Possible Swingarm/Shock setups

Howdy there, new user to the site, had my '78 KZ650B for a few months now and have loved riding it, though for the winter I'm getting geared up to tear it apart, rework the rear half of the frame, and install a monoshock setup. Anybody have any info as to what swingarms will bolt into the stock mounting point? I know GPZ 550/750 will but not sure what year, and I don't like the look of the seesaw shock linkage, was hoping for something a little more sleek. I'm going to be fabricating my own shock mount but don't really want to have to refab the entire lower half of the frame to fit a new swinger. any help would be appreciated! I attached a low-res pic of the bike in it's current limbo state of waiting for it's new rear frame design, kinda have to figure out what i'm going to be building it around before I can go further. :blush:

What is the inside width of the frame at the swingarm pivot?

Quick measurement got me at 9" inside the pivot point.

You cut the frame before deciding on a design for the rear end? Now there's a brave approach. Ed

Pic

Have u seen some of the guys mono projects yet?
Here are a few more recent projects to look at . they may give u some ideas.
Sorry i cant help u. i am dead set against modifications.
Good luck.

OMR's,
kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...w&catid=11&id=216290

testerossa's,
kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...w&catid=11&id=340793

porchev914 ,
kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...w&catid=11&id=348089

Roynor,
kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...w&catid=11&id=191240

mark1122 wrote:

Have u seen some of the guys mono projects yet?
Here are a few more recent projects to look at . they may give u some ideas.
Sorry i cant help u. i am dead set against modifications.
Good luck.

OMR's,
kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...w&catid=11&id=216290

testerossa's,
kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...w&catid=11&id=340793

porchev914 ,
kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...w&catid=11&id=348089

Roynor,
kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...w&catid=11&id=191240

Dead set against modifications eh? You are sooooooo full of it your eyes are brown Mark! :laugh: :laugh:

I don't know how far you wanna take things, but I had to widen my frame to 11.5" to fit my swingarm, starting at about 9.5" (I don't remember the exact #'s off the top of my head). The other members we able to get away without major frame surgury

Yeah, I know that zapping off the frame first seems a little drastic, but the amount of rust on the upper bars was prohibitive to even thinking of using them in a rebuild. The bike had been sitting for ~15 years out in an old lean-to with no walls when I bought it, and when I went to take the seat off it took me plenty of WD-40 and a Deadblow hammer to get the majority of the chunks to break loose. (along with a 6 pack of beer of course) :laugh: makes for a fun evening. Anyhow I'd already planned on completely reworking the frame from the main supports back so fabrication wasn't an issue. Thanks for the links to the other mod projects. seems I'm the only one building a baby KZ though. :blush: You guys are giving me an inferiority complex already, haha. Anybody know how much wider the KZ1000 pivot is than the 650? I see a lot more mono conversions on the 1k bikes.

Use a punch and hammer to check the rest of the frame for weak spots. Crap had a tendancy to build up in the lower frame/engine rails and cause lots of corrosion.

If there was that much up top, then there's probly a bunch down there :dry:

Good luck.

Like I said, 9.5" - 9.75" or so at the pivot, inside frame rails on the 900/1000. I have it written in my thread somewhere.... :whistle: But I also cored 2" holes in my frame

Deadlogic, my 78 KZ1000 stock swingarm measures 9.000" across the pivot as measured with calipers. I don't have the swingarm cap/seals on there so I bet you could add 1/8" to that measurement for the inside pivot width of a KZ1000 frame. Now my 1995 GSXR swignarm was 0.100" narrower than the frame pivot, so I made bushings with a 0.050" flange to make up the difference.



Sounds like you could use the same swingarm as me, but it has the rising rate linkage that you don't like. You may have to get used to that linkage, since most mono-shock bikes use some form of it. The possible exception that comes to mind is the current Ninja 650. Check out greenmeany's project where he converted a shaftie to a monoshock. No rising rate linkage here: kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...w&catid=11&id=389639

If you did something like his bike, it would take considerable study into spring rates and suspension in general. The rising rate linkage is there to allow a progressive rise in effective spring rate while using a straight rate spring. It adds bottoming resistance, so eliminating it would mean that you need progressive rate springs.

porchev914 wrote:

mark1122 wrote:

Sorry i cant help u. i am dead set against modifications.
Good luck.


Dead set against modifications eh? You are sooooooo full of it your eyes are brown Mark! :laugh: :laugh:

Ha! I thought that might provoke a response. :laugh:

mark1122 wrote:

porchev914 wrote:

mark1122 wrote:

Sorry i cant help u. i am dead set against modifications.
Good luck.


Dead set against modifications eh? You are sooooooo full of it your eyes are brown Mark! :laugh: :laugh:

Ha! I thought that might provoke a response. :laugh:

I thought the same thing when I saw your post.

Mark1122 as a rivet counter. :laugh: :silly: :laugh: :woohoo: