[Dale]

Hi there.

I joined a couple of months ago, but have been so crazy busy at work and its pretty hard to do stealthy forum activity with all these skelli's and bright green fonts and huge white CUSTOM STREETFIGHTER stuff plastered all over my monitor in the open plan studio where I work, so being sneaky is tough. But anyways, managed to get this post up. Been stalking all over the place and there's some kickass stuff on this site.

So this is my project I started in October last year.

Its a modified 1983 GPZ Unitrack frame, and GPZ swingarm, a KZ550H1 motor which is the motor this frame was designed for, shortened early 90's Suzuki GSX forks, along with yoke and brake callipers, Suzuki Bandit wheels, discs, rear brake calliper, clip-on's and various control equipment.

I'm at the point where I've been designing the tank, font fender, hugger, seat etc, trying to get that really difficult balance between what looks cool and is at the same time acceptably comfortable - the idea with this bike is that I want it as a commuter. Tank, seat, fender, and hugger will go to glass fibre plug stage next.

After that I can begin stripping the thing down and start with the motor rebuild and final frame tweaks. Its powder and paint after that, and then electrics, but - all in a days work. I've been doing this slowly and methodically, and as a result, its going pretty smooth so far.

Will post some earlier build pics a little later!

Cheers!

 

[matthasthorns]

Holy franken bike! So far it looks awesome. Is the tank going to stay like that or are you doing more with it? What are the plans for a headlight? It looks pretty awesome so far.

 

[shift1313]

Pretty cool. same front end thats on my gpz Im surprised you kept the stock rear arm/suspension linkage setup.

Any reason you went with a kz motor instead of the gpz? they are nearly identical but the kz has lower compression for one.

 

[Dale]

matthasthorns >

Thanks dude. With regards the tank, the original idea was to keep the bike pretty industrial, and a good friend of mine who designs, builds and rides with me wanted to use a fire extinguisher as the tank. I really liked the idea, and so I mocked up a light-weight version of the extinguisher he brought to my house. After a while we decided to refine the basic cylinder shape a bit and add a curve to the top. So what we've got now is this.

And here's the fender design close-up, visually in line with tank design.

As for headlight, here's a quick Photoshop mock-up. I'm also playing with the idea of a single round light. Not sure yet…

Shift1313 >

Dude, your 750 build thread was the first I read on this site, and what got me inspired to join up here in a big way. Your sheet metal work is something else. Respect.

With regards the stock swingarm, I have to say - for months I HATED that thing. It really bugged me. Clumsy. Skinny little support tubing, nasty all round. Then slowly I just started really liking the whole UNITRACK system, and the quirkiness of it grew on me. The basic premise is that the whole system, compresses the shock from both the top as well as the bottom at the same time. Its kind of industrial, and I liked that. So decided to go with it - and it works! Also, the linkage is so easy to change - being on the top - affecting ride height. I've got a rough 115mm piece in there at the moment (played with a few different sizes), lifting the rear by 65mm. The stock linkage is 70mm.

Wasn’t aware that there was in fact a GPZ variant of the KZ motor in this capacity. I stand corrected - you seem to know your stuff. Anyways, the reason I've got it is because that’s what I could find at the a price I was willing to pay. On the to-do list for the motor is definitely upping the compression, polishing internals where appropriate, blueprinting etc. replacing rings, bearings etc.

Incidentally - I'm going to need an offset sprocket up front to line up with the bandit wheels. I've put a 530 pitch rear sprocket on the wheel, as that’s what the Kawasaki runs. Any help you can give me here would be solidly appreciated.

Take care.

 

[E.A.D]

I've seen a lot of bike try and run the light, but in my opinion I think that this is one of the first bike that it would go well with. With that molding and that fn engine it looks ready to tear some shit up. Just no total steampunk on this one

 

[929_adam]

i really like the design work you're doing here. theres a great flow in how its coming together. i love the blunt nose fender! the headlight looks good too, industrial. i just don't like the minifairing/gauge setup on that, but the lights look good.

 

[Dale]

Hey thanks 929_adam. Yeah, I think I'm with you on the mini fairing. Doesn't need it. Its a nice compact cluster otherwise.

 

[matthasthorns]

Thats pretty cool with the tank and all. I really like how its coming out.

The headlight you have photoshopped on there goes well with the stripped down industrial look of the bike.

 

[Stephen_ver4.0]

Awesome build! Are those headlights from a 749?

 

[brockzila]

the head lights look like my ones out of a buell.

they look good on there.

nice wook i like where it is heading

 

[Kaos]

Hell yeah, looks fuckin sick mate! Funny you mention fire extiguisher as a tank as I was thinking of that on my gpx, only 2 of them instead of 1....
I really like the headlight set up too man....

 

[rdannar]

the shape and design scheme you have going is the sickness. keep the work and pics coming!!!

 

[gsf1200R]

sweet bike i have Boner now

 

[Dale]

E.A.D.>
For sure. I hear you. Using the industrial thing as a reference point – not go overboard crazy with it and get all steampunk. A touch of steampunk is cool, but it can very easily get overused.

My buddy Rhett did tons of sketches and ideas before we started this bike. Here are some of them You can see where we started and where we ended up. Some crazy, some bad, some cool. The point is, you get an idea and a direction, and then the bike starts taking its own shape. The design process happens all over the place. When the bike starts looking better than the pics, it’s a really good feeling.

Stephen_ver4.0 and brockzila >
Image from my archived reference, not 100% sure – I’m sure it is a 749 / 999 cluster – lots of Ducati details there.
I’ve managed to get hold of two of these below from a company in China. Going to shorten them and use the Ducs cluster as reference.

Kaos >
yeah, cool. The twin tank thing is awesome. One of my favourites:

Thanks for all the feedback and kind words guys. Awesome being here.
Dale

 

[Dale]

sweet bike i have Boner now

he he

 

[shift1313]

Hey dale, the differences in the kz and gpz engines are very minor (between the H model and the kz) and a lot of stuff actually interchanges between many of the kz models(for instance the 750turbo cams are kz650 cams). The gpz550 was a 6 speed ( i think from 84+) and that gets put into 750 models from time to time. Your model year(and the 83) were kz550H(1 and 2). In 84(for the 550) they were now zx550A. The A model gpzs(case numbers are still kz....) were the years to look for if you want parts(specifically cams i think). The valve timing, ignition curve and a few other things changed and they saw the most HP of the 550 models. The kz550 was down about 5hp from the h1 and h2 gpz550(not a lot), the A model gpz550s HP claim was 7 or 8hp more than the H model.

At any rate stock your bike ran a 520 sprocket set. Same pitch as the 530 but your 520 chain width is a little less. That said the spline is the same as the 750(which was a 630 chain). There are companies out there that make a 3/8s offset 530. I got one as part of a custom short run done by a company. This company http://www.americanclassix.com/streetfighter_conversions.html makes one but its $85. I paid $25 for mine. Ill try to find out some more info for you on that.

Another note for you the 550 unitrak bikes were the only ones(that i know of) to run that linkage setup. the 750 and 1100 unitrak bikes were like this.

the 82-83 gpz550 had a setup like yours but in 84(the a1 model) they went to an aluminum arm and the unitrak design like the 750 and 1100 bikes.


I really like the dual stacked light Pchop on your bike. I think it goes really well with the flow of the rest of the bike. I also love that yellow 748 hiding in the background I cant wait to see how this thing turns out! keep up the good work.

 

[Dale]

Hey Matt

Thanks for the info. Looking at the diagram it’s definitely an improvement on the unitrack system I’ve got there. Much simpler, more refined, and definitely more visually pleasing and lighter I’m sure.

Im going to keep my feelers out for a bike running this newer system. I’m enjoying working on this bike, and I think im going to be doing more of them in the future. Solid engineering, relatively simple.

!!! I REALLY appreciate the link to the company making up those offset sprockets. I’ve kind of gotten used to paying around $80 for sprockets – not that I enjoy it, but that’s how it is. ☺ Bottom line is I need it, so thanks a lot man.

I also love that yellow 748 hiding in the background.

Cool thanks! Yup I love that bike. I still remember the first time I saw a 916, and I always dreamed of getting one. Then I stumbled on this 2000 748R, and really liked the revvy engine and the fact that it was an R model – some really special stuff on it compared to the basic 748 model. So I couldn’t help myself! Done a lot of performance upgrades on it. I will never sell this bike, I’ve promised myself that. Regretted selling bikes in the past, and not making that mistake again!

Thanks again for all the info Matt, very much appreciated.

 

[ROBBO]

awesome work Dale ,Kawasaki mill ya caint go wrong lad ..Beefy front end fer sure really adds to tha bikes mean looks ! NICE ONE !

 

[Dale]

awesome work Dale ,Kawasaki mill ya caint go wrong lad ..Beefy front end fer sure really adds to tha bikes mean looks ! NICE ONE !

Thanks Rob, Yeah, Im really starting to enjoy the Kawa’s.

I’ve been convinced that matt black is the way to go, but after doing another Photoshop mockup, I’m not convinced anymore. Anyways, tried 929_adam’s idea of taking off the bikini fairing as well. Think I’m all Photoshop’d out now, and need to start working on the bike again. Get my hands dirty. Been a good break from it tho.

Have an awesome weekend! Hoping to get to the World SBK at Kyalami on Sunday.

 

[Dale]

Heya! Been trawling through my build pics, and isolated some milestones, and maybe not so milestone-ish material, but what I thought was cool. I guess the first place to start would be the frame. This was the prep work I did on the frame and swingarm. Subsequent to this, and not shown, (will show later when 100% complete), is a custom built sub-frame welded into the frame shown.

I pretty much cleaned up the frame, first stripping it off, cutting off the sub-frame and rearset mounts, and all the little brackets I didn’t need to get a smooth minimal frame.

It was in pretty good shape and after taking a few measurements I was pleased that it was all true, with zero signs of any accident damage, knocks etc. Nice and clean.