!PROJECT! KZ650 Cafe racer

[zeiss150]

Hi there. I started this build about 2 years ago and Its getting close to being done. Just a few more things and I'll be able to wrap it up. So let me start at the beginning.

I bought this 1978 KZ650B2 from a guy on Ebay for 250 bucks. It didn't run and it was a total piece of crap. But I could see the hidden jewel. I decided to build a cafe racer. I was inspired by this web site, cb750cafe.com - custom cafe racers. This guy has a ton of talent. So I'll give him all the credit for the cool look of the bike since I'm just copying his work. But I like Kaws over hondas so I'm using a KZ650 for my build. I used to have a KZ1000 police bike that I rebuilt and that bike was fun to ride, so I figured I get another KZ. the only down side that I can find to using A KZ is that you cant get parts any more. Anyway on with the build.

This is what It looked like when I got it


I really like the 80's "lightning bolt" :-/

So I knew I was going to do a total tear down so I started into it



plastics tank and headlight bucket.

more tear down



nice ... this bike has been sitting around for a while... Is that a spider nest?


Oh lord ... what did I get myself into?


Well lets get that engine out... 1,2,3, LIFT.


I took the valve cover off... cams look good


So I got the engine out and I cleaned it up and put a nice new coat of paint on the case. I used hitemp engine paint and it came out pretty good




I'll take the engine apart in my next post. that's where things get scary.


Thanks for reading my build thread
Matt-

[rstnick]

I'll be watching.
Looking good so far.
Have you seen this Cafe site: DO THE TON Cafe Racers - Index ?

[Nate]

Good show. I'm looking forward to this thread.

[zeiss150]

So I knew I would have to do a top end rebuild. I took the valve cover off and started into the engine. The engine hadn't run in years so who know what kind of crap was in there. The pistons looked pretty good, dirty ... but good. my compression test was not so good... I think they cam up around 120 per cylinder. Thats way to low. So anyway ... on with the pictures.



Cam chain looks pretty good, and the cams and lobes were all good.



heres a close up of the piston. as you can see it has 0.50 on the piston so that means its been rebuilt before... uuuuuugggggg where am I gonna find 0.50 oversize piston rings.


Wow look how dirty the valves and head is...




The cam towers/barings look great I hope the valves and stems are still good.


exaust and intake buckets all removed and kept in order.



So I pulled the valves ... what a pain in the *** that is with out the right tools. I finally made a spring compressor with an old socket and a C clamp


its took a long time but if finally got the jugs and valves all cleaned up... I also painted the jugs and the head. the valve stems were good and I replaced the valve stem seals ... so lets see what it looks like all together.



So I decided that I couldn't find any oversized rings and pistons so I would just hone it up and see what happens.... stupid ... I know... anyway...





I'm pretty stoked about the way the engine came out ... it just needs a lot of aluminum polishing. I wasn't looking forward to that.


Ok thats enough for tonight... I go in to the frame tomorrow.

Thanks, Matt-

[anamosity]

Excellent work.
Looking forward to the next post.

[Nate]

On a cold engine 120 PSI probably isn't too low since the spec is 140 ~ 150 PSI on a hot engine when clearances are presumably tighter.

Good work. Looks great!

[johnathon amos]

Excellent project.

[Homanmatt2]

i looked at some of the pictures on that link,some pretty cool bikes. good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

[zeiss150]

So I pulled the engine and rebuilt (well sort of) it and now all I need is a nice pretty frame to put it in. What will I do? Oh, I know... sand blasting! Lets take a look at the frame before... Enjoy



So I found a sand blaster guy that was only 20 miles away . anyway... He only charged me $70 bucks to blast everything that I gave him, frame, swing arm, center stand, side stand, battery box ... yeah, that's all. Once it was blasted i had a beautiful clean steel surface to prime. I used a nice rattle can duplicolor primer. It worked pretty well... so far. I thought about power coating but they didn't have a gold color... at all. they had yellow in a bunch of different shades and they had a bronze that was nice... but nothing even close to gold. So I went with a duplicolor that I picked out from Pepboys... yeah that's right Pepboys. Don't knock it till you've tried it. It took me 4 small cans and 2 large cans of clear coat ... but this is what it came out like. Put your sunglasses on.









I really like the way the frame came out... It looks clean and BRIGHT. Now that the frame is done I need to work on the triple tree and all the other stuff. So I spent about a zillion hours sanding and polishing the top tree and forks. Seriously ... it takes FOREVER. 125, 220, 400, 1500 grit wet sand paper then followed up by mothers polish. this is what that looks like...



I put the cafe bars on after I polished it just to see what it would look like.
The bottom tree is steel so I just painted that black. It looked great too.

Here is the top and bottom trees on the bike with my new KZ1000 tank .So far so good.



Tomorrow I'll post up the pictures of the new shocks and all the gory details of relacing the rims .... Yeah that's right... I put new spokes on my rims... and they said I couldn't do it... WRONG.


Until tomorrow....
Matt-

[clifftt]

Thanks for taking the time to show us the evolution of your project. Really looking forward to the rest of the show!

[elr658]

You sir, GET IT!!

[buckles]

man you have done a great job! good work, looking forward to seeing it finished

[zeiss150]

First of all let me say thank you to all the people that have posted nice comments. I'm glad that you guys are enjoying what I've done.

So I got it in my head that I would replace the spokes on my rims. The spokes are originally steel with a plating on them, so after years of neglect they were super RUSTED. The rims themselves were in pretty good shape a little they are chrome so they stood up to the elements pretty good. The had some pitting and other problems but nothing that some 0000 steel wool wont fix up.

I did some internet searching and everything and everyone that I came across told me that I couldn't do it and it shouldn't be done. "leave it to the professionals" they told me. But I looked backed to when I was a teenager and I remember fixing the spokes on my bicycle... I don't remember it being that hard. I found a website that was really helpful, it had step by step instructions on how to do it.

Dan's Motorcycle

This is a really good read if your interested in doing this.

So now I needed to find new spokes... Thank God for the internet. I found
Buchanan's spokes and the most awesome part about it was that they are literally DOWN THE STREET FROM MY HOUSE. Score! I went to Buchanans and told them what kind of rims I had and they made up the spokes right then and there... Stainless steel spokes with nickle plated nipples. Front and back rims cost about $200. If I wanted them to lace the rims for me it would have been another $150 per rim... Wheres the fun in that. I took my new spokes home and used some "mothers polish" on them and the shined like a mirror.

I took the old tires off (well I had them taken off... I'm not crazy... I've heard horror stories about tire removal) and then I dismantled the old spokes off the rim... I payed VERY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE LACE PATTERN . this is what that looked like.



I made a point to remove the spokes one at a time and replace them with the new stainless steel spoke. the spokes have an "inside" and an "outside" and you can't mix the two up.

The next think I did was to make up a "jig" to true the rim. I used a steel plate 19"x19" I think and two 1" square tubing 15" long.... Then I welded them to the plate.... You'll see. Then you cut some v grooves into the ends of the 1" tubing (so the wheel didn't roll off the jig... you'll see.)

Oh here's the rim all clean and ready to be laced.



Ok I put the hub on a table and placed the rim around it, then i began the tedious task of lacing. The key is GO SLOW AND TAKE YOUR TIME. "hmmmm this one go's here, ... That one goes there... hmmmmm" and so on. first you put the nuts on finger tight its important to not over tighten any of the screws. If you over tighten one side more than the other the rim with never true. Tighten... tighten... tighten etc. etc. etc....









Once you have the spokes "loosely" tightened then you can put it on the jig




I used the axle to hold the wheel on the jig. The axle just "sits" in the v groove that I cut earlier. Now that the rim is hand tight... you need to put a dial micrometer on the wheel and start tightening. The goal is 70 inch pounds I THINK ... i did it over a year ago and I'm having a hard time remembering... if you decide to do it Buchanans will tell you the exact #/inch torque. Anyway, you tighten and spine the wheel... tighten and spin... tighten and spin. The dial micrometer will move up and down until you tighten all the spokes evenly. It take time... lots of time.



The dial micrometer needs to be between 20 thousands + or - 0. So if you look at the dial indicator you need to have it between the 80 and the 20. once you have it "hovering" around 0 when you spin the wheel .... your done.... with the first adjustment. then you need to adjust the sided to side... same procedure 20 thousands over or under, tighten or loosen to get the dial to as close to zero. it took me 2 times on each angle.

After I was all done I wanted to make sure i did it right so I took it to Bucanans and asked them to "check my work" well they put it on there jig and IT WAS PERFECT. i was pretty shocked ... The bucanan guy was really surprised.

With a good job pat on the back from bucanans I had my new tires mounted and got ready to put them on my *****'n bike.


Tomorrow I'll show you pictures of my rolling chassi! Stay tuned sports fans.

Matt-

[Killbert]

absolutely fantastic. Keep it up! I just met a fellow next door who is building a cb750 into a cafe. He is as meticulous as you! I hope it comes out great.

[Rocket_88]

Great work so far. If you do get yours looking like one of Carpy's CB750s, it'll look schweeeeeet!!

[solitary]

You have some serious props from me, I'll mess with spoked wheels but only on dirt, I don't have the patience to do it on dirt wheels, but I don't have the money to pay someone so I find the patience and reward said patience with beer, beer costs less than wheel truing.

But for some reason, I think it's traditionally done center wheel first, then up and down and then side to side? I'm not questioning, I'm asking because I'd like to know. Oh, and I use a nail clamped to my work bench, so I have slightly higher tolerances than you. By about 10 times, I'd guess.

I simply don't have the nerve to do it on a street bike. Way to go.

[zeiss150]

Once I had my rims dialed in I put some pretty good meats on them and I was all ready to build my rolling chassis. Oh wait... I need shocks, damn it. Ebay here I come. before you start busting on me for getting my shocks on ebay...remember this is a budget build and I think they are at least as good as the factory shocks If not way better.

So I got them and put them on. I think they look great.



The swing arm was a bit of a pain to get on but it was easier than lacing the rims. or putting the engine in. Oh ... and notice that the chain isn't on... duuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh. I didn't think that one through. hahaha. anyway







now for the forks and wheels, the lowers on the forks took me a long time to hand sand and polish, but it was worth it.



I like the way it shines


Look at that brake hub shine.


Ok so the next time I'll put that 250lbs of aluminum into the frame... cross your fingers.

Matt-

[crazydave]

Wow, you win my award for most crazed enthusiast

[NCDave]

Nice progress!

[Andy the gringo]

Any special reason you mounted the front wheel backwards?