Z1OwnersClub GB

A few of you said I should post my project that I've had for just over a year now, so I've finally got round to starting it (the posting that is, not the project!).
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...

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

Please do keep us posted on progress

Good stuff good luck with the project keep the pics coming

TiBolts wrote:Next instalment coming soon if anyone wants it!
Cheers

Count me In
Just 'Googled' Yacugar shocks -nice ..................not cheap by any means are they.

Instalment 2...
I got new (pattern) fork stanchions with the bike. The originals were pretty badly pitted. There were also some Yacugar fork springs but when I came to strip and rebuild the forks, the springs were the wrong ones - but the stanchions were correct. So I checked the length of the old springs and they were well within tolerance so I refitted them. Plus new fork seals, drain screws and gaskets, new washers and circlips and fork boots - the old ones were a bit hard and cracked.
I had trouble getting the forks apart - the tops of the damper rods were unlike any I'd seen before, and the A1 is clearly different to later models. Instead of there being a hole that you can jam a taper or a dowel into, these had a round top with two subtle flats on, so I had to get some 12mm steel tubing and make my own tool to hold the damper rods and stop them turning - as in the pictures. I found someone online who'd done the same thing, and it worked fine.

I couldn't rebuild them straight away because the lowers were going off to be powder coated. I'd decided to do them black like the ones on my 2006 Bonneville, 'cos I like the way it looks. I should also explain at this point that I got (very) shiny new Harrison Billet 4-pot calipers in with the parts that I got with the bike, to replace the original front ones - and these being so shiny I thought with a polished ally rim, stainless spokes, chrome front mudguard and shiny brakes it would all look a bit too blingy. The idea is that the bike will have a good mix of black and chrome/polished alloy when finished.

This is fun, ain't it?
No, those shocks are crazy - they were about 800 quid 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!
Also the shocks are black and will help with the overall scheme.
By the way, please don't think I'm flash 'cos I have a Snap-On tool chest - the top bit was second hand and I've owned it for about 35 years... plus the tools inside. I was in the bike trade (parts manager) for 15 years and we used to buy kit from the Snap-On van on tick, paying about 2 quid a week... eventually after enough time you build up a decent toolkit!

Good luck with he resto - sounds good, keen to see how she develops.
Keep the pics coming.

Cheers Tim

Enjoying this looking forward to more

This is a real basket case!
I like to buy them that way.
There are allways surprises along the way when opening boxes and finding parts. Mostly good, sometimes bad surprises, but fun all day long!
Zeds the way aha aha I like it!
Keep the postings coming and good luck with the build!
GrtZ
Philippe

TiBolts wrote:By the way, please don't think I'm flash 'cos I have a Snap-On tool chest - the top bit was second hand and I've owned it for about 35 years... plus the tools inside. I was in the bike trade (parts manager) for 15 years and we used to buy kit from the Snap-On van on tick, paying about 2 quid a week... eventually after enough time you build up a decent toolkit!

It's okay, we can tell you're common as muck

Looks a great project, especially for lock down.

Instalment 3...
While all the fork and other malarkey was going on (including doing the valve clearances on my 1996 ZX6R - blimey old Zeds are much easier to work on aren't they! 16 valves and cams out to get to the shims, and everything's tiny and crammed in. But I digress...) I was getting some frame mods done and the mountings welded to the Bandit swingarm to convert it for twin shock use. And trying to work out how the stance would/should be - I don't want it jacked up at the back particularly. This ain't a sportsbike...
As you can see I'm using GPZ600 rear footrest hangers (as advised by ChrisNI - thanks). I got the parts for the swingarm (including bushes to allow it to fit in the frame with the standard swingarm pivot bolt) and new top shock mounts from Dave Solomon of Butchered Classics fame, as he's near me in Cheltenham. But it turns out Bandit swingarms are offset so the left top shock mount needs to be a bit further out than the RH one. I was a bit perturbed by this but to be honest, with the damage to the frame I had to get something done to fix it so decided to go with it. Luckily Gia Engineering had a jig for a Z1000 frame by chance, as they are/were building an ally frame for one. So they checked the frame for straightness and welded in the top shock mounts, PMC-style. Because of the deeper shock mounts on the swingarm, and as I already have the shox which are the same length as standard, the back end would be jacked up but with the longer swingarm it was possible to put the mounts further back on the swingarm. I see that a lot of people move the top mounts and really lay the shocks down but it looks wrong to me - this way I just get the shocks a bit more off vertical compared to standard but it's not too extreme. However, because of the design of the Yacugar shox and the layback, the top of the damper body hits the grabrail so I had to file it away to create clearance. It needed rechroming anyway.


Then the frame and bits went off for blasting and powdercoating at RPA Motorcycle Powdercoating in Bristol, who did a very good job for not much money and did all the masking too.

Next up: putting the forks back together and some other stuff.

That's all looking rather nice.

Even though the photo quality isn't so good as the rest, it's good to mock up with a bit of bodywork (duck tail) for visual stimulation

Pigford wrote:That's all looking rather nice.

Even though the photo quality isn't so good as the rest, it's good to mock up with a bit of bodywork (duck tail) for visual stimulation

Yes thanks - you're right, a bit of mocking up does wonders for motivation. I have some more photos coming soon! Also I thought I had some of the shiny new wheels but I can't find them so I'm going to have to unbox the wheels again and photograph them... with my proper camera of course ;)

Instalment 4... are you bored yet?
Actually, I really like looking at photos and descriptions of other people's projects. It reminds me I'm not the only one having trouble...
Well here are the forks going back together...
Then I realised how manky the original top nuts were. I polished them up a bit. I suppose I could really go at them and remove all the scratches and pitting, but some of them are quite deep. Actually I quite like the slightly scarred look showing the age and history. And I can always polish them a bit more sometime later.
Finally, the forks were together, so I wrapped them up and put them in a safe place. They won't be used in anger for some time to come

Then I put the steering head bearings in. This turned into a bit of a 'mare - I used a new taper roller set that came with the bike, but having fitted the lower one and inserted the stem, I found that the yoke wasn't going up far enough - this was partly because I'd also fitted the combined washer and seal thingy that sits under the bearing to keep crap out. Although this was pretty thin, it lifted the inner bearing up a little and this combined with the bearing being a tiny bit too deep meant that a) the lockstop didn't engage properly, the yoke being too low, and b) there wasn't really enough thread sticking out of the top for the castellated nut to go on satisfactorily, in my view. 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.
Then I sourced a nice new pair of NSK bearings off eBay and they seemed just the job, so I fitted them and all was good.
Until next time...