larriken wrote: I had a set of GSXR ones on the shelf and they fit spot on. Bolted them up and you would not believe it but the spacing for the disc rotors was perfect. I don't think that has ever happened before when I have put together mismatched parts!!

larriken wrote: Funny thing is I found a spacer from god knows what that was perfect fit and size for the right side of the swingarm. Seriously, it was the exact specs for what I needed!

This machine was meant to be

I'd pass on that piece of tube. It's not ground for roundness like the OEM part. Using it will destroy the bearings in short order.

Mark,

Just sold the track bike. Now the Guzzi will get some laps at Laguna.... oh yeah. You did not think the Guzzi would just sit around did you?

So need to talk you into a day at Laguna. You need a track day photo of the KZ driving down the corkscrew.

The 650's and later bikes they addressed the frame flex issues. You'll notice one of the first things modified are the swing arms along with gusseting, front end and brakes. The more I pushed it, the more I needed these mods. I plan on squeezing even more ponies out of my bike. I hope to have these mods in place by the time I do.
Steve

Spent some time this weekend and today getting the bottom tension linkage lugs and tension linkages installed. I got the parts at Midwest controls. I made it adjustable so that I adjust the rear height. I am not proud of the weld quality but it should hold. Next move will be to pull the swing arm and scrub off the rear tabs for the old footrests/exhaust supports and clearance the for the chain at the frame.

Has anyone done a similar rear swap with a gsxr swing arm? I am looking at drive sprocket options out there. Does anyone have a ballpark offset that I will need?

If you're having tank slappers there' something wrong with the bike. Could be tires (that happened to me), swing arm bushings/bearings; steering stem bearings; shocks; forks; etc. Ed

I'd got the offset sprocket from Debben Preformance, and chucked it on (with a straight edge held against it for chain clearance reference).

And after routing through my drawers (madam!), I found a part-used 530 chain that originally came with the GSX-R1000 swinging arm that I have for another project, so popped that on too.

You can see that it hits the frame... Bugger.
Here's where I'll need to be pocketing the inside of the frame rails.

And, while I was here, I made up a cardboard mock-up of the oil tank for the turbo (I'll be running a seperate electric oil pump to oil the turbo, given that the air-cooled Kawasakis don't have great oil pressure)

After further scouring of the list I found a CBR900RR shock is also very close, and lo and behold I have one of them laying around.
I stuck it in there and it will require 2 things - the remote reservoir hose needs to be turned about 120 degrees, which will require a spacer, and I'll have to remake the bottom brackets under the swing arm. I'll post up some pics as I start the work.

Meanwhile, things were happening. Only little things, but at least something was being done. Small steps, but all in the right direction. Mostly.
The swinging arm shock mounts on the Martek arm were further apart (across the bike) than the standard Z650 mounts, but then you'd expect that when upgrading to a 180 section tyre I guess. I had originally been happy with the Maxton shocks sitting angled inwards from the new mounts to the standard upper ones, but over the last few years I'd grown less happy with them, so wanted the upper mounts moving outwards to match.

I found that a bloke on the Z1 Owners club forum was making adaptors that extended the shock mounts outwards, and somewhat conveniently they happened to be exactly the right dimensions to suit the shock mounts on the Martek arm. Yippee!

They'll need to be welded onto the frame, but that can happen when I do the frame mods for the chain run (oh, did I not mention the chain run issues...)
I was never happy with the bolts in the lower shock mounts, as they had threads running through the mounts, so I got a couple of bolts with long 'shoulders' that I re-threaded so that the shoulders ran through the shock and mounts and the thread was only up to the inside face of the mount.

This is in response to Swest's swing-arm question. It rides smooth, not bouncy, corners well. The lowering pieces are aftermarket the original owner installed. he had short legs. He also spent a lot of time in the hospital and laid up at home. Thus only 17,000 miles on the speedo....(he was a rodeo Bull rider.)