Z1000 Money Muncher

[Ginger Bear]

Just had the 'official' quote for my new bottom yoke & fork extensions. It was never gonna go down, it has gone up (suprise, suprise). but not ridiculously. The original quote of £300.00 was + VAT, which I forgot to mention.
The new quote goes like this;
Fork Extensions x 2 @ £48.40 each
Bottom Yoke £271.25
Stem £35.00
VAT is £60.46
Total £463.51

The company doing the work is called KM Custom Engineering Ltd, in Gloucester, run by a chap called Keith, who owns a very modified Z1000 himself.
http://www.kmcustom.co.uk
So far the service has been excellent, I was offered three cups of tea, within 5 minutes of me visiting (no biscuits though, I know this could put some of you off!). I received the quote in 2 days as promised.
I have been quoted 2 weeks for the work to be done, but told to allow up to 4.
I have no problem with these lead times, what does p*ss me off is people who quote a time for the job (just to get the job sometimes), then it goes on week n' weeks after that. I used a 'custom' company in east sussex, who did this to me, the work was shite when it came back too. (Deep breaths) Arrgh, I'd better not get started.
Will post more on the yoke/extensions when I have them.

[Pigford]

GB says:

So far the service has been excellent, I was offered three cups of tea, within 5 minutes of me visiting (no biscuits though, I know this could put some of you off!).

Watching this with interest.... Sounds fair enuff so far....

Gonna need a thorough report & photo's pleeze

[neilbarrett]

i had some zxr 750 forks extended by having extended tubes fitted,cost £200 by uk suspension in keighly

[Ginger Bear]

Seems these fork extensions could be good value!
I am sorting out the internals myself. Hopefully I will have some more bar delivered tomorrow, so I can make up some extensions for the damper rods. The first attempt was cack as I tried to use 10mm dia tube, but by the time I'd run a die down it the wall thickness was too thin. MkII version will be bar, drilled out 6mm, giving a 2mm wall thickness, close to what Mr K did originally. Will post pictures of my (fork) internals when I,ve done a proper job. Yoke & extensions will be pictured as soon as.

[brian 450]

The East sussex company you are refering to made some of the parts on my R1

[Geoff Meager]

Brian ..... that looks F***ing MEAN

[brian 450]

Thanks Geof. It's been in Streetfighters mag issue 166 Dec 2007 but it had a different seat unit then. And it is in this years Crossbow calender. been a few miner changes this year like Harris rearsets and Renthal fatbars. Brian.

[knut]

welcome gb ,and brian too ! i must say ye have two of the nicest zeds i,ve ever seen and that r1 isn,t too bad either
question for gb, i,m playing with the idea of fitting zxr front end to my zed ,apart from being a bit lower,how much steering lock did you have ? or did you alter something else?

[mick znone]

think the drinks container looks a bit naff, do you use a straw,had one of those on my 5 speed racer at school. each to their own

[Jappen]

What the F...K Brian what a BEAST!, dos it bite
Sayd it before but you are the man whit the right

[Pigford]

Mega Awesome R1...........

The new big-bang concentric crank R1 is due out soon....

[Ginger Bear]

Brian, I will try and dig out the pictures of what the 'east sussex' company made/butchered for me. looking at that R1, makes me wonder are we talking about the same company?

[Ginger Bear]

Hi Knut,

Thanks for the welcome.

If you are thinking of converting your Zed to a ZXR front end, the easiest way is to fit a Z1000/900 stem into the ZXR bottom yoke, then bolt the whole lot to your Zed. This will give you two problems.
1: you will lose a lot of lock, because 'modern' forks/yokes dont seem to have much offset (I would describe this as how far forward the fork legs are compared to the stem position). Your original Zed will have the forks/stem positioned to make quite a deep triangle when viewed from above, the 'modern' stuff will have a much flatter triangle, meaning your forks will t**t the tank much sooner.
2: You will lose a lot of ride height at the front, especially if fitting a 17'' wheel.
I would consider having a complete new set of yokes made, this would probably work out cheaper & easier in the long run. You could have the offset made the same as a standard Zed, then have them stepped down, to give you some of your ride height back. Mr Pigfords yokes are a good example of stepped/doglegged yokes. I have seen pictures on here somewhere. I'm sure Mr P would post it again.
The reason I am going the route I am, is cos I,ve gone too far to turn back. I spent a small fortune having the top yoke made (& I am attached to it!) I have read some where recently that ZX9R B forks are longer, maybe thats the way to go?
Hope the above helps. GB

[tlc]

Jeez

I suppose the gun rack is under the seat

[Ginger Bear]

New Shiney bits. . . . . . . . lovely
And even better still, these have been made with my own fair hands.

What you can see pictured is the spring spacers (I have made these 100mm, as opposed to 90mm like all the other parts as I would like to remove a bit of the 'static sag' & this is a cheaper way than new springs)

Damper rod extensions, damper rod connecters, nuts & rebound damping adjuster rod.
One assembley is complete, the other in pieces.
Also pictured is the first attempt at a damper rod extension
I ordered some M10x1.0 nuts & they were massive (17mm across flats) so I cunningly drilled out some M8 nuts & re-tapped them with a M10x1.0 thread. (I'd like to say that was my idea, but if truth be known it's a tip I picked up from streetfighters recently)
Still waiting for 'the call' from my yoke carver, but it's only been a week, so I will be patient. In the meantime I might tackle the pesky oil leak (again) coming from the alternator grommet.