A tale of two Z1000's

[Z1streetfighter71]

This has been in the brew for a while now. Around the tail end of covid lock down i was on the PC fairly early one morning. Fella name of Jon in California was on at the same time over in the states on a US version of this site. He posted up that the first interested party who would be keen to buy his fairly well know bike the "phoenix" for $2500 could have her. Turns out on her maiden "ride out" he came a cropper on her and his pregnant wife to be was none to happy. I remember the build thread and jumped at the chance regardless of how much it would cost to get her all the way to Galway. This was her just after "completion" and ill use that term loosely..

120956723_10224869213660174_4842999510595156968_o.jpg (114.4 KiB) Viewed 3443 times

[Z1streetfighter71]

Anyways about 4 months after paying the sale price of $2500 i got her back to Ireland after paying just a tad over the price i paid to buy her to get her back..So $5000 to the door. She was fairly bate up. The crash happened because the forks used were way to short, Typical slap on a pair of GSXR forks and away you go..Plus the turning radius was tiny. Long story short on a long ride he was fatigued, went to avoid hitting his mate in front of him, grabbed a handful of front brake and turned, bike bottomed out and locked in the left turn. Basically flipping the bike.

[Z1streetfighter71]

This was her on day one. Poor lass was bruised but not out.

[Z1streetfighter71]

So she is a 77 A1. Now moving on to bike 2 i bought this frame on a whim for 150 euro. She had been butt f*cked by some one trying to do a streetfighter left for dead and buried in a shed for 10 years.

[Z1streetfighter71]

Bought a subframe off a scrapped bike and did a transplant and have been sitting on that saved frame for over a year and a half.

[Z1streetfighter71]

Over the tail of the covid holidays i set about sorting out the "phoenix" and as the onion layers were peeled back so was how she looked, finished her off last year and took it for a few spins but never got around to insuring her so she got garaged.

[Z1streetfighter71]

So the plan is to move everything from the 77 A1 "phoenix" to the 78 A2 frame and build the 77 back to a stock.."ish" bike. The 77 frame is braced and hacked a bit so ill redo all the weight loss to get her back to a sense of herself. But..the 78 first, the work began this week and this is the 78 as she stands now.

[Z1streetfighter71]

Excuse the kitchen photos but the workshop is full of other projects and cold... More to come.

[Hard Road]

what where the original GSXR forks off ? later 750 forks are way to short for old school frames, but the GSXR1100 forks where longer and better to use.

[Z1streetfighter71]

what where the original GSXR forks off ? later 750 forks are way to short for old school frames, but the GSXR1100 forks where longer and better to use.

correct he used Gsxr750 93 to 95 at 740mm from center axle to top yoke, even the gsxr1100 91-92 are too short 735mm with 50/54mm thickness. the Gsxr1100 from 93-94 are 775mm at 52/56 thickness and 95-98 are 765mm with 50/54 thickness same as the 750. im using a set from a 98 and are being rebuilt today.

[Hard Road]

what where the original GSXR forks off ? later 750 forks are way to short for old school frames, but the GSXR1100 forks where longer and better to use.

correct he used Gsxr750 93 to 95 at 740mm from center axle to top yoke, even the gsxr1100 91-92 are too short 735mm with 50/54mm thickness. the Gsxr1100 from 93-94 are 775mm at 52/56 thickness and 95-98 are 765mm with 50/54 thickness same as the 750. im using a set from a 98 and are being rebuilt today.

are you using the same yokes with the limited lock or going for more offset ?

[Z1streetfighter71]

[/quote]are you using the same yokes with the limited lock or going for more offset ?[/quote]

Iv made a fair few modifications to insure full lock, ill post the pics if i get the fork on tonight. Not a lover of a bike that cant turn properly ...

[Z1streetfighter71]

Here we go Hard Road, so the tank is dimpled which was done last year, on full rotation the forks are around five mil from the dimple in the tank. If the dimple wasn’t there, there was no way I would’ve got full rotation in fact on the original bike it barely moved a few degrees left and right. The setup gives me close to full rotation that you would get on a standard bike.

[Z1streetfighter71]

The dimple is fairly hard to see and the paint job i did is to hide it in the blue, the paint scheme is a nod to the blue z1000 A1. Here it is after clear coat last year, you can just about make out the dimple.

[Hard Road]

that idea crossed my mind on another Zed i built, but for me just knowing the dimple was their would do my ed in for me the tank has to be perfect, but if it works for you then spot on mate,

i did do it on an XT500 i had many years ago, I did a fair bit of off roading back then and i upgraded the suspension in it, longer shocks and a front end off a DT125R, longer thicker forks but the yokes had less off set !!! the bike was great off road but a tad heavy for a dirt bike