TOPIC:

on the rearward gusset on steering head/backbone you might want to make them a little longer to tie more of it together,and also bring them more to the outside of tube away from center to make them stronger,ok ill shut up now! hey wave with all your fingers next time!

Just for reference, this is what my kit from pmc japan ended up looking like

thanks for the replies fella's.

kz250ltd,
was there a cross brace in the back tieing the two cradle tubes together above the rear motor mount area ?the pic did not show that area very clearly.

wireman,i shoulda known you woulda thought that i needed more metal .
i was just glad that you did not ask me where i was going to put the attachment points for the reciever hitch .

so where is the line between enough extra gussets and overkill?

it seems most kits that have been available are always a few pieces different.

leon

531blackbanshee wrote: thanks for the reply racer54.
i noticed that it seemed like the japanese guys dont add a tube between the bottoms of these tubes.
anyone ever add them?
seems like they would get in the way of cam cover removal.

leon

My frame has that 3rd tube below the coils. I can only remove the cam cover when the carbs are off, which is not ideal but it makes sense to complete the triangle you are forming. Also, make sure you check your throttle cable clears the cross tube.

I've attached some pics of the bracing I added. The toughest ones to bend and weld were the tubes that come up from the front down tubes to the bottom of the neck, I also cut out the thin pot metal plate underneath the steering head that has the steering stop welded to it and replaced it with a thicker plate and beefier stop.

I think there's no overkill in adding gussets, unless you are just going to be put putting around or doing some sensible cruising. Throw some sticky tires on that bitch with a hot motor, ride it hard and it will wanna do all kinds of squirrely stuff in the corners. A few extra pounds of metal will help keep things straight(ish). These frames need all the help they can get. Just my 2 cents...

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531blackbanshee wrote: thanks for the replies fella's.

so where is the line between enough extra gussets and overkill?

it seems most kits that have been available are always a few pieces different.

leon

having most of this bracing and having ridden on the track, i feel it depends on how u intend to ride.
on the street u dont need as much bracing, but once u hit the track u have a dilemma.
u need all the bracing u can get, but that adds weight. ideally on the track i feel u should use smaller tube as Foale suggests. on the track my kz is still loose compared to my cbr. but ofcourse,u can never expect to get as good as a modern bike .

sander,
kz250ltd,
thanks much for the addition to the thread and the awesome pics of your frames.
it will serve as a great reference for folks.you can see the pics of the extra braces and get the feedeback from the guys that have tested it.

that is the reason i tried to make the thread title easily searchable so we could all contribute and have a nice frame bracing resource to get the pics and testimonials from the pilots.

so if anybody else has some pics of frame bracing or some seat of the pants experience feel free to contribute here.

i have never braced a kz frame so now that i am trying to cut out the gussets it really gets you thinking about what you need and what you need access to and,
where to stop .
because we all know what we need are some egli frames









leon

.

back in the late 80,s Brother and I meet a exchange student from Japan. My brother at the time and still does have a 78 kz 1000 mk11. This kid would of giving his life for the bike he wanted to buy it at what ever cost. any ways he told my brother that he could fix the bike to beat just about any bike on the street at the time. My brother and he work on the bike for 4 month and it turn out to be true.
Brother still has the bike and will not give or sell to me either. Student later found and bout a z1r fix it up and came looking for a race...he did not beat him and said he would be back but never did see him again.

show us some pics of your brothers bike.

sounds like something we would be interested in.

do you have any more pics of your bike?

cool story.

leon

i have pic,s i just need to look for them. i will ask my brother to email me current ones.

back to this subject....good that i ran in to this will start working on my bike in the next several weeks.

531blackbanshee wrote: here are the ones for the neck.these are made from .125 thick steel cut from rectangle so that i would not have to hammer the bends.

Leon, once you welded these in how did you paint behind the gusset on the right? The existing gussets on the frame would make it nearly impossible to coat the back side. Did you cut them out or just not care about it rusting?