If only I could....................

I like what some of you folks are doing to modernize these old KZ's. So this is the place to ask. I like the general feel of my '84 GPZ 1100. Some of you have put inverted forks, Suzuki swingarms and fat wheels on them.
Not quite for me, but what I would like are fatter, conventional forks and just wide enough wheels to be able to fit modern radials on. This to keep most of the original appearance, sort of a "period" modification.
43 MM forks would be nice but I know that I will have to change fork clamps, think about a relocated steering lock and instrument mounts, etc. I hate to loose the original cast bracket low bars, they are comfortable for me. I'm going to convert to 530 chain with a new offset countershaft sprocket and heard that guys are fitting wider wheels in the stock swing arm, which is fine with me. Kosman can widen stock wheels but I haven't looked at the cost. I would imagine it being more expensive to do that than find a wider set of OEM wheels to fit in the stock swing arm if possible.
So, what I'd like to know, is there any good formula for doing these type of mods without getting too radical or expensive. Which front end, wheel combo is making the best fit?

61 hits and nobody can make any suggestions?

Well, if you want "traditional" looking forks that'll narrow your search a bit. You could get some ZRX forks. They're conventional style and about 43mm or so and have a "GPz"-esques fender. That'll be your best option. Not sure what the differences are between the two steering stems though. You also will most likely have to modify one or the other stem or have one custom made. Then you'll have to figure out mounting the dash.

You might try searching over at 750turbo.com. Maybe someone has modified a wheel to fit the arm as I believe the 750 and 1100 arms are similar.

Newer OEM 17" rims are going to be your best (read cheaper) option. Do lots of research. www.buykawasaki.com and a tape measurer and a set of calipers will become your best friends.

Anything can be made to fit together, just look at my 1000's specs. But the more info you have the less work you may have to do later.

Later, Doug

I tried to squeeze a 5.5" ZX9 wheel into the stock swingarm but just couldn't get the wheel centered even after having the hub machined right down to the bearing eliminating the seal and circlip. I found mounting a ZZR1200 swingarm quite easy and mounting the ZX9 wheel in that. The easiest would be to pick up an arm and complete wheel and adapt the arm to your frame. I used a ZZR1200 swingarm and ZX9 wheel and a ZZR1100 530 front sprocket (I think it was the 1st year of the ZZR1100, but check www.jtsprockets.com/ chart for over 1000 Kawasakis to compare splines), which gave me the exact offset required for the ZX9 wheel.
I found mounting the shorter GSXR front end with less offset in the triple clamps quickened the handling while staying stable and lowered the center of gravity eliminating the top heavy feel the stock bikes have. The rear was raised about 2" using the stock shock and ZX6 linkage resulting in 25 degrees of rake. If you're going to the trouble of adapting another front end, you might as well take advantage of the possible handling improvement with a shorter upside down fork.

In the event that you haven't noticed...Fossil's bike should look amazingly familiar to you. In my opinion he did his bike RIGHT. My thoughts about your front end is this: the trick is to apply a complete front end. Other wise you will find yourself searching high and low for spacer this, and spacer that, and machining this and fitting that and it'll make you not ride your bike... ...a scary thought. The trick is to install a complete front end, that way you don't have to jack with lining up the breaks to the forks and spacing the wheel in the forks...yadda, yadda, yadda... Much of the older gixxer stuff is dang near a bolt on (talking about the triple clamp b/c that's the major concern...all else will fall in place after that). So, if you must keep your conventional forks you could get the 89, 90, 91 era gixxer stuff and you'd have 17" wheels, good brakes, and 41 - 43 mm forks that are conventional. But like Fossil said: why not go inverted as the process is nearly the same. Some gixxer inverted stuff ('92 era stands out, but check with them thar Zuki geeks) is the same stem and bearings as the prior gen gixxers and that makes them a very close match for your GPz. Then you've got a beefy front end that won't suffer so much flex and it'll look cool!!!

In short I'd go inverted b/c it won't be any more work, and it's better. ...sorry I said it looks cool...but it does!:laugh: Look at Fossil's bike, geez how can ya not want your ride to look like that!!!? You can figure out the handle bars later.

I have noticed and have looked at his ride, which I agree, is one of the right ways to do it. I have nothing against inverted forks and realize their benefits. If a whole assembly would bolt up as easy as earlier GSXR units as was explained then it's worth considering. Anything 41 to 43MM would be great. This bike was always just too heavy with the 37MM forks. I never did like feeling them flex, which seemed more noticeable than many other bikes that I've owned. I just want to keep it as old school as possible and save the cash for something modern like that new Concours 14. Thank you all for the tips. Now to start browsing eBay.

Stephen

VERY understandable. When you make your conversion try this: weigh your take-off parts against the parts that you install. My inverted ZX7/9 stuff weighs less than the J/GPz parts that I took off (forks, triples, wheels, everything!). Those forks look heavier, but they're not...the wheels are a no-brainer, just picking up your old wheel with no tire or rotors will be heavier than a newer wheel/tire/rotor combo. All the mods you do in this capacity turn into horsepower also. Some say that it equates to 7lb = 1 bHp...I don't know for sure if that's the formula (pretty hard for me to empirically prove that without a lab), but I will tell you that the weight issue is for sure "free" power.

I'm getting ready to post up my front end mod in "projects" if you want to see what I'm doing.

-KR

'Checked out your ELR project. It rocks! Looks like it should've been that way from day one. An inverted fork/wheel combo with better disc brakes/floating rotors wouldn't look too out of place on the Unitrak GPZ's if they don't on the ELR. So far, it seems pretty hard to find a complete front end with top and bottom clamps, fender, wheel and brakes on eBay. I'm seeing just the forks with the clamps and MAYBE with the calipers attached. Hopefully, availability will change come winter.
Stephen

Hey, thanks a ton, buddy! I appreciate it. Yeah, if you want to pop a complete front end there are some caveates. (1) You have to be patient, and (2) you might have to work at it: meaning, if you find the front forks you might email the guy and tell him what you're looking for to see if he's got the rest of it. One of my solutions was that I bought a blown up bike and parted it after I took what I wanted to keep. Over the years I have found this to be the preferred course of action as all the parts that you need (that you don't have to have fabricated) are waiting there for you. If you purchase a bike for parts, just make sure you don't sell stuff before you know you're not going to need it...not that I've done that or anything:whistle:

As I said before, I've gone the route of piecing the front end together from the "eeeewwww, that wheel is cheap!" scenario off flea-bay; but when you compound the multiple item shipping charges and times that by the frustration of having the wrong spacer(s) and parts that don't match...it's money-ahead and frustration-avoiding to take the time to purchase a complete front end.

I feel that you do need the lower triple to press the stock stem out of and then your old stem into; ...but you could drop a littel extra cash on one of those machined top triples from an aftermarket shop (then you need a "sleeve" made for it so that your stock stem isn't sloppy inside the stem hole). But, I think if you're patient you'll find what you're looking for.
I'd just be concerned about getting the forks with wheel and spacers for sure, and then you could pick up brakes and a triple (the brakes and triple don't have a ton of loose parts that you'd have to source and match up...you're going to need to replace the steering head bearings anyway when you press your new stem in, and brakes are simple, I think you could go with later 6 piston calipers on brakes ...that'd be cool...yum!)

I think your project is going to go just fine, there are plenty of guys here who have been where you're going, and they're friendly and helpful guys, so you're in good shape!

Gotta run...I'm babblin'!
-KR