them in the next few days if you have time mate?

wrote:

Yes iv seen his work, in fact I was going to message him about the gsxr 1000 extension for my bandit 1200, what his lead time is etc.. unfortunately he doesn’t do the gsxr1100 but I have a machinist that would for me, i would do it my self but it’s outside of my pay grade right now, maybe in a year or so. im in the middle of drawing up a few numbers on rake and trail if you don’t mind looking at them in the next few days if you have time mate?

I've completely changed track from calculating my suspension , I'll have a look and refresh my memory, Its pretty easy, just have to do it again. Give me  front wheel diameter with tyre on, Avon's website has all their tire dimensions listed, it helped me out heaps when needing measurements, the offset on the triple clamps you have, I can vary that in the calculator to get the ideal offset, work out your rear ride height so you can accurately measure your rake, stock rake figures are useless for this, your rear ride height will determine actual rake, for instance, My frame is 27degrees stock, with my shocks fitted, the front is almost 25 degrees exactly, that's very close to ideal for the 18 inch wheels I'm using front and rear. If I think of anything else I'll post here

Nice one mate, ill lay out all the numbers in a simple drawing and see what you think, including the change of swing arm in the future. Plus maybe take a look at this girl too, she is 800mm on the nose to the seat pan not including the foam yet so i think she is about 20mm too tall, im trying to get her as close to stock as i can with the Zephyr running gear.

The dent in the tank was so pronounced that it was close to junked but since the bike has and most likely will have USD fork for quite a while i decided to run with the dent and dimple the tank to insure that i have better rotation of the steering. Before it was only a few degrees to the left and right to insure the forks didnt bang of the tank. So first ting i had to do was dent the other side, luck i had a junk USD fork leg as a "dimple tool"

2 stout slaps and we are close enough for the long job of filling and sanding.