history on cal fab swingarm

Welcome Chris, good to see you here....

I owned a 1980 LTD1000 in the early 80's. I wanted to run a wider rear tire and had been kicking around a few ideas on how to go about making my bigger rear tire, reality.

I remember walking into a place called Cycle Salvage in San Bruno, Ca. that was around back in the 80's, not sure what ever happened to the business. I walked into Cycle Salvage, shopping for random parts for my bike, and behind the counter, on a pegboard....is a wide 16 inch tire on display. I remember asking the parts clerk what size the tire was and asked what I would need to run that tire on my LTD. Funny, this still comes back to me as if it had been yesterday!

Well, what I would need to run the wider tire was a brand new Calfab swingarm that Cycle Salvage had in stock. Needless to say, I bought the swingarm $300.00 back then, what was I thinking, that was big money back then.......actually, still is big money plus cost on the wide tire. The bike looked so bad ass with the Calfab swingarm (polished) and the wide tire. Do not recall what tire size I ran back then, but it was wide!

All I can say is that, back in the 80's, wide tire bikes were not something you would see, like we see now-a-days. So, needless to say that wherever I was with my bike, people would literally come running, to take a closer look at the setup and, asked a zillion questions as to what was involved in putting it all together. Wish I still had that bike.

There's about 8 feet of weld per arm, these aren't finished yet, still have to be heat treated....

WOW! Those S1 swingarms are impossibly cool! Wish I could ride hard enough to out handle my stock swingarm because if I could I'd have me one of those things!

Just WOW!!
Very nice!

Nessism wrote: WOW! Those S1 swingarms are impossibly cool! Wish I could ride hard enough to out handle my stock swingarm because if I could I'd have me one of those things!

Just let the swingarm bearings dry out and fail, then just pretend its your sublime skills that are making the bike buck and weave, buy new swingarm....Problem solved... :woohoo:

I'd love one too, my wallet says otherwise....

Z1000 swing arms....

EVERYTHING that MotoGpworks makes is first rate!!!!! You won't find a better made product anywhere, end of question.

KipKawa, the guy in England who made the S1 parts burnt a few people I know out of some huge sums of cash when he closed up. I know of one person he burnt that is looking for blood over what he got taken for!!!!

Dr. Gamma wrote: EVERYTHING that MotoGpworks makes is first rate!!!!! You won't find a better made product anywhere, end of question.

Not bad for a one man business...

Chris makes these pipes too.

Kapahulu wrote: Chris makes these pipes too.

He makes a couple of different types of pipes, I have one of his very early ones, got it, must be 5 or 6 years ago now...

Thanks Everyone ,
Kipkawa ,don't really know what went wrong ,I too are looking for him for items that one off my customers paid ($1800) for for a S-1 project that I'm building ...Hence I built a S-1 swingarm .
I made the S-1 swimarm fit all rear disc Kz's not just the 1981- ,When it come to S-1 parts there are oil cooler brackets ,rotors ,engine billet mounts ,rear sets and triple clamps by christmas .
When it comes to me making parts its a part time thing outside building bikes for rich people and looking after there collections.I try to build stuff I like and what i think is cool for my generation and not hipsters .
MY next big idea for the new year is to build replica's Rob North F1-Z1 race bikes (frames/bodywork only )

as he only built one for don vesco in 1974-5