Leon, Got it... I might bug you some more on this issue, I hate to tap the hard work done by others but hey if it shortens the learning curve, saves my HIDE and keeps me from wasting time and money I 'm all over it. Its been awhile since I've bent one of these in-line fours around a curve, but I can't forget that feeling of, is it going to high side me or is it going to wobble into the on coming lane! Ah, the good old days!
, I'm at the point where I need to decide how much I'm going to do to the frame. Its' bare, and just scremming for me to start working on it. I have a set of tapered stering head bearings, and two stock swing arms. Is there a needle bearing set that fits the inside Dim. of the stock arms pivot bore? Or should I just hunt down the GPZ arm and get it over with? I am going to look any of the treads on this forum that discuss bracing the frame, again I don't want to do something cus' its cool. I do want to work at incressing the frame and running gears abilitys. I know you have plenty of projects etc. to focus on, but I really do apreciate your time!
Rod ...

thanks for the kind words bovine.

imho,
stiffening up any part of these bikes is going to help tighten the handling up .
whether it's a fork brace, stiffer fork legs, stronger swingarm or better tires.
so you can improve each piece as you see fit.
as long as the arms are kept at four inches or less over,most of us mortals are not going to be able to tell a huge difference in hustling these old bikes around a corner.

leon

bovine,
i have found that the original swingarms are such noodles that a stronger swingarm even if it is 2-3 inches longer will not negatively affect the handling and in most cases the handling improves because you now have an arm that is capable of holding the contact patch in much closer contact with the surface.

i do know that my z1r with a 2 1/2 inch over swingarm and 190 mm rear tire handles much better than it did with the stock arm and 120mm wide rear tire. :evil:

although i can't get to all of the edges of the 190 because i would have to drag off a fair bit of hard parts to get there :sick: .
in all reality a 160/170 is plenty of tire,but if you don't have enough strength in the legs of the swingarm to keep the axle in the same plane as the pivot bolt it is going to weave in hard corners.
the frames get alot of attention for ill handling but imho the swingarms are the biggest culprits.
i can't wait until tri gets his stealth overbraced stock swingarm mounted up with a decent tire on his bike.
then see how much it improves the handling of a stock length stock wheel sticky tired bike in the fast corners
:whistle: .


doug,
yessir just a slight amount of progress.

it doesn't look like much.
but when you band saw it out of a big chunk,mill it square,fit and mill to size then sand out (most)the machining mark and layout holes and drill and chamfer the holes it eats up some time :blush: .

but after it was welded in i was pretty satisfied with it.



leon

Very nicely done. I really like the orange against the silver frame.

It looks like PPG Hot Licks Orange. My brother and I painted his Factory Five Cobra that color.

Cory

Thank you Cory.

I was totally freaked out about cutting these. I don't even know what color this is, all I know is its PPG. So if I trashed anything, it would have been very hard to recover.

I put the photos up so others can see it will turn out if you are patient. It looks "factory".

This is the theme..trying o keep it looking like Kawasaki decided to build a KZ 900 today..

Very sexy!

Cory

Side view...

Modified the side

covers to fit the flat slides and filters

bovine,
my guess would be that the gpz arm is narrower than the kz frame inside measurement of 9.250 inches.
so you should just need some thicker bushings on each side.
so when you get a chance measure the width of the pivot tube for the gpz with the dust caps on it.

leon