Topic: Terry's Kawasaki Z1000 Mad Max Bike, my er, 2020 summer project.

[PeWe]

CB750 calipers sit very close to the spokes. Kawasaki has same design?
If it shoul be a just bolt on version caliper fitted in stock brackets I might try.

The animals we have here does often not give you time to react or even think brake when they suddenly jump out on the road.
Bambi with friends, hares and maybe a moose.

I usually think about it at around 190kmh when riding my 1005cc  K6 that accelerate to that speed very quick on 70-80 country roads without wildlife fence.

Your bike will do that more brutal!

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Brian, it's funny, a few years ago there was an underground coal fire in Morwell that took months to put out, and the smoke was so bad they were evacuating families to Melbourne to give them a break away from the smoke. Because these fires are so big (an English news service said that a couple of the fires were bigger than some European countries) there's really no-where to go, so apart from me evacuating my 91 year old mother and my older sister from the country to the city for a few days a couple of weeks ago, the folks down there closer to the fires have had no reprieve, because it's pretty bad everywhere.

Per, I think the Berringer calipers are pretty small, but I believe that they're very good quality, probably like the Performance Machine caliper I put on my Harley, beautifully made, and awesome stopping power. The one I put on the front was actually meant to go on the back, but I made up a bracket and just squeezed it in place, the spokes are almost touching the caliper, but even under heavy braking, it hasn't flexed into the spokes. (thank God)

[PeWe]

I have seen Beringer calipers at their website. Look really good except for the price. They should have a cheaper alternative still much better than Honda.

About fires...isn't an ongoing underground coal fire in USA that has been going on for decades?
I saw a show on TV about it.

[CBJoe]

I have seen Beringer calipers at their website. Look really good except for the price. They should have a cheaper alternative still much better than Honda.

About fires...isn't an ongoing underground coal fire in USA that has been going on for decades?
I saw a show on TV about it.

Centralia Coal Mine....sucker is supposed to burn underground for another couple hundred years

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia_mine_fire

[Terry in Australia]

Anyway, yesterday I finished the Brembo brake caliper installation. A condemned man needs a hearty meal, so before going out to the garage, I made my delicious Egg, Bacon and Cheese muffin. I made these for breakfast every day of my holidays, but sadly, as I went back to work on Thursday and usually start work at 6am, I only have time for cereal, so was going thru protein withdrawal.

Saturday Zed fabbing 18 Jan 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

On Friday after work I dropped into the local aluminium shop to buy a nice slab of 10mm machineable plate to make the final versions of the Brembo mounting plates from. All I'd had out in my garage was greasy 6mm thick strap when I started this last week, which may or may not have been good enough, but my theory is, if you can't tie knots, tie lots, and that goes for my lack of engineering knowledge, if you're not sure that the material you're using will be strong enough, use better material.

Saturday Zed fabbing 18 Jan 2020 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Before I cut up my $5 slab of 10mm plate, I thought I'd better make sure the design was sound, i.e, that the caliper wasn't coming in contact with the wheel, and that only the pads, and not the caliper bodies, were contacting the disc rotors.

That was all good, so using the old mounts as a template, I machined up the new plates, and I used some "Unbrako" bolts to mount everything.

Saturday Zed fabbing 18 Jan 2020 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

As we all know, Unbrako's are super high tensile bolts and super expensive too, but the down side is that they will rust as soon as I ride it on a wet day, so I'll need to find some nice stainless or even zinc plated bolts to replace them with. Over here there still isn't a lot of choice for metric fasteners at most nut and bolt shops, even though we've been metric since the 1970's. I'm sure I'll find some online. More later.

Saturday Zed fabbing 18 Jan 2020 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr



While this

[Terry in Australia]

I have seen Beringer calipers at their website. Look really good except for the price. They should have a cheaper alternative still much better than Honda.

About fires...isn't an ongoing underground coal fire in USA that has been going on for decades?
I saw a show on TV about it.

Yeah, we were lucky with the Morwell fires, apart from a section of the freeway collapsing due to cavitation when the underground coal was burned up, the authorities and mine management were able to pump water underground to flood the fire. Some folks have reported smoke still occasionally coming out of the ground in their backyards, and that's quite possible as coal can just smoulder forever, if there's sufficient oxygen.

As far as brakes go, Honda's fork design is the real culprit, the swinging caliper was their answer to ensuring even pad wear, but the design doesn't lend itself to easy adaption of non-OEM calipers. Berringer have done a fantastic job building a whole new aftermarket system for our old bikes, because the other options require a lot of compromise, such as changing the fork legs or even swapping the whole front end.

It's a pity that the Kawasaki fork legs are 36mm, or I'd think about swapping the forks into a CB750 eventually. I do have a fancy "Braking" caliper that came with Spotty's K7 that I might use in a future K2 "Bitsa" upgrade.

[mick7504]

https://www.probolt-australia.com
Terry, here you go mate.
This will test out the health and well being of the old wallet. 
Nice product but fcuking ouch. 

[spotty]

https://www.probolt-australia.com
Terry, here you go mate.
This will test out the health and well being of the old wallet. 
Nice product but fcuking ouch. 

Just had a look at a few things and even the Ti stuff seems reasonably priced
The ally stuff seems almost cheap compared to buying individual bikes and even comparable with the ally/cheese composite stuff off eBay
Probolt have a really good name so I'd guess they sell reasonable quality product

[mick7504]

I bought some 6x1 S/S Hex head engine cover bolts from them years ago and the quality and service was good.

[PeWe]

Those calipers look good!
Clearance to wheel not as much as 5mm?

I have a new disc/rotor from DSS waiting to be picked up at a UPS center when back home. I'll see if it will improve the braking power on my K2. My riding style has mostly been to avoid obstacles, see the path and WOT due to CB750 no brake option

I checked Beringer website, no options for CB750.
Is it the bracket only that is not done? Or caliper too thick inside rotor center?

[seanbarney41]

Lots of talk about the BMW k bikes.  I nabbed these calipers off one in the junk yard...and noticed tonight that a very simple adapter bracket and they should bolt on to my kz1000...

[Terry in Australia]

https://www.probolt-australia.com
Terry, here you go mate.
This will test out the health and well being of the old wallet. 
Nice product but fcuking ouch. 

Thanks Mick, I just bit the bullet and ordered their fancy stainless bolts and nuts, but I couldn't come at 3 bucks for a fcuking washer, so I'll buy some at my local nut and bolt shop for like 10 cents each......

[Terry in Australia]

Lots of talk about the BMW k bikes.  I nabbed these calipers off one in the junk yard...and noticed tonight that a very simple adapter bracket and they should bolt on to my kz1000...

Good job Sean, they look great! I'm gonna use the OEM M/C, hopefully it'll work well with those calipers.
 

[Terry in Australia]

Do you know what I hate? My failing memory, that's what. Last week I replaced the crappy home made aluminium side stand because I didn't have a good original. Even worse, I spent 100 bucks on a crappy used EBay USA item, including shipping. I also ordered new sidecover rubbers, and a few other things that I thought I must have missed back in 2018. Well yesterday, when digging through my tub of new items, I found this. Bugger.......

Sunday lazy Zedding 19 Jan 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I was lucky that my big muscle-bound thug of a son was home, because there was no way I could stretch the new spring the half inch or so required to pull it over the peg, so I steadied the bike while "Muscles" easily got the job done. Am I getting too old to be building bikes from scratch? Nah..........

The worst thing about building a hotrod bike, is that you have to rely on the accuracy/fit of aftermarket parts, and unlike OEM items, some sh1t just doesn't fit out of the box. This happened to me yesterday when the retainer for the repro ignition switch was too "shallow" so I had to buy a 50 dollar OEM retainer from England. Today it was the Japanese made rear fender eliminator. Beautifully made, but it didn't fit.

Sunday lazy Zedding 19 Jan 2020 b by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Sunday lazy Zedding 19 Jan 2020 c by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Luckily it was an easy enough fix, a couple of minutes on the bandsaw, and all was well with the world.

Sunday lazy Zedding 19 Jan 2020 a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Well what next? To fit the tail light with this setup I had to first install the ducktail, so I took the shiny new ducktail out of it's wrapper, and spent at least an hour trying to install the tail light into the back of it, as per the instructions. (in Japanese only) Not having tiny hands (maybe Web could have helped me?) I had to disassemble the special tail light bracket and install it piece by piece until it was all there. What a pain in the arse. We've all seen half-arsed engineering where one particular job (fork rebuilding, for instance) is a real chore, well aftermarket assemblies usually rely on squeezing something into somewhere it was never designed to go, and this was a great example. Anyway, it's on, thank fcuk.

Sunday lazy Zedding 19 Jan 2020 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

And really, that was about all I got done. We'd been expecting a rain storm all day, so when the skies went black and the thunder started, I decided to pack up my mess expecting flood rains. Well, it rained for a minute (no more) so was a waste of time packing up, although my wife got caught in a massive downpour only a couple of miles up the road when she was loading the car with groceries, which I thought (incorrectly, as it turned out) was hilarious, and almost had 6 x 500ml bottles of Ginger joe smashed over my head. Some folks just don't have a sense of humor..........

I decided to throw the seat and tank on (which I discovered I've fcucking dented somehow, bugger it) just to see how it's looking, and I was happy, in fact, I even sat on it and made "Vroom, Vroom" noises, which is perfectly acceptable, even if I will be 60, not 6 soon. Slowly slowly, catchy monkey. Or something like that. More soon.

Sunday lazy Zedding 19 Jan 2020 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr     

[seanbarney41]

Nice rapid progress!  My fender eliminate kit comes compliments of the previous owner, no assembly required, and consists of the stock taillight literally glued up into the hacked up tail section, lol.  You used repro z1 tail light and tail...they are slightly prettier than the z1000 parts

[web]

It's not the size of your hands, it's what you do with them mate

Which in your case seems to be coming together quite nicely, that is starting to look like a real bike now!

[Tintop]

"........As we all know, Unbrako's are super high tensile bolts and super expensive too, but the down side is that they will rust as soon as I ride it on a wet day, so I'll need to find some nice stainless or even zinc plated bolts to replace them with.."

Those bolts will start rusting if the humidity even goes up.   Some SS Button head Allen's would look good Terry, & be more aerodynamic.

[jgger]

Terry that side stand spring only requires a pocket full of coins to install. Bend it one way and stuff a coin between the coils, then bend it the other way and stuff another one in. Just keep doing that and you can make it almost fall into place. Then pull the  pins out with a pair of pliers.............easy-peasy.

The first thing ya gotta be is smarter than a spring, know what I mean?

[PeWe]

Good progress here, Terry!

[754]

Sean , I think I have same brake, one caliper and the master cylinder.
 Terry, if you use Morphy calipers or dividers , you can draw a nice radius around the top bolt on your caliper adaptors, look much cleaner.,

[web]

Love the coin trick. Gotta remember that one.

[Terry in Australia]

Terry that side stand spring only requires a pocket full of coins to install. Bend it one way and stuff a coin between the coils, then bend it the other way and stuff another one in. Just keep doing that and you can make it almost fall into place. Then pull the  pins out with a pair of pliers.............easy-peasy.

The first thing ya gotta be is smarter than a spring, know what I mean?

Thanks Jim, I did know about the coins (or washers, which is better again) but that is a time consuming pain in the arse to do in reality, as opposed to watching my muscle bound behemoth of a son almost pop a vein in his forehead in the process of stretching the spring using raw muscle power.

Thanks Sean, they do look way better without the fender, don't they? I'm just hoping that it'll pass a roadworthy inspection as is, I don't want to have to install a fender. I like the Z1 body work more than the Z1000 stuff, so I've bought all Z1 stuff for my bike, which will present some problems along the journey, but once I figure how to attach it, it'll look cool.

I was happy that I proved Johnny at Johny's vintage cycles (Z1 guy on youtube) because he said a Z1 ducktail wont fit a Z1000 frame, mine went straight on, with no mods, and I reckon the oval tail light looks heaps better that the square one? Not that I had a tail light or ducktail (or even a means to attach it) when I started.

Thanks Frank, it took me a minute to work out what you were talking about, you're right, it would look neater if it followed the curve of the caliper body, I'll remember that for my next conversion, maybe on my K2.

And thanks everyone else, I did enjoy sitting on it yesterday, but I'm wondering if my rear shocks are long enough now? Those shiny (expensive) bolts I ordered will look nice, but now I'm thinking about buying a zinc or nickel plating kit, and plating the unbrako's? I'm wondering if phosphoric acid will remove the black coating prior to plating them, or even if I need to remove the coating, apart from degreasing them? Anyone know? OK, more soon.

[754]

Terry it looks ok to caliper, what I meant was trim of excess meat around top bolt to the fork, get them all sort of having the same amount of aluminium left  around bolt head. L you got lots of thickness you could sink the bolts in or go to button heads sunk slightly.. looking good that bike with BIG Brakes.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Frank, understood. OK, so I'm still trying to get back to my routine of going to bed at 9pm, too get up at 5am, to be on the road at 5:15, to be at work before 6. By the time I get home at 3pm all those wonderful day dreams of working on the bike have been over-ridden by my desire to have a snack, a drink, and a nap, very disappointing.

Anyway, small things amuse small minds, so today I amused myself by coming up with a solution to the problem I had of having nice new footpegs, but only one mounting stud. As you can see, the OEM item is a bit unusual, it is threaded 8mm on one end, 12mm in the centre portion, and 10mm thread on the other end. They also cost $25 each (I need 4) and shipping from the US. I was gonna turn some up on my lathe until I realised that I didn't have a 10 x 1.25mm threading die, so instead I picked up some more unbrako's at my local bolt shop (I'll get some ss ones eventually) and used some copper pipe to sleeve them up to 12mm in the middle.

WEDNESDAY ZED TWERKING 22 JAN 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

It all worked well, so I test fit the el-cheapo chinese brake lines (remember, "Safety" is my middle name.......) and declared them good enough. I bought a used Yamaha FJR1300 front M/C because the one on my FJR works so well with twin 4 piston Yamaha "blue dot" calipers, and because it was half the price of a Suzuki Bandit M/C. Once it turns up, I'll do a safety test rolling it down my driveway at walking pace.........

WEDNESDAY ZED TWERKING 22 JAN 2020 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Oh and when i bought the new front footpegs, they came with new passenger footpegs, so I mounted them as well, then came inside for a snooze.........

WEDNESDAY ZED TWERKING 22 JAN 2020 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr     

[PeWe]

That bike look better and better!
You might try to paint it in Kawasaki colors with the typical stripes a la Z1-900?  Or do the Z1000 design.
Rattle can or better gun that you might have.