My road back to being a zed owner!

[dixiethedog]

I have always enjoyed this forum, the friendly people, the lovely bikes, it all ticks the right boxes for me. Sadly though, I have a shed full of bikes but no Kawasaki's!
So, to get myself into Kawasaki ownership I need to make a start on some of the current projects and then sell some of them to make a zed sized space! It might take some time but as my Dad used to say to me, "If you want to eat an elephant it starts with the first bite". (I don't actually want to eat any elephants by the way), but if I may, here goes my first bite. One day I will be in the "proper" project section!

I am starting with an exteneded swingarm. I know some folk don't care for them, but it is being done to achieve a look.
The arm at the swingarm pivot of the extended arm comes in at 216mm. The swingarm coming out of the (original) bike is 240mm. People will say a long drag arm will handle like erm... rubbish and with a 24mm gap it would. So, I bought some alloy round bar, switched the lathe on and came up with some widening bush spacer things.

[dixiethedog]

Blooming heck, my picture inserting skills don't seem to work, so I will come back to this.

[Z1streetfighter71]

Any project has got to start somewhere, swingarm is as good a place as any!

[dixiethedog]

LOL, working out how to post pictures is the second best way to start a project and I am stuck at that!

Try again.

[dixiethedog]

At last, I have worked out how to post a picture!

Now, I might be stupid, but the arm came with taper roller bearings (that looked past their sell by date) and I was not sure how to adjust them once between some frame rails? So I ordered some new needle roller bearings to match the bikes original swingarm and started from there.

I made this bearing carrier (I made a pair) to hold the new needle roller. I have knurled the edge that will fit into the swingarm (it will be pressed in, as it is tight), and I have left an outer section to give me when both are fitted a swingarm width of 240mm, which is the same as the original arm.

[dixiethedog]

I have also machined a lip into the end to accept a rubber oil seal to keep the dirt out. I am not sure if I should narrow the bearing carriers and machine some swingarm end caps? If anybody has some thoughts on this I would be interested to hear them.

[dixiethedog]

The bearing end piece things will go into each side of the arm to make up the lost width. I think that with the knurling and the tight fit that they should be secure enough for the job in hand. I could have them welded in though.

[dixiethedog]

The arm needs a good polish but should be ok once it is all sorted out.

Just as a side note, I bought a 300mm vernier gauge to do the arm width measurements. These are available on Aliexpress for about £12.00. Money well spent.

[dixiethedog]

And that is where I am at today.
I have ordered some alloy tube to make a bearing spacer and after a mis-measurement ordered new oil seals for the ends. Now it is a waiting game for the postie to arrive.

As I am going for a drag bike look I may end up making some rose jointed lock up struts and run it as a hardtail. It would be like a 2 seat chopper! But shocks would be best.

I'll report back when the postman has been.

[dixiethedog]

Sitting in the house watching rubbish on the telly got too much for me so I went back to my shed. Away from Mrs Dixiethedog who it seems has a bee in her bonnet over something.

I discovered a parcel had been slung over the fence which did brighten my day. A nice cheap and chatty AN-fitting spanner and some AN-fitting soft jaws for the vice. Ideal for fitting nice AN bits and pieces.



And whilst out there, I made a couple of spacers. They don't look like much but they are to allow a Blandit front wheel to be able to made fit into a modern day radial front end GSXR set of forks. I have not finished the inside diameter 'cos I was not sure what it is? I think it is 25mm so at present they are about 24mm. But easy enough to finish.



So all of this gives a clue to the rear end and the front end of the bike.

[dixiethedog]

I am addicted to the rubbishy sites such as Aliexpress and similar and sometimes even when I am skint I see something that I have no need for, and don't even know what I am going to do with should I buy it. Well, I have always loved the look of some of the Racefit muscle bikes that are usually fitted with endurance style twin filler caps. However, I think Racefit charge about £1000 for theirs. So, after having a chat with somebody who has a CNC I have managed to get one of these. I have nothing to fit it too, but I just love bits of shiny aluminium. I am thinking that it would cool fitted to a z650 tank, fitted side to side rather than front to back. I think I need to buy a bead roller to make a plinth to weld into the tank. More uneccessary expense.

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[dixiethedog]

Coffee drunk, and now I am off to the shed to take another bite from the elephant (which you will understand if you have read my first post) to "fork" about. I will add pics in a while.

[dixiethedog]

Arse and double arse!!!
I read a project page thing where the bike builder was putting a modern day GSXR radial braked front end into a Blandit. He kindly gave the dimensions of spacer sizers, bearing spacer size along with the bearings needed to complete the job. So, I jotted them down, bought some alloy bar and made them. Guess what? His sizes are wrong. LOL. Sitting here with a cuppa I can laugh about it now, but half an hour ago you may have heard me shout "****!!!!!". He even gave the wrong dimension of the spacer that sits in the stem hole in the top yoke for the difference in stem sizes between a blandit and a gsxr.

But at least I know where I am now. Starting again.

I had fitted a balndit 600 stem to the GSXR 2018 bottom yoke but had a niggling doubt in my head that it pressed in very easily. Firm and tight and probably alright but I pressed it back out and knurled the end before pressing it back in. Better safe than sorry and all of that.
The knurling tool i have is not great but it is better than nothing.

[dixiethedog]

Pressed back in. I have new bearings etc to go by the way.

[dixiethedog]

The spacer with no top hat was made with the measurements that are wrong.
The top hat one fits nicely.




The riser holes were already in the top yoke when I bought it. I am going to re drill them and top hat them to make things a nicer and neater fit.