New kid on the block, KZ1000P bobber

Hello all, new member of the KZ world here. Picked up a 2001 KZ1000P runner with 42K a few weekends ago for a few bills, thinking that it'd be a nice cheap bike for my fiance to learn to ride on. Only took the 150 mile trip back home to decide that anyone brave enough to ride this bike was utterly bonkers. Everything from the forward controls to the clutch and brakes were sloppy...you could never tell if you actually engaged the clutch or changed a gear, it felt like the front wheel was going to eject itself when coming from a stop, and my god the vibrations at 60 and up were enough to set off an active volcano.

However, the ride back home did give me time to ponder what the bike's fate would be now that my fiance wouldn't be mangling herself on it. A few hours deliberation finally sealed it, I've got the old man touring side of the motorcycle spectrum already handled with my Stratoliner...and I've always had that calling of the old world, where comfort and chrome were for pansies, so why not answer that call by building it?

Now bear in mind I've been riding for about 4 years now, and having purchased all relatively new bikes I've never had to troubleshoot, fix, or otherwise do anything more then a few oil changes. I've been an auto and diesel tech for years now, and am familiar with amateur parts fabrication, but carbs and motorcycles are still a mechanical mystery to me...add on top of that a fairly large project that isn't just slapping parts together, and this should get interesting. Anyway, enough about my mechanical inadequacies, onto the build.

Here's how I got her, looks nice enough...




...And 4 hours later




The frame will be converted to a hardtail for sure, and as I don't trust my welding and fab skills enough to bet my life on, I'll be sending the frame off to cycle one for the conversion. I also want to get rid of the ugly triple tube backbone, instead using a single tube backbone. All the extra mounting for various things like the floorboards, fairing, etc... will all be cut off as well.

An engine and transmission rebuild will definitely be in the works, still not sure if I want to undertake that myself just yet, or ship it off and have it professionally done, or a mix of both. Probably have pit stop do any work as they seem to be the favorite from what I have read. I'll probably be keeping the engine stock displacement, one oversize if necessary. Externally the engine itself will likely be bare aluminum with a media blasted finish.

The hardtail conversion will pave the way for a variety of aftermarket wheels and widths. I'm thinking about using an OEM FLHT 40 spoke wheel (16"x5") with a 180 tire on the rear, and an 18" 40 spoke on the front from whatever I can pull one off of. The forks and triples will be changed out in favor of a springer setup, there's a guy selling the full setup on ebay for $380, I just have to find the bearings to make it work with the KZ neck. I'm toying with the idea of apes, maybe 12" rise or so, nothing too crazy. The final decision will come once I can actually sit on it and figure out where my arm placement would work best.

As for a general aesthetic theme, I'm thinking bare metal engine and accessories on flat black frame. No polishing, no chrome if I can avoid it. I intend to commandeer a friend's lathe/mill and make my own forward controls, which will receive nothing besides a basic knurl. Standard trailer fender chopped in two for the rear, no fender in the front. I'll make up a black leather springer seat, slap a smaller fuel tank of a yet undecided design on there, delete as much wiring as humanly possible, then hopefully have some kind of something resembling a bike by the end.

Hopefully none of that sounds too crazy...at least if it is I hope I find out before I go to town with the cutoff wheel. It's still in the planning stages, but it'll pick up steam once the big stuff (frame and powertrain) get settled. Oh and if anybody want's some leftover parts don't be afraid to ask.

welcome and congrats, looks like a good one, saw one of those and my friends shop about a month ago,
weld on hard tails are easy peasy IMO I've seen people with less skills than u claim do it , but anyways good luck, and there are some people here with fab skills
love the avatar BTW

when you say easy, how easy is that? I had this idea that they would send you a few tubes and the axle brackets and tell you good luck. If it comes pre-built and you can place it on the frame without using a jig then I can swing that no problem. We've got a weld shop set up at work in the next bay over, I can just have one of them slap it on.

I see where your vibration was coming from. Someone had a chevy head on that bike.
Something in that last picture doesn't belong.

Just kidding around. Welcome to KZR! Good luck with the project.

Ah yes, leftovers from my LS1 944 build a few years back. We were using it to prop the frame up when pulling the engine. I see a motorcycle lift in the near future...

ur bike is gonna look sik

Hey, we have another guy around here who stuck a Chevy motor in a Porche. He goes by Porchev914. Bet you can't guess what model car he used. :laugh:

putting a harley style springer on a kz is not as easy as finding bearings and slap it on. Ive already did some researce into this. for starters the kz neck is much longer than the harley one then the bearing cups are smaller than the kz neck. if you want a springer on there id just have the bike shop weld a aftermarket harley neck to your frame.



the neck can be cut down to a harley size then you have to buy harley bearings and cups then to have to have a spacer made to pess into the modafied kz neck then you have to press in the harley cups. you also have to have the inside of the kz neck machined so every thing sits staight in the neck.

@testarossa - yeah that's a tough one, I was actually reading his build thread earlier, hell of a project he's taken on both with the car and the bike!

@kawman - Thanks for the heads up, with the way my luck goes nothing is ever easy and I feel this will be no exception. However, having a new neck welded on doesn't sound too terribly bad. I've found bare necks for $200 or so with bearings, caps, and a stop. Reasonable enough for me.

On the topic of springers, I'm undecided whether or not to go with a Mid-USA fork, which advertises better construction then the DNA forks, or to splurge for the more expensive custom or repop units. I'd hate to spend 1500 to 2000 just in forks, but I've read so many conflicting reviews about the DNA forks and their clones. The general consensus seems to be that, provided you aren't going any more then 5" over stock length, they're alright...but I don't want a $500 paperweight either.

Ugh...I've been down this road too many times, the "get what you pay for" side of me and my wallet are at it again. I may just chop something up this weekend...


Edit: Found a middle ground! This place sells a DIY springer kit with all the stuff needed save the tubes and rods, which are easy enough to fab up. It's got the plain industrial look I want, and I can only blame myself for poor quality! On top of that, after looking at the way the harley set up is, and the way the KZ neck is set up, I just might be able to swing my original plan of using bearings to fit the 1" stem and KZ neck, using spacers welded to the triples to take up the slack. Once i get the kit and bearings I can put my redneck engineering skills to the test, but for right now I'm going to focus on the hardtail and engine.

Got some more work done tonight, tore the engine down to the rotational assemblies.

First peek under the valve cover:



A fine example of one of many ghetto wiring patches found on this bike:



Cam bearing caps:



Scoring on exhaust camshaft:






And then I went wild with pulling all kinds of stuff off, eventually ended up here:



Cylinder walls, pretty worn out but it won't matter:



Cylinder head, had something wild going on in that last one:





And just for kicks, here's my other affairs...

Yamaha XV1900 Stratoliner S:



Kawasaki VN900B (900 classic) :






More news on the future too! After talking with Pit Stop, we're going to bore the motor out to 1075, port the head, valve job, and all your other typical rebuild goodies like undercut tranny, nice fancy black and polished finish, etc etc....

The springer front end is infinitely easier then I thought it would be, provided you build it yourself. All that needs to happen is lower the bottom triple tree on the forks to accommodate the longer KZ neck, so instead of being 7 1/8" or so like standard harleys, it'll be closer to 7 3/4" between the trees. This doesn't affect the "spring" action whatsoever, nor handling.

This weekend I plan on going to harbor freight and picking up a few tools to finish tearing the motor apart and start hacking up the frame. Can anyone tell me if the advancer nut, clutch nut, sprocket nut, and alternator nuts are left hand thread or not? I tried like hell to get them to bust loose and they're not having it...hope I'm going the right way. Also, can anyone tell me if the cycle one hardtail kit requires any part of the frame past the vertical tubes where the rear engine mount is? I'd like to chop that off while I'm doing everything else but don't want to screw myself.

Looks to be a very interesting plan. I'm liking the direction you're going in, and can't wait to see it unfold. I'm also sending you a PM.

Hey Wingman,

Go figure were headin along the same roads n on the same path already hah. So when you say college student, and refer to Tucson, that usually means UoA....?? I'm up at ASU.

Gonna keep track of your progress here for sure. Are you selling that front wheel then??? Mine has a dent in it I either need to get repaired or get another.

V/R

Kev