78 KZ650SR

This bike was given to me by a family member who can’t ride anymore. I’ve known this bike since I was a kid so it’s sentimental and staying for good once it’s finished! 

Plans are to completely overhaul this bike. Rebuilt it top to bottom but with modern upgrades. 

Triple tree front end, new swing arm, better shocks, wheels/tires, clean up the frame and get rid of a lot of attachment points so I can make everything hidden under the seat. Powder coat the frame. Engine rebuild. (How in depth will depend on the tear down). MotoGadget buttons to clean everything up along with the unit blue (really excited to play with that)

that’s off the top of my head and now here’s some progress that I made today.

I couldn’t believe the rat nest of wires for this thing! Not to mention it had a lot of “tinkering” in the harness, to say it nicely.

what do you guys think as far as the rebuild goes? It’s not going to be the fastest bike out there, but I would like it to be peppy and I never got to ride it to see how it was. So I guess I’m asking for all your opinion on a conservative upgrade on the motor. 720 kit? 

Thank you!
 

might leave the easy rider rear bar off 

That is FOR SURE staying off. Lol

The wiring harness looks OK but it could probably use some new correct bullet connectors.  I have a 78 SR that I'm rebuilding and my harness was far worse than yours.

There were quite a few random wires not connected to anything, just open wires/poor splices and some just wrapped and taped together. Glad to get rid of it though because the new wiring will be minimal. 

Save the old parts.  

They are worth money to a restoration specialist.

These parts are junk. I don’t know who I would even contact to send them off.

If you're going to throw that exhaust away I'll take it and pay the shipping cost.  

Have you had any older bikes before ? or any bikes at all ? I ask because I'm also in Australia and parts are bloody hard to get here, and what you refer to as "junk" is quite usable.
I'd do it up as a stock SR650, they're quite rare down under . I've see harnesses far worse than that one.
Do you have any experience with front and rear conversions ? You can't just buy a front end or swingarm and bolt them on, it doesn't work like that. There's all sorts of geometry to get right, if you want it to perform well,  then there's mating wheels, chain line , bearings,brakes , spacers and a lot of other variables. I've done this multiple times and most,  {nearly all} , conversions I've seen are poorly executed... It's a lot of work to get right..

Yeah I’ve been around these styles of bikes for a while. Brother in law had been through quite a few bikes over the years and we both wrench a little bit. Personally have had 2 Harley’s and a bonneville. Still have my dyna.

I’ll be doing a stem from cognito moto with a zx6 front end. Swing arm is to be determined. I am in no rush for this build. It will all be dealt with properly, mocked up and all that. I’d like to say I’m pretty OCD so skipping proper steps will not happen. 

wrote:

Yeah I’ve been around these styles of bikes for a while. Brother in law had been through quite a few bikes over the years and we both wrench a little bit. Personally have had 2 Harley’s and a bonneville. Still have my dyna.I’ll be doing a stem from cognito moto with a zx6 front end. Swing arm is to be determined. I am in no rush for this build. It will all be dealt with properly, mocked up and all that. I’d like to say I’m pretty OCD so skipping proper steps will not happen. 

I was born in the early 60's so I grew up with these bikes, had a pile of Honda 750/4's, old Suzuki's, Kawasaki's and a few in between...!I think the ZX6 only has about 25mm offset in their triple clamps, that'll take the nimble little 650 out to barge like Harley steering, kind of counterproductive on a little 650. I've had Devon at Cognito Moto {through a friend of mine stateside} , make me custom offset triple clamps to keep the steering correct on another long gone project. If you're using the 17 inch wheel that also changes things slightly, but will change things massively at the rear, it will put the chain line out miles, the 17 inch wheels are generally far too wide at 5 inches plus, a fairly easy swingarm conversion is using the Katana alloy swingarm, 2 small 2.2 to 2.3mm spacers either side, I used precision shims, and it bolts right up, it's a little bit longer than the stock are but not long enough to screw up handling.... Also fork length needs to be considered, most Jap front end swaps,  the forks are not long enough.  I've just done a couple of bearing swaps and made up new spacers to fit Kawasaki Z1300 wheels to a Triumph speed triple 45mm Showa front end , which is going on the front of a 1982 GPZ frame, I had to get custom made fork tubes 100mm longer to make the front ride height work. Nothing is as simple as it seems...My current project. 1st pic, the original bike, 2nd pic with swingarm and front end installed, 3rd and 4th pics are how it will look finished bar a pain job and the seat being redone..

Probably going to clean the exhaust up and sell it! I’ll post it once I clean it up!