78 KZ650 Cafe project

Started out with this:
1978 KZ650
Bored out to 720
Vance & Hines single
Individual pods
Was stretched when I got it. (I put a stock arm on it, stretched one for sale cheap if someone wants it)
Vetter fairing (for sale cheap if someone wants, as well as anything else I took off that you may need. Some of it I'll just give away depending on the part)
Kicks over and started every time! - the main reason I bought it.




As soon as I got home, I removed:
Lights
Fairings
fender
center stand (it was rusty, bulky, and I never use em)
Red wire loom (what the?)
Red lights under the tank. (what the?)

(still has fender in this pic)


Brakes were almost non existent. Cracked the MC open and found this haha:



Ordered a stock swingarm and sprockets, and used my almost new Busa chain and did a 530 conversion. Not sure what else I did in this pic. Removed the rear fender and lighting maybe.


Removed the clubmans and put some straight bars on it. After trying out several different master cylinders to find one that was small enough to ride with and fit, but big enough to push enough fluid to the caliper, I ended up with an MC from a 2008 Suzuki Burgman 650 (scooter). Big enough, though I did lose a little bit of braking force. (maybe 15%)

I know the red paint doesn't look bad in the pics, but it was like bass boat red with big ugly glittery flakes in it lol, so I sprayed it satin black until I can find a painter. I'll probably go with professional satin black to match my Busa (below) or maybe an antique white or off white color. I can't wait to decide so I can put the emblems back on it! Anyway:
License plate remounted:


Cafe tail in, LED brake light hole made:


I wanted to use the stock seat pan so cut to fit:


But it when mounted it was WAAAAAY too high and at a weird angle:


Ended up mounting it to the subframe, which looked much better, but I'm still going to work on mounting it better. (pics below)

Hayabusa tail section idea: (jk)



Rewired the entire bike. All of these wires removed and replaced with about 10 wires now. Also redid the fuel line and filter. Pulled the carbs and was going to clean them but they looked brand new inside so I didn't mess with em.

Relocated the ignition to where the old trunk key was to reduce length of wiring throughout.

Removed and/or removed wiring for:
blinkers, reserve lighting, starter, left hand controls, right hand controls, speedo, tach, pretty much everything except head and tail lights, charging system, ignition.
(stock:)


Painting random stuff:
(black bolts where speedo mounts are completely cosmetic. just covering up the two huge holes)



I like painting bolts in a cardboard box so you can rotate them as needed:


So now she looks like this!
I think removing the gauges made the HUGEST difference for the look I was going for.



Haven't decided on seat padding yet, but I'm leaning toward neoprene foam. The riding position is so comfy that I don't need a bulky pad. I ride with just a t-shirt under there now and don't get sore.


Still want to do:

• 18in rear wheel!
• Paint
• Exhaust professionally ceramic'd in black
• Maybe paint the frame. (right now I'm just spot painting it)
• Removing everything in the "triangle" under the seat. All I have left is to find a smalllllllll battery and move it, as the only things left under the seat are the reg/rec and the igniter, both easy to relocate.

Let me know what you think!

Also, here's the Busa if anyone is interested.
Hayabusa Drag Bike

Nice cafe racer! I recently bought a 79 kz650 (red). It does not have a windshield/faring, if you still have your old fairing I would love to use it. Thanks.

NICE!!! Good tips to. The bike is freakin beautiful man.

Thanks guys! And owner I pm'd you.

Are you running points or electronic ign.? If your running elec. ign could you post your wiring schematic?

I'm running electronic ignition. I think this is my basic setup:
12v to ignition switch. Switch has a couple of 12v outs, so I wired one to my igniter and another to the headlight and taillight. (inline fuses) ground whereever. reg/rec wiring I think stayed the same. If you google "cafe wiring diagram" I think a thread comes up from KZ that has a couple of basic wiring diagrams.

Update: Finally got my spokes! 18in rear, 19in front. new hub to make it work, and it took swapping some bearings over in the rear. Also flat black high temp exhaust tubes, and new coils, plugs, and wires. Fender and centerstand back on.









STILL haven't decided on what I want for a seat, (leather or just some black minicell padding) but I've been thinking lately about getting rid of the one I have, leveling a new one out, and a taillight attached to the swingarm to clean up the tail section. Something to do this winter. Anyway, that's where I am now in the build, ride it around just about every day!

cool,looks like somebody stole the guts for your rear brake though! :laugh:
how are you keeping rear wheel centered?
wait a second,you painted it black and mounted up side down! :laugh:
is that a disc brake swingarm youre using?

the bike looks great (but not with the busa parts!

kind of off subject here, but I am a photography nut. you have some really great shots of the bike there

Haha yeah I went on a frenzy when I first got the bike, taking off almost all non-vital components, and now I find myself slowly putting them back on, but in an updated or at least rebuilt fashion. Rear brake stuff used the drum off the 16in mag wheel (was black) and swapped it onto the 18in spoke as just basically a spacer, and I'll either get the drum back together this winter or switch to rotor. Who knows!

And thanks clutch. I love photography, but am admittedly an amateur and limited a lot by my camera, which is just a basic point and shoot. I'll upgrade one day, get some training, and hopefully take some really amazing shots/memories of bikes, people, landscapes, etc. I too am fascinated and inspired by photography and I can at least get some type of vision across with the point and shoot.

I'm in the process of swapping to spoked wheels as well. My drum fits perfect from my mags, which hub did you go with to make it work? (mag hub is bigger). Can you give me some more details?

Thanks
Ryan

Nice work on the Cafe Lucid.

This is the hub I got for the spokes:
cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Kawasaki-KZ650-K...&hash=item53e7e053f3

You may have to do some bearing swapping to get yours to work. My bike came with mag wheels that had 29mm axle diameter, whereas the spokes came with 26-27 if I remember right. I have two swingarms, one accepts each diameter axle. So the swingarm for me was no big deal, but the bearings had to be swapped and I needed a new hub. The drum fits fine.