I found this 1986 GPZ550 for sale and couldn’t pass it up. It compliments my 1980 KZ550 the first year of the 550 motor since the 1986 is the final year of the 550. Plus it was in excellent condition and only had 10,300 km. The PO kept it garage stored for the past 8 years and only started it up every once in a while but didn’t really ride it, apparently the same with the previous PO. The bike started, motor ran great, everything appeared to work. I am calling it a renewal since I don't have much restoration to do.

I plan on changing oil, oil filter, air filter, replace brake fluid, fork oil
Lubricate swing arm pivot, uni-track linkage, steering stem, cables, speedometer gear, wheel bearings
I will check the valve clearances
Pulled the spark plugs and they appear good but cheap to replace
The chain looks ok and is within tolerance 317mm and sprockets look ok
The headlight glass has a chip in it and needs replacement
The right signal lights were not working and I traced the problem to where the wire split at the headstock to go to the indicator and the signal light
The Bridgestone tires F-100/90-18 R-120/80-18 are old and have cracks and will be replaced probably Bridgestone or Pirelli same size

KZ Forum Members Advice Needed
Due to the age of the bike the manual says replace the brake hoses, anti-dive brake plunger assembly, master caliper cup and dust seal, caliper piston seal and dust seal. I know the bike is 30 years old but the forks and brake calipers look good and work great and to replace all this will cost $250 so I am thinking of leaving them as is. Even the disc brake pads appear to still have lots of material left and at $35 a set I am thinking of not replacing them until the wear requires it. I would appreciate any advice from members on these items.




Thanks

kaw-a-holic wrote:

davido wrote: I tried the GS swingarm on my build.It wouldnt take a 160 tyre,(I think it was designed to take a 130 or 140). Your ZX6 wheel must be at least 160.Hows it working out??

I am running an 89 GS1100e swingarm with a 160, no issues at all.

Good to hear
My rim is 5.5 wide so I can run a 180 tire
I'm modifying the entire rear brake set up to fit using a gs rear axle, zx6 caliper and caliper mount with custom spacers

750 R1 wrote:

jowek70 wrote:

davido wrote: I tried the GS swingarm on my build.It wouldnt take a 160 tyre,(I think it was designed to take a 130 or 140). Your ZX6 wheel must be at least 160.Hows it working out??

I don't have a tire on my rim yet and I'm in the process of getting the rear caliper mount sorted out but I think i'll find a way to make it fit. it might be tight and I might have to run the chain longer than normal but I'm going to give it a shot.

I have a GS arm too, if using a 17 inch rear rim you can fit up to a 170, so a 160 should be fine, you will have to modify the rear brake arm to clear the tire, if using a 18 inch rear rim you will possibly only fit a 150, some 160's may fit.. The inside gusset can be modified to help with clearance... Not all tires inflate to the exact sizes so finding a tire to fit helps. Try google or the GS resources forum , there are quite a few guys over there running 160/170 tires in the GS arm...

Thanks for the input
My dad has fitted a 180 rear with the gs arm but everything isn't squared away yet
I'm planning a 180 rear tire as well
Just from looking I think it'll fit
I'm also running a different engine tho

davido wrote: I tried the GS swingarm on my build.It wouldnt take a 160 tyre,(I think it was designed to take a 130 or 140). Your ZX6 wheel must be at least 160.Hows it working out??

I am running an 89 GS1100e swingarm with a 160, no issues at all.

jowek70 wrote:

davido wrote: I tried the GS swingarm on my build.It wouldnt take a 160 tyre,(I think it was designed to take a 130 or 140). Your ZX6 wheel must be at least 160.Hows it working out??

I don't have a tire on my rim yet and I'm in the process of getting the rear caliper mount sorted out but I think i'll find a way to make it fit. it might be tight and I might have to run the chain longer than normal but I'm going to give it a shot.

I have a GS arm too, if using a 17 inch rear rim you can fit up to a 170, so a 160 should be fine, you will have to modify the rear brake arm to clear the tire, if using a 18 inch rear rim you will possibly only fit a 150, some 160's may fit.. The inside gusset can be modified to help with clearance... Not all tires inflate to the exact sizes so finding a tire to fit helps. Try google or the GS resources forum , there are quite a few guys over there running 160/170 tires in the GS arm...

davido wrote: I tried the GS swingarm on my build.It wouldnt take a 160 tyre,(I think it was designed to take a 130 or 140). Your ZX6 wheel must be at least 160.Hows it working out??

I don't have a tire on my rim yet and I'm in the process of getting the rear caliper mount sorted out but I think i'll find a way to make it fit. it might be tight and I might have to run the chain longer than normal but I'm going to give it a shot.

I tried the GS swingarm on my build.It wouldnt take a 160 tyre,(I think it was designed to take a 130 or 140). Your ZX6 wheel must be at least 160.Hows it working out??

kaw-a-holic wrote: Wiers, great looking build. I hate to be the bearer of bad news. As nice as it is to bolt on the Suzuki front end it comes with some issues. I started with a GSXR 750 and am now switching it to a GSXR 1100 front end, as they are about 20mm. The issues that come with this set up are:
1. turning radius sucks it takes a 20 point turn to get it turned around in the garage or driveway but did not hinder turning while riding.
2. The offset in the triple trees is significantly different causing loss of trail.
3. Ground clearance. In wheel swap alone you lost 25mm on the front end, with the fork swap you lost another 25mm. When I rode my bike like this I had to take wide right hand turns so I did not scrape my exhaust speed bumps are also an issue.

Here is a link to a good explanation of rake and trail, something I did not bother to think about prior to building my bike.

www.motorcycle-superstore.com/4125/mngr/...trail-explained.aspx

Your comment on "loss of trail" is a common misconception, the GSXR {or most modern bikes} have LESS offset, therefore you end up with MORE trail' . Most think that less offset automatically means less trail but its the exact opposite,

As the fork tubes move forward in relation to the steering stem, the angle between the front wheel axis and the point where Rake and the pavement intersect narrows, so Trail decreases. As you’d expect decreasing the offset, which moves the wheel closer to the steering stem increases Trail

I've done a few front end conversions and have a Trail calculator to work out offsets for the custom clamps I get made up. The 1989 GSXR1100 is a good model to get forks for a conversion {if you don't want to use USD forks} , they are 43mm Right side up forks that have multiple rebound, preload and compression damping adjustment, They are very popular in classic racing here, on the 1989 1100 they had the clipons above the top clamp so the stanchions are a couple of inches longer than the 750, I have 2 sets of these forks, I also have 41mm and 45mm forks, I will be using fork extensions on the 45's, the 41's are off a CB1000F and are plenty long enough for my intended application... More trail and a smaller front wheel can cause its own problems if not set up properly, the 17 inch wheel steers faster than the 19, the more trail due to the clamp offset being less, will make the front more stable but slightly harder to turn in, combine this with a smaller, more nimble 17 inch front wheel and you can end up with a poorly set up bike that wants to "fall" into corners. I see lots of poorly done conversions on the internet, especially swingarm swaps {mono shock conversions!!} , when it comes to suspension on a motorcycle, there's a hell of a lot more in it than just bolting on newer parts. I have no interest what so ever in bikes with long swingarms and lowered or any other mod that makes the bike handle worse, I'm more interested in sensible mods to make these old girls handle better than stock, I've never been interested in drag racing or building look at me, poor handling Instagram bikes....

Spent this Sunday taking things apart and organizing them.
I am very pleased with the condition of everything. Intake boot rubber nice and soft still. Exhaust in great shape, etc.
No problems that I see and that's unusual.

Will drop the motor, forks and swing arm next weekend.

Interesting. So the "swing arm sleeves" marked #42036 in the diagram below serve as inner races to the needle bearings and prevent the bearings from riding directly on the swing arm pivot shaft. Ed