Left turn Clyde!

Howdy everyone!

I'm Ray, 26, live in Kansas, pulling unit operator in the ground water industry, single & looking....

Oops! Wrong site.

So I dug my dad's 700 out of the tree row, been sitting almost 20 years. It made a great two wheeled paperweight in the back of my pickup during the winter. I rode a buddy's Vstar bob we hacked together a few days back & now want to build myself a bob (with a bit of a twist) so that's why I'm here.

Here's a couple of my current bikes (or bank account drains depending on how ya look at 'em) I've built previously.

Buttons, my flat tracker.



She's quite possibly the funniest frickin' thing on two wheels, absolutely mind boggling what she can do.

Bonnie, my Ninja 636 fighter.



I got her new, ate the asphalt around 140 on my 22nd birthday. Not sure how I got out of that one topside. Had a nice hospital stay there, along with many zeros following me around these days, lol!

She's my baby & an indestructible tank. Gets rebuilt every winter & modified even further. We've been through hell & high water, a few weeks ago marked our forth crash together. I've seen everything from the Canadian Martimes to the California coast piloting her.

Yes those are BST carbon fiber wheels.... She's so nimble, it's like riding a bicycle with a rocket jammed up your behind.

Barby. My dream KZ650.



Took me three years to find another first year KZ650 after my first one was stolen. She's my first frame off. Totally stripped & modded to the sky. 750 motor with all the hot rod GPz bits, full DYNA iggy, V&H header with custom mid & can, Guiliari seat, rebuilt brakes & suspension, etc. The jewel in her crown is the wheels. I laced a Harley 19WM4 aluminum hoop up front & on the back laced up a Trumpet Thruxton's 17x3.5 aluminum hoop. Those sizes let me run dual sport tires & I took her pretty much anywhere with the combo. She ran like a raped ape.

Bad thing is, about thirty seconds after I got the big carbs tuned perfectly the number two exhaust valve got in a fight with the piston around 11K mid wheelie. The motor is back together but now I'm fighting crazy electrical gremlins. She's become a fishing pole rack in my buddy's garage. Someday I'll bring her back.

If you've actually read this much, here's my dad's Maxim...



I got my work cut out for me. Ya'll have a good one!

 

Welcome, nice seat. LOL Sat for almost 20 years? You have your work cut out for ya , but I see your used to that. You'll love that 700 once you get her going. Good luck and there's a lot of knowledge on this site.

 

Picture might be hiding it, but it looks to have weathered far better there in 20 years than it would here in 5 years

i'm in process of rebuilding 2 650 turbos, locked away for 18yrs and were far worse than that

You got good base for a fine looking bike there

Welcome and good luck and keep us posted

 

Hey kawaskifreak, you know how the saying goes, "how do you make a small fortune in motorcycle racing? Start with a large fortune!"

 

Hello kawafreak'..the XL350, what front end have you got on that to have th yam swirly rim? i've had a long term liking for the XL's, used to have th motosport and a mate had th 350, recently got an '80 500. Any other tricks on it?

Good luck with your dads Maxim.

 

Orange-n-black. Haha! Yeah, I've built some pretty rough rides before, thanks!

Knight3179. The picture hides ALOT. There's moss growing all over her & you can poke holes in the tank with your finger. The clutch feels locked solid (in gear, with the clutch in or out, there's no difference) but I got the pistons unstuck yesterday after they soaked awhile in oil. Time will tell.

Maxim-X. If that's how you make a small fortune, I'll be living in a cardboard box soon!

Bushy. I never would have imagined the potential that little 350 has if I hadn't been advised to find one (drove damn near to Chicago to find a 'running' example) from a seasoned flat tracker.

The front end, besides the wheel of course, is the XL's stocker. We rebuilt the forks with 20 weight & all balls in the neck. It works fantastically on the track. The wheel is from a Seca 750, I've always loved those swoopy wheels so when I need a 19" on front I scoured one of them out.

It's very light for that vintage, including the fact that I don't have to run a tube on front so the reduction in rotating mass increased maneuverability incredibly. The XL & Seca both have a 12mm front axle so I put in new bearings & I was ready to begin my first wheel swap. I had to trim 4mm off the speedo drive side so the wheel could center in the forks. Using a slide rule & spray paint for dycum, I came up with 11/64ths on one side & 47/64ths on the other for spacers to center it. Digging through the garage I found a rear axle spacer from a CB125S I parted, which was also 12mm & had a buddy with a lathe trim it down to my dimensions.

I was nervous but ends up it all bolted together like it was from the factory, I'm pretty proud of myself on that one. It always gets people's attention.

The rest of the bike is pretty much just stripped & rebuilt. We took her down to the frame, trimmed off anything I wouldn't need. I welded in a rear hoop from a GPz550's grab rail to reinforce the shock mounting area. Rebuilt the petcock & carb twice. Had crazy troubles tuning the carb due to the fact that the overflow tube was cracked so we always thought the float height was to high. After lowering it too far she'd only pull herself the first few gears & fall on her face. We finally found that then made leaps & bounds in the power department. She got new rear brake shoes & cable. We made the seat out of an aluminum tail gate cover, part of an office chair, rivets & those little clamp holders for brooms in your closet. Works great & weighs almost nothing.

The motor is stock. We changed the oil twice before the first race to get all the gunk out of it. Stupid Honda doesn't even have a frickin' filter on the damn thing, just a little screen. Fresh plug, points, checked the valve clearances, etc. In the video my buddy shot, if I got on the gas good out of the groove, I could actually pull on one of the guys in my class with an ex shifter cart motored framer that runs on 110. This motor has amazed me.

The pipe I built from the stocker. Honda, once again in their infinite wisdom had some triangular deal under the engine. I figured I didn't need it so I chopped it off. Well come to find out there are 8 8mm holes in there. We took a 5/16th inch bolt & very carefully cut ourselves very thin plugs for each hole & welded them in with some tiny rod a guy at work got me. The can is a no namer from a GSXR1000. Happened to have the perfect inlet size. That got mocked up, tacked on & welded up. In between worrying about the possibility of one of them plugs blowing out during a race & the amount of heat on my boot I wrapped it in some leftover heat tape I had laying around.

The risers are from a Virago I believe to set the bars back far enough to slide the forks way up & pull that rake in. I had trouble muscling her into corners my first outing so we dropped her another inch, then another. Now she's been dropped three in front.

Now I'm sitting at 27 degrees of rake & a 55 inch wheelbase. Closer to a framer's spec, but not quite there yet.

Since, I've also gotten the elusive Dunlop K180's mounted up which have a WAY pointier profile than the K70's so hopefully I can bring her down into the corners faster. I just hope the K180's are as sticky as the K70's. A few guys said they feel like a medium hard compound, like between a CD5 & 8. The K70 is crazy sticky in the groove around 15~19psi, I couldn't believe I was leaning a bike over that far on frickin' dirt.

Safety wired a few things, cobbled some number plates together & wrapped the left peg in rubber slicing tape so my steel shoe (which I tried to make, horrible failure, lol) wouldn't slide & we were basically done.

I got in a little trouble with her too... But that's a whole other story...



I should quit babbling. Here's her build thread if you so desire.

http://zx6r.com/motorcycle-talk/13649-buttons.html

 

Rough rides always teach you the most, whether you like it or not.