Kawasaki Frankenstein

This evening enjoyed the most precious thing I have; free time! That is convenient because I just obtained a real nice kawasaki gpx600r frontfork. At first I wanted to go for ZXR400 forks, they are upside-down. But that’s a lot more engineering converting it and does not fit at all with the classic look that I have in mind.

To get a feel with my project I layed out the parts I got so far.

thinker1

It is a Kawasaki gt550 frame, GT750 rear wheel, the spring to keep the rear from falling down is borrowed from a kz750 as well as the rear brake. Fork is a gpz600r but I need to change the steering limiter by welding a cam on the frame. The GT550- has it on the back. The steering-lock does not fitt but it wont be hard to make it fit. Just put in an adapter plate and I dont need to weld the frame to lock my bike.

The top-yoke platewill be faced of by milling it so I can fitt risers to mount a brat style or flat tracker style steer.

thinker3

The fork of a GPX is a little shorter. Because the legs at a gpx extend 2 centimeters above the top Crown plate I win 2 when lowering it, in the end the front will be just 1 centimeter lower. And that’s not bad because the travel of a gpx is slightly stiffer and I find the GT is quite high, with other rear suspension I might lower the back as-well depending on the standing of the swingarm. This angel must be as straight as possible because it’s a cardan driven bike.

thinker4

On the swingarm, there should be a cam in order to attach the reaction rod of the rear brake. You can see the rod of the drum still hang down, it will be flexed off. I want to have good rear brakes because I often use my rear brake at low speeds.

thinker2

In my opinion the best upgrade is the z400 tank. I don’t like the oblique pointed bottom of the GT tank. I’m trim off a little from the back of the frame, not too much and not with DIY U-tube, just the original piece loosening of the frame at the weld to a thicker piece of frame-pipe.

thinker-rear

In the red-circle can I remove the weld. Then I remove the plate for the seat and the inner fender, shorten the outer frame tubes on the same 45 degree angle.

Do you want to know about the engine that I am going to use? Click me!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *