To set the scene: I'd been looking for a Z1000A1 or 2 for some time, but they were either too perfect or basket cases for strong money. Anyway, I got to hear of one local to me that was in bits but had lots of new spares with it and was the right sort of price. So a deal was done... progress has been sporadic since what with working full time, having 2 other bikes to enjoy (and work on) plus various other hobbies. Anyways, here goes with the first batch of photos...
- It's arrived! I need to make more room in the garage. And sort thru and see exactly what I've got....
- Sorting...
- Top shock mount bent and pushed in a bit
- LH shock mount also bent up a little bit
- RH shock mount bent up quite a bit, so much you couldn't fit new shocks (the old ones would fit but only because the rubbers were so shot...
- Taking the forks apart to rebuild them... bike came with new springs and stanchions. Note bottom yoke came bereft of paint and was going rusty, so I soon painted that myself.
- Bottom yoke painted with Hammerite. I only did this to stop the rust; also it's not like you see much of this once it's on the bike. The rest will be painted professionally (mostly)...
As you can see there was a problem with the frame. This had to go off for attention, plus I wanted to mod it a bit. The plan for the bike is for it to look like the kind of thing we used to ride back in the day, so different shocks/swingarm, 4-1 exhaust, non-standard paint job etc. So it will have a Bandit swingarm, spoked wheels with ally rims (a bit wider than standard), Yacugar shocks (no, I'd never heard of them either but they came with the bike. Apparently they used to be White Power, which is a name I remember from years ago. Nice shocks though,and eye-wateringly expensive - the receipt was in the box). The bike will be running a standard motor and airbox. And standard forks, and no rearsets. I am having different rear footrest mounts though because the standard ones welded to the frame are so ugly and nasty - the worst thing about the A1-A2 models IMHO.
Next instalment coming soon if anyone wants it!
Cheers
2006 Bonneville T100 (lightly customised) and Z1000-A1 (nearly finished!!!)
..................not cheap by any means are they.
but I'd like to use them in deference to the original owner, sadly deceased - I bought the bike of his son who'd inherited it; he was going to rebuild it but after about a year he agreed to sell it to me!
So I removed the lower bearing again... which was a right pain. I basically had to butcher it off the yoke, and getting it out of the frame was also tricky because unlike the original ball-and-race style bearings, where the race in the frame is nice and wide and gives you an easy lip to bash with a drift from above (if you get my drift), this bearing race was thinner than the inner diameter of the headstock - meaning that there was nothing visible to hit from above with the drift! Bugger. So I had to kind of chisel/lever it out bit by bit being very careful not to damage the paintwork. I just about managed it (using some hard plastic to lever against to protect the frame/paint.