Topic: Terry's new new redneck K0 "Special"..........

[grcamna2]

Because I built my 1975 Kawasaki Z1-B 900 (1100) from parts (I started with a bare from from a seller in Oz, then bought close numbered engine cases from a seller in the US, wheels from Oz and the US, forks from the US, etc etc) I initially bought a lot of repro stuff, which I'm "backing up" with good used OEM parts date stamped (all Z1 major components were date stamped) to suit my 1975 build.

I have a good used tank, sidecovers, ducktail, front and rear fenders, tank and sidecover badges on their way to Oz from Nils Menten in the US, so with all the other OEM parts I already have, the only parts I probably won't bother with is an OEM exhaust, for either of the Kawasakis. I have no need to ever sell them or put them back to stock, so when I turn up my toes, my sons can either keep riding them, or sell them, and the new owners can pony up the dough for repro pipes if they're gonna go down the restoration path, to me they're just bikes that I want to ride. Of course if I find some OEM pipes going cheap, I may jump on them, and hang them up with the other stuff.

Terry,I have a friend in Michigan who's a 'breaker' and occasionally he will find a set of OEM original 4into4 pipes for CB750s and a few other bikes hanging up in the rafters of some of the many garages;I'm surprised how many bikes in Michigan have been inside all their life and I'm always looking at his Craiglist listings for excellent parts.

[Terry in Australia]

No worries Per, and no rush as I think I’ll finish my “1428” bike build next (and have people here argue that I should install OEM 4 into 4 exhaust pipes on it, no doubt…..) so not desperate for the swingarm yet.

That's funny. We're installing a Delkavic 4 into 1 on the 80' GS 1100E and nobody is saying that we need to install the stock exhaust on it. I guess it's just too ugly. 

A lot of folks here, particularly those who might be old, but still relatively new to bikes may not even be aware of big Suzy's mate, they were probably the best bikes of the late 1970's, but at the time were fairly slow sellers in comparison to CB750's a Z1/KZ900/KZ1000's. I bought my first GS1000 in 1995 after an army mate gave me a GS1000 based drag bike, and I took the engine out of the frame and bought a GS1000 with a blown gearbox and installed the drag bike engine.

I went on to have several GS1000's including 3 of the collectable "S" models, a shaft drive "G" bike and a GS750 until I sold my last GS1000 around 2011. They had all the grunt of the Kawasaki engines that Suzuki "borrowed" their design from, but they actually went around corners, had decent suspension and stopped. Back then, especially in America, apart from HD, it was Honda, then Kawasaki, Yamaha, and finally, Suzuki.

Sadly over here they were always pretty popular, so hard to find a good one for cheap, I could buy a 1200 Bandit for way less than your GS1100.

[Terry in Australia]

Terry,I have a friend in Michigan who's a 'breaker' and occasionally he will find a set of OEM original 4into4 pipes for CB750s and a few other bikes hanging up in the rafters of some of the many garages;I'm surprised how many bikes in Michigan have been inside all their life and I'm always looking at his Craiglist listings for excellent parts.

Well if you see a set for either my Z1-B or my CB750 K0 Bill, let me know? You're right though, the front wheel I bought for my K0 looked like it was maybe a year old, not 52....

[grcamna2]

Terry,I have a friend in Michigan who's a 'breaker' and occasionally he will find a set of OEM original 4into4 pipes for CB750s and a few other bikes hanging up in the rafters of some of the many garages;I'm surprised how many bikes in Michigan have been inside all their life and I'm always looking at his Craiglist listings for excellent parts.

Well if you see a set for either my Z1-B or my CB750 K0 Bill, let me know? You're right though, the front wheel I bought for my K0 looked like it was maybe a year old, not 52....

Terry,I'll give Dan a message if he does find them for the 75? Z1-B.
He seems to sell all his CB750 parts to just 3 separate sellers who somehow find out when he gets the parts/bikes in his van,then these customers/builders/restorers are waiting at his place when he gets in with his van.

[akaRandakk]

Mike Nixon does fabulous work. Was he affiliated with Randakk’s?  I was thinking he was owner or part owner. Randakk’s unfortunately sold their business to the same group that owns Z-1 Enterprises and XSCycles (?) The later is for Yamaha XS650 bikes, catering to them...
They Randakk posts, on their emailing lists, have been about 2x as frequent and push product far more than previous I recall having a smattering of tips and how-tos in many of their emailing. Maybe the emails have changed a lot and I didn’t notice previously. I have not been impressed with the frequent emails and the heavy push of product, even products I have no interest in, when I signed up for emails from them I recall having specified the model of bike I own. A dirty word by many here and they don’t want it uttered in other threads. That’s OK, they haven’t owned a Maggot and can’t appreciate it for what it is and is not. A man and a bike has to know its limitations... to paraphrase & adapt Clint Eastwood’s famous line.

Maybe Mike isn’t affiliated other than a contributor...
Hopefully Randakk’s doesn’t change their suppliers under the new management or they will ruin a good source of products for what they carry/carried.

David

David..... Mike is still going strong. Been dealing with him for 20 years, since my CBX (he did the carbs). Check out <motorcycleproject.com>. Amazing tech source, tons of booklets and online resource.

The thing I really love about the Internet is that heresay, speculation, gossip and outright misinformation sometimes trump fact.

But, nobody elected me Policeman of the internet.  Thank goodness for that! I don't have the time for that sort of drama.

I will correct this entry.

Nike Nixon has never been involved as an owner or part owner of Randakk's Cycle Shakk. I'm the founder and I should know. For a while, Randakk's sold a few of Mike Nixon's booklets. In the past, Mike purchased many proprietary products from Randakk's to support his carb rebuilding business ...mainly in the CBX space. For a variety of business reasons, neither of these 2 relationships are significant today.

In 2016, I sold Randakk's to a group in Tampa, Florida. I'm still involved. The new owners have done a terrific job managing and growing "my baby." Today, Randakk's is housed in a 12,000 square foot distribution center. My space was only a small fraction of that. Today, Randakk's offers 20+ times the number of products for vintage Hondas compared to what I was doing in 2016.

Regarding email marketing:  I did a fair amount of that ...generally tied to tech tips and events. Modern web merchants have different sensibilities. They are more likely to send out more frequent emails with more "product-oriented" content. Not my preference, but it's the nature of things these days. "Unsubscribing" is the best option if this is a bother to anyone.

[scottly]

Mike Nixon does fabulous work. Was he affiliated with Randakk’s?  I was thinking he was owner or part owner. Randakk’s unfortunately sold their business to the same group that owns Z-1 Enterprises and XSCycles (?) The later is for Yamaha XS650 bikes, catering to them...
They Randakk posts, on their emailing lists, have been about 2x as frequent and push product far more than previous I recall having a smattering of tips and how-tos in many of their emailing. Maybe the emails have changed a lot and I didn’t notice previously. I have not been impressed with the frequent emails and the heavy push of product, even products I have no interest in, when I signed up for emails from them I recall having specified the model of bike I own. A dirty word by many here and they don’t want it uttered in other threads. That’s OK, they haven’t owned a Maggot and can’t appreciate it for what it is and is not. A man and a bike has to know its limitations... to paraphrase & adapt Clint Eastwood’s famous line.

Maybe Mike isn’t affiliated other than a contributor...
Hopefully Randakk’s doesn’t change their suppliers under the new management or they will ruin a good source of products for what they carry/carried.

David

David..... Mike is still going strong. Been dealing with him for 20 years, since my CBX (he did the carbs). Check out <motorcycleproject.com>. Amazing tech source, tons of booklets and online resource.

The thing I really love about the Internet is that heresay, speculation, gossip and outright misinformation sometimes trump fact.

But, nobody elected me Policeman of the internet.  Thank goodness for that! I don't have the time for that sort of drama.

I will correct this entry.

Nike Nixon has never been involved as an owner or part owner of Randakk's Cycle Shakk. I'm the founder and I should know. For a while, Randakk's sold a few of Mike Nixon's booklets. In the past, Mike purchased many proprietary products from Randakk's to support his carb rebuilding business ...mainly in the CBX space. For a variety of business reasons, neither of these 2 relationships are significant today.

Would Mr. Nixon be one of the experts that previously worked on your 550?
http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php/topic,187711.0.html

[PeWe]

That is a really good guideline I have missed. 
I have no CB550, but how to diagnose with work order is a good one.

The plug photo too.
I have seen a small darker spot on the porcelain just under the center electrode on my plugs too and wondered what that is.

What type of o-rings will work best?
I use viton between case-cylinder-head.
But I have got the idea that NBR can seal better in places were not really hot or less pressure. It's more rubber sticky while Viton feels a little bit plastic.

[akaRandakk]

Regarding:

"Would Mr. Nixon be one of the experts that previously worked on your 550?"

No. Another professional carb rebuilder did the work I reference in the Case Study at this link:

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php/topic,187711.0.html

[Don R]

 That's a good lesson on several small details creating a larger problem.

[RAFster122s]

Apologies Mr Washington I was misinformed...

[akaRandakk]

Apologies Mr Washington I was misinformed...

No worries. All good. Thanks.

[bear]

Sadly over here they were always pretty popular, so hard to find a good one for cheap, I could buy a 1200 Bandit for way less than your GS1100.

Speedway sidecar racers contributed to their rarity as well. They where the engine of choice for a lot of us back in the late eightie's and early ninety's. The only weak spot was the bevelled primary gear. If you dumped the clutch too hard off the line it would push the clutch through the side of the engine. A bit disconcerting when your kneeling over it.

[Terry in Australia]

Did they have the bevel drive clutch on the 16 valve GSX1100's as well as the GS1000's Brian? I thought they would have fixed that, I imagine (but don't know) that they did for the GSXR1100?

Anyhoo, today was a great day. After a breakfast of peanut butter on home made wholemeal toast the doorbell rang and to my surprise, it was the UPS man with 3 boxes, one huuge, containing the Kawasaki Z1-B OEM bodywork and fenders that I'd bought from Nils Menten a couple of weeks ago.

Z1-B bodywork 6 Feb 2022 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

It was actually better than I'd expected. I've always liked black Z1's, so I think I might put the bodywork on my 1428 build when I restificate it back from the dead next. I also had a mate offer me a used Z1 front brake MC (mine's a repro) for $100, so I grabbed that too, just to go in the "OEM box" for if and when I ever sell it. Anyway, I hid all the parts and drove over to the self storage place, so I could go for a ride on the magnificent K0. I rolled it out into the sunlight and fired it up so the engine would have a chance to warm up while I put on my jacket, helmet and gloves.

I'd filled it up on the return leg of my last ride, so I didn't need to stop for fuel which was good, because it was ridiculously expensive out on the highway. I stopped at a little town in the middle of nowhere and took a couple of pics as I gave my poor back a rest, the "Road less travelled" is my favourite, but it is also the "Road most pot holed"

K0 Sunday 6 Feb 2022 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

K0 Sunday 6 Feb 2022 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

K0 Sunday 6 Feb 2022 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I rode on to Heathcote and stopped at the bakery for a meat and vegetable pastie for lunch. I wandered back out to the bike, and a Harley guy was admiring the old red rocket. He was a bit younger than me, but obviously liked old CB750's, so we had a yack before we hopped on our bikes and roared off in different directions. I got back to the self storage place and realised that I've now done 2400 trouble free miles on the K0, and as the last oil change was at 500, I'd better order a new filter and this time I might even pony up the dough for some "Motorcycle Only" oil, instead of the car oil that I've been using, without issues. All in all, a great day!  

[bear]

Did they have the bevel drive clutch on the 16 valve GSX1100's as well as the GS1000's Brian? I thought they would have fixed that, I imagine (but don't know) that they did for the GSXR1100?

Yep......don't know about the GSXR's though, they where after my time.

[akaRandakk]

Excellent thread. Very interesting!

[Alan F.]

Happy 2400 Terry! Looks like a winning combination.

[BenelliSEI]

This K0 just looks”RIGHT”. And putting the miles on it makes it even better. Great build.

[BenelliSEI]

Terry..... Finished up the fork tubes for the S/C today. What fork oil are you using in the K0? Thanks!

[Terry in Australia]

G’day John, I just used ATF, from memory? I have 20 litres of ATF under my workbench from when my oldest boy destroyed the transmission in my Ford Exploder so I sold it to the wreckers, and didn’t use the ATF. ATF is a “Seal Sweller” so not only lubricates the seals, but keeps them soft as well. I’d put engine oil in my K2 forks in 2017, but they felt over damped, whereas the K0 forks feel great. I need some softer rear shocks too, as my Ebay rear shocks are way too firm.

[BenelliSEI]

Thanks! That’s what I usually use too. Just checking you didn’t have some terrific “brew” for me to try!

[PeWe]

Did they have the bevel drive clutch on the 16 valve GSX1100's as well as the GS1000's Brian? I thought they would have fixed that, I imagine (but don't know) that they did for the GSXR1100?

Yep......don't know about the GSXR's though, they where after my time.

What a coincidence!
I visited my nearby shop today with pistons to a cylinder to be bored when I mentioned this since they had a GS1000 engine to be fixed.

The solution for the bevel drive is straight cut gears that was placed beside my stuff. That shop has built some high hp Suzukis during the years.

Just something to order. Maybe MTC that did them. A must do when digging for more hp.

[Zunspec]

Hi PeWe,

NOVA Engineering in the UK list a set of straight cut primary gears for the GS1000.  They might be OK for the GSX1100 too.

https://novaracing.co.uk/suzuki-gs1000-straight-cut-primary-gears

Cheers  Geoff

[bear]

Yep I used them after I got covered in oil from crutch to helmet on night at Frazer Park Speedway in Canbera.
That was about six months after I was told to do the mod by another more experienced racer.
Another lesson learned the hard way.

[Kelly E]

We're not racing our GS 1100E just riding fast.

[Terry in Australia]

We're not racing our GS 1100E just riding fast.

It'll be fine mate, they're a beast, I wish a stock Z1 was as fast, but they're not, so I had to build 2 hotrod Z's to make them competitive