Hi Guys, isnt the important part the sleeve that runs through the swingarm, with it being clamped between the swingarm pivots in the frame?
I would shorten the swing arm tube that the bearings are in as much as I could and then shorten the pivot tube that runs through the arm as it can be fitted in a lathe and machined true easier than the pivot of the frame and only grind the frame if more clearance was needed.
What do you recon?

wiredgeorge wrote:

Not sure what you need a GS axle for... why not use your KZ axle. All you need to do is change bearings, I suspect. Measure the ID, OD and thickness and you can buy the bearing at a bearing place. Most major cities have several stops that specialize in bearings.

he's prally doing a gs1100 swingarm swap,and someone told him he could use the KZ axle,he can't its to short.:evil:

neil, a search will pull up a lot of useful info on this topic.

that being said, here is some basic info.

re: the front end. in the filebase section, there is a document that has a bunch of the bearing dimensions for the necks of various kawaskis. this will get you in the ballpark. stems will be the issue, both diameter, and overall length. lots of things will work, but there will be pros and cons of the different models.

re the swing arm: the pivot end of the arm is the main issue. generally, the width of these will have to either be machined down to fit, or shimmed to take up the slack. i wanna say the stocker is 9" wide, so something close to that will work. you will need to deal with the ID of the bolt for that arm, will most likely be larger than the stocker. so, a sleeve will have to be made for it.

brakes are an issue, but not a huge one. you may have to clearance the frame to get an arm in there that uses large cross section tubing. big aluminum sport bike arms in particular. footpeg brackets either need to be trimmed, or taken off altogether. the brake pedal mount will probably have to be clearanced as well.

longer chain, longer brake line, shock mounts welded to the arm, converted to mono-shock, wheels, and what have you.

like the man says, it all depends... 8^)

--r

Post edited by: solomrus, at: 2006/02/22 11:20

Yes, it'll be easy to just grind the torque arm on a grinding wheel and make it fit properly. Glad I could help via a picture or two.

Thanks for the photos, fellas.

Bohicabob, that looks great. This thing should be a cinch.

Solomrus:yes that yosh has been on that bike since early 80s.thats the carb and frame masters bike several differant motors,paint jobs,and tires but the same pipe.if you see that bike coming down the road at ya with that big autometer tach between the bars with the shift indicator set at 11,000 dont tie one on with it with anything smaller than an 1197 hes the one who taught me how to flattrack like kenny roberts on a 1000 kaw!:evil:

wire, is that a yoshi pipe on that bike?

bohicabob, if my bike turns out HALF as clean as yours is, i will be happy as a pig in isht. very nice machine.

--r

Post edited by: solomrus, at: 2006/02/21 17:40

Glad you liked what I've done to date. I talked with Avon up in Seattle, WA before I proceeded with this tire upgrade. And, I used radial tire tubes with my Avon radial tires. Yes, they make radial tire tubes.

I got the idea to go ahead with this upgrade when I saw 'new' Nortons with Avon radial tires/tubes on wire wheels during Bike Week at Daytona a couple of years ago. Note that some brand new Triumph motorcycles come with radial tires and tubes on wire wheels. If a factory can offer such tires on wire wheels, then it should work for my Z1. Also, Kevin Cameron, tech editor of Cycle World, said in his book Sportbike Performance Handbook that radial tires would help the handling of old Z1s provided the frame was reinforced and the suspension improved. Well, I reinforced my '73 Z1's frame years ago, so ...

BohicaBob - awesome bike! I really like the tire and swingarm upgrade. Those pics show the torqe arm mods perfectly. They should help.

By the way, what type of tubes do you use in those radials? I've heard so much about using tubes with radials (both for and against) that I don't know what to believe.
Thanks!

I added two photos this afternoon to my photobucket.com "Z1 Radial Tire Upgrade" thread. These two photos show a modified Kawi rear brake torque arm fitted to a GS1100E swingarm.