I am putting together a bike from boxes of stuff and my plan is to assemble the bike the way I want it to look then tear it down, cut off whatever tabs I don't want, paint and reassemble. I started with taking "D" parts and putting them on an "H" frame and discovered that's not gonna work. Everything I have with the exception of an extra frame and motor is from a "D".

I took the wheels to a shop and got the bearings replaced and new rubber. Today, when I was trying to fit the tail back together the rear wheel assembly would not fit between the swing arm forks...WTFO? I'm thinking I don't have something together quite right. I have been using a Clymer manual and referring to the Kawasaki parts diagrams online but I haven't been able to locate the diagrams for a D yet.

Anybody got a solution to this problem? Here are some pics....

i believe the sanctuary guys use ohlins front ends designed for euro -spec yamaha fj1300's.

your gonna have to do some research.
but,rear wheel width, header you plan to use and wheel design are concerns.
any front end can be modded to fit any bike ,the fz1 05/06 or busa swingarms are nice to mod for the kz;s if you want more than a 180mm wide rear tire.
03/04 zx6/636 swingarms(not to mention many years of early gsxr) are nice to mod if you want a 180mm tire or smaller.
zx,gsxr,r1,r6 all have been used.

leon

I have an upsy dupsy front end from an early ZX9R. (All it took was a stem swap). A GSXR600 swingarm ( a couple of spacers on the pivot and shock mounts welded on) and a Bandit600 rear wheel with a 160 tyre ( Chain adjusters needed work and the sprocket carrier was turned down a few mm). I think thats it. I might have clearance worries with the Harris 4into1 and I have no idea how its going to handle as its not hit the road yet.Its all in the hands of allah!!
Good luck with yours.

redhawk4 wrote: I don't know about the swing arms, I guess changing one for a stronger aftermarket one would answer that particular question.

a braced stock arm can make a huge difference when you are pushing one.
here are a few i've done.





when it was time to address my own 80 z1r's handling i went with a 17x6 inch wide rim with a 190mm wide tire :whistle: .
it's overkill.but rock solid in the corners with no added frame bracing.

i'm sure a good 160 series tire would hold one of these bikes juts fine.

what i'm saying is a good strong arm can go along ways to taming one of these old beasts :evil:

leon

p.s.
looks like some folks think the uki steel arm could use a lil help to.

only added a lil bracing to the frame tho.

I think if you had a stock brand new Z1 it wouldn't do that, but many bikes of that era were prone to do some funny things at high speed, a friends Honda CB550 four would do some stuff like that too, different tires cured it. I think the Z1's and KZ's are susceptible to this and so minor wear, lack of lubrication, swing arm bushes, steering head races, different tires etc. can induce these traits down the road and they are quite common as a result . If you read period tests on the bikes, they do not mention a lack of high speed stability and many in fact praise high speed stability and that the bike could cruise at 90 or 100 mph.

The KZ900's had stronger frames, thicker walled tubing was used, than on the Z1's, I don't know about the swing arms, I guess changing one for a stronger aftermarket one would answer that particular question.

I'm with ya on the "handling of the time thing" the 68 camaro and my wife's galaxie are perfect examples of that. And those have had upgraded shocks, geometry etc and now are perfectly acceptable.

Exaggerated claims of ill handling kawasakis? absolutely considering I have seen some reviews of bikes (including the H2) applauding the handling and brakes. Even the H1/H2 laud the importance of tight swingarm bearings, good shocks and tires and properly setup forks being key to good handling. Unless you push hard in the corners (and I mean hard) you won't find the limits of the frame. Even with minimum bracing you should be fine dragging knees and all that crap

If we are talking about the late 70's Suzuki's then it is widely acknowledged that Suzuki were the first Japanese manufacturer to get the idea that the steering head and swingarm needed to be held together with some sort of rigidity. The GS750 was the bike that set things rolling and the GS1000 that came out later followed the trend. Kawasaki didn't get with the game until 1981 with the models that then gave them such success in superbike racing.

In the intervening 35 years or so there have no doubt been all sorts of ups and downs for most manufacturers at various times, so there's no way to generalize about manufacturer A, versus manufacturer B over that period of time.

Much is said about the handling of the older big Kawasaki's, but I think the negatives are greatly exaggerated, these bikes were not designed to be the R1 of their day, more for track days, than road use. Can you go too fast and fall off, or have a scare, you certainly can (that's true of any bike, if you don't know its or your limits), but when the bikes are used for their intended purpose, riding on the road at speeds that are sensible, given other traffic and respect for your own safety, they still ride very well. With modern tires, and everything set and maintained as it should be, I'm quite surprised how capable they still are. I still find my self passing plenty of other people on the road without pushing too hard and wanting to go faster, than most are travelling, on their cruiser style bikes. For a comparison find a 1970's model car and try and drive that in modern road conditions keeping pace with traffic etc. then in most cases, you will really find what bad handling and poor performance feels like.

British bikes were always lauded for their handling, compared to the Japanese impostors. My 73 Triumph Tiger has expensive Hagon rear shocks and does handle very nicely it almost steers just by you thinking where you want to go. It probably could go around a twisty track faster than my KZ1000 in the right hands, but again riding on the road with the amount in hand that I consider a safe balance between excitement and safety, I'm not sure I could say there's any major difference.

Just gotta find one the right length and width if you do a search here it should pop up.
To do the kz wheel on a modern fromt end you're going to need axle bushings, or a spacer or some type of adapter to fit the small (17mm) kz axle into the larger (sometimes an inch) hole for the newer bike's axle. Then you have the problem that the KZ brakes and wheel are heavy, so you grab sportbike rotors, pay a machinist to knock out a couple adapters to bolt the newer lightweight rotors on. Like I said, depending on what you do, it can add up.

And you're still going to wanna mess woth the back; new shocks (plan $200 or so) swingarm bearings (if your's are toast) new brake shoes (if you have a drum brake, linings come loose locking the rear wheel, even at speed) no use having a good front end and a worn out rear.

531blackbanshee wrote: sorry to hear about the friendcident those can be painful :whistle: .

www.outlawracingproducts.com/clampsmounts.html

leon

My friends don't ask, it's the strangers that do. OH NO, Mr. base ball bat, don't DO it. :woohoo:
Steve

Kind of a steep slope, a USD fork swap with that skinny little swingarm and (now) skinny rear tire wont look or handle right, so expect to change that out too. And consider the $500 or so to do the front right (big meaty tire, rebuild brakes and forks and gauges when your speedo doesnt work with the wheel) and $500 or so on the rear (machining a swingarm to fit, sourcing a rear wheel and costly back tire, chain etc) question becomes what're you after?

If you have a set of forks that take the same size bearings the 550 uses you can use them, or go with a bearing swap if the stem fits in the steering neck. OR you'll have to have parts machined and a stem swap done.