KZ650 project start.

In the first day of the spring I hoped to post another interesting announcement, but alas, there is some delay in one of my subcontractors work.

But I turned this delay to the good, cause I got some time to continue work on CB750 Seven Fifty and to compile a draft of future bike based on KZ-650 engine and frame, so this post is about last one.

Firstly, I decided question of suspension and wheels. Some parts I had at hand, others I found and bought. As a result KZ650 project would have fully adjustable 41mm Kawasaki ZX6R front fork in ZR-7 yokes (but may be with Zephyr 750 top yoke), 19″ Yamaha Virago 750/1100 spoked tubeless wheel. I am still thinking about which rear shocks I wish to use in this project, but rear wheel will be 17″ spoked tubeless one from Honda XL600RM (PD04) and rear swingarm I chose from Kawasaki Zephyr 550. This swingarm is aluminum, so it is light weighted, and also has eccentric chain adjusters which I like very much. I didn’t install it yet because I have to drill out frame swingarm mounting holes from 16mm up to 17mm.

Last my bought for KZ650 was a tank. I chose one from Honda CB500T which is even older then KZ and has (for my opinion, of course) very nice shapes for cafe-racer projects in whole and is extremely good for this current one. But this tank isn’t fit to KZ650 frame cause it has quite narrow tunnel, so I had to solve this question. I cut off front mounting brackets and tapped tunnel in crucial places but there was still not enough gaps to fit tank on frame properly. But I found decision for this issue, made an improvised tools and with their application expanded the tunnel.

IMG_8315 IMG_8333And such a picture I have in my garage now:

cafe_kz650_002 cafe_kz650_003 IMG_8414Looks like to be continued…

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