New 1976 KZ900 Project

My son and I are starting a new project on a 1976 KZ900. This will be he's bike. I finished my bike a few years ago, I've attached a picture of it.

We will be upgrading the suspension so my question is what modern suspension will be the easiest to install on the old frame? I used ZX900 front end and a ZRX1200 rear end for my bike. We were thinking about using the front and rear from a 636 for his bike. Does anybody know if this is an easy swap to a 1976 KZ900 frame?

Thanks for the help!

Hi Texas KZ,
That's a very nice custom 1000. Sorry I can't answer your question about the frame mods. I'll let some of our more knowledgeable answer your question. I have a question for you: Did you know that your canister would blue the perfect color to match your painted blue accents?
Bill

Man, That is a nice bike. Best of luck on the new build.

Beautiful Bike.....check out Old Man Rock's project, he used the 636 and he goes into some detail about the front and rear conversions
kzrider.com/forum/11-projects/216290-omr-76-kz900-restoration-modification?start=0

Cognito moto hooked me up with the custom stem I needed. No crazy machining needed, just press in the replacemnt (longer) stem.

I have installed the 2011 GSXR Showa front end on my kz, BTW. and the Suziki bandit 1200 swing arm.

I was contemplating using newer kawasaki stuff, but suzki info is readily available.

i've done several conversions using the zx6/636/1000 front ends and the main thing is they come up around 3 inches shorter than the kz stuff typically.
fork extenders and gullwing style dropped upper triples are a couple of the ways to go about getting some more length out of them.
hth,

here's a shot of my 80 Z1R with a r1 front end and my own dropped triple setup.


leon

beautiful bike btw.can't wait to see what you and your son come up with.
keep us posted,
leon

Thanks. I bought the canister before I painted the bike, and it was already that color.

Thanks

Thanks, good info! We will need to do the same with the stem because we are going to put some upside down forks on. Looks like we will us a mono shock swingarm though.
Great looking project!

Thanks for the information. I've never seen gullwing triples.

You've got a great looking bike.

My son wants to do more of a cafe type look, but with modern suspension. The tail of the frame is bent so we have to rework it anyway. We hope to keep a good project log with lots of pictures for KZRider.