Frame bracing/boxing needed?

I've seen a few guys in the project section welding in braces in various places. Is this needed or just for show? The chassis look pretty beefy stock but the swingarm looks puny. Whats yalls thoughts?

Stock 900 frames are weak, The 1000 frames are stronger. The 81 and up 1000 frames are the strongest. Frame bracing is probably not needed unless your planning on laying down some big power or plan on racing it. I got my frame braced for add strentgh. The frames will flex. Iam glad i had mine done. As if you look it up the 81 and up 1000's actually come stock with some extra bracing.

I also depends on how you ride. I have a 77 kz1000a1 and the frame flex in the corners is scary. I have decided to upgrade the bike to a wider front USD forks and wider rear tire so the frame bracing is a good idea. I have read that even on a stock bike after bracing the handling is very noticeable.

Where would be the key areas to consider bracing on a 78 1000A?

check this out, Theres alot of good info in it.
www.kzrider.com/forum/5-chassis/294594-f...bracing?limitstart=0

Does anyone have a "kit" ready to weld in? Someone here had one, I transverse 2 numbers in my address and now I can not get him to respond. If anyone here sells a ready to weld in frame brace kit please PM me. I don't want to pay $250 to Z1 for the kit I think that's way to high for what it is. It's For 77 1000a1.

I thought fitting the braces is actually pretty easy, you just need a inexpensive die grinder and patience. It took me a couple trys for some of the trickier ones to get a nice fit, but i fit my braces and had a buddy weld them in. I had a fab shop punch a bunch of dimpled holes for me to use as well. definitely a bit of overkill but i think it looks the part. :evil:

So you made the bracing yourself? I was concerned about the getting fish-mouthed opening right for the upper tubes.
I was going to weld them in myself but I'm not very good at welding pipe so I'm going to have someone TIG them in for me.

I bought my kit from Leon (531Blackbanshee). Good price and fit.

Cory

Has anyone ever ran a Kawasaki KZ frame on a C.A.D. ( computer automated design ) program ??????

4TheKZ1000 wrote: Has anyone ever ran a Kawasaki KZ frame on a C.A.D. ( computer automated design ) program ??????

Not that I have seen, but in thread linked above, a materials science guy analyzed the tubing and found it to be of poor quality and brittle due to a high concentration of silica IIRC...., either way, bracing has been around long enough where there are enough learning on it to know where and how to do it.

FWIW,
Cory

kaw-a-holic wrote: So you made the bracing yourself? I was concerned about the getting fish-mouthed opening right for the upper tubes.
I was going to weld them in myself but I'm not very good at welding pipe so I'm going to have someone TIG them in for me.

yeah i had never fit any tube before. i got a die grinder with some sanding rolls and it took a couple tries at first but i got the hang of it pretty quick. the ones that were a real tricky were the ones connecting the steering head to the downtubes. the notch on those was 6" long at the bottom. i had to redo those 3 times to get a tight fit.

if you want to get super technical and know the angles that the tubes are meeting at you can use this coping calculator. www.metalgeek.com/static/cope_big.pcgi however just being patient, not removing too much at once and observing closely worked out for me.
this is what i mean by sanding rolls. i also used a carbide bit to get them started as it was faster but less precise.