My goal is to have a King Cobra ported motor in a modern chassis. I started with a 93 roller, which was a mistake actually. Without thinking, I had begun a double restoration which was not in my plans but here I am today.

Started as a 200 buck, titled roller. I powder coated the frame, swing arm, steering head....well, everything. The frame is "magic black" rear brakes are Brembo gold. I did all the bead blasting myself, powder was done by Specialty Powder coating in Zephyrhills Fl. Replaced every bearing and seal and nearly every nut and bolt. I replated the rest of the hardware with zinc myself. Fitted ZX10 forks and brakes, had to shim the upper triple and mill the lower. Working on front wheel fitment now. I didn't do enough research and picked the bastard year for ZX10 forks. Now I have to fit new wheel bearings again, and machine some spacers.

This what I started with:




Parts bead blasted and ready for powder. I did all the bead blasting except the frame, which wouldn't fit in my cabinet.



Frame assembled:

 

 

Swingarm assembled to new specs, all seals, bearings and guard installed.



I fitted 04-05 ZX10 forks which required shimming the upper triple and machining the lower. There are other ways to do it, but that's the route I chose.



Here's a shot of the upper triple I had machine just for bling purposes, I think it looks cool but it's not even for lightening, just looks.



Rear caliper, fully rebuilt and powder coated to Brembo gold. New seals and bushings in the torque link. The bearing for the hanger is an obsolete part so it remains. Most bikes don't even have a bearing in that place so I'm OK with it.



Rebuilt and powder coated rear master:



Pics of the whole shebang. Rear wheel and forks are installed, front wheel is fitted for fabbing, not installed. A couple bits of obligatory gold bling from China. The bling may not make the final cut but it looks good, no?











The engine work is mostly done, trans has been undercut by R&D in St Petersburg, and barrels ported by Tony Nicosia. I have yet to install the reeds fro JaMoo. Then off for powder coating and then assembly of the motor. I'll post pics of this process as it moves along, expect long wait times though, this project is taking far longer than I planned, I'm already over a year into it.

Body work is sanded and ready for paint, just haven't got to it yet. I needed to get this out of the way first.

If I were to do this over, I'd pay for a more modern roller that didn't need resto.

I have a complete Sharkskinz front fairing I got off ebay cheap but I'm not sure if I'll use it. The chambers are unlikely to fit inside the belly pan, and the upper is one piece right to the belly pan. Then I would have to cut it to showcase the engine, which is the centerpiece of the build. I don't really want to cut a Sharkskinz fairing up into what would be, essentially a stock upper fairing. I may get a stock upper and just run that but that won't hide the engine hanger like a full fairing would.

What actually happened here was I started to build this bike 25 years ago, right before I left Canada and moved to the US, when I still worked in a bike shop. Back then upside down forks were pretty new, modern tech, and the 93 L model ZX7 was still in production. I had acquired most of the parts but hadn't done any fabbing or assembly yet. When I moved down here I sold it all.

Well, 20 years later, I realized the price of Kawi triple stuff was skyrocketing and I had to make a move or never be able to afford it, so i jumped right back into my old plan. It never even dawned on me that my 93 ZX7 was going to be a restoration, in and of itself. If I was to start over today, I'd spend 3 grand and buy a late model rolling chassis and toss the motor. Oh, well, live and learn and I must confess i am really enjoying working on a bike again. 20 years I spent as a mechanic, it's in my blood I suppose.



NEXT POST:

Did a little work on her today so here's some pics.

Some fitting will be required for the calipers, They'll need to space out about 9 or 10mm.
That brake line is actually just the rear line I put on so I could pressurize the calipers to center them. There will be new lines fitted to the final bike.
The axle is also not correct, I just have it there for roughing in the brakes.



Here's the ZX6R shock I fitted after I painted the spring green. I had to drill out the clevis and grind some of it away to fit on the link. It's 20mm shorter but in my pile of parts I just happen to have an adjustable dog bone that I can use to adjust ride height later. :)
I at first tried a ZX10 shock but I didn't like the way the reservoir stuck out. The original shock was not useable due to a damaged piston.





Here's a better look at the top triple. You can the shims I made to fit the forks. The ZX10 forks are 50mm as opposed to 52mm for the ZX7. That's 1mm thick sheet aluminum.



Since this is a triples forum, here's some pics of the engine. This is not assembled, it's just together for fitting in the cradle.




Signed by the man himself, Tony Nicosia.



UPDATE:

Build the brake lines today. Last week I finished fitting the front wheel and measuring the spacers, they are at the machinist and then off for anodizing, should be ready tomorrow but for now here's the brake lines fab.

Checking the banjos:











OK, cool, I ordered the right ones. On to fitting and assembling the lines!

Rear master:



Rear caliper:



Finished line:



Front upper left line:



Front lower left:



Front upper right:



Lower right:



Done. These line clamps will be replaced with some new ones, they're just there for fitment. The caliper banjos will be replaced with red anodized aluminum ones as well. I specifically made these with red and blue fittings for an old school "works" type of look.




UPDATE 1/25/16

Did some work with some flat slides carbs I picked up on ebay for 300 bucks. I bead blasted the outsides, disassembled them and cleaned them in an ultrasonic cleaner then slapped them back together. I'm sending them out to be coated with a heat barrier coating, as much for looks as for function.









I'm sending them out to get them thermal barrier coated like this. I was going to powder coat them but for a few bucks extra, I can have a functional coating. The "race" or "works" look is what I was seeking cosmetically anyway.
"


Then I had to make a part. I had to turn this:



Into this:



For this, the part I made has the check mark on it.



I measured it and drilled the hole, then chuck it in a drill press and cut and finished it. I'm pretty proud of it, it almost looks store bought. Thing, I bought the master and the levers separate and neither one came with it and I couldn't find it for sale anywhere, not ebay or even OEM so i made it.






UPDATE 1/27/16


Rebuilt the front brakes today. Picked these radial calipers up off ebay from an 05 ZX10 for cheap. They look in decent shape but I'm rebuilding them anyway. I want this bike to be as close to showroom floor new when it hits the road as I can make it.





Popping out the brake Pistons one by one with compressed air. It's not difficult but you have to do a little figuring. Put a screw driver handle between two pistons and blow compressed air in the banjo bolt hole. Not a lot, just enough to pop out one of the remaining Pistons. Then take out the dust seal and the piston seal, and put that piston back in. Hold that piston in with a screwdriver or something and use compressed air to pop the opposing piston out. Repeat until all the Pistons are out.




The pistons don't look to bad at all, a little elbow grease, some brake cleaner and we're good to go.



The rebuild kit (I am not sponsored or affiliated in any way with brake crafters)



One piston back in.



And through the magic of television, back together!

UPDATE 2-1-2016

This is what 170 bucks worth of carb parts looks like.

Placeholder.

I wondered where this went. Awesome build.

Update bump.

Thanks!

Now I have even less motivation to actually work on it.

Just kidding.

It's raining here today so I have a day off so I'm going to head over to the hangar and do a little work. My wheel spacers should be done at the machinist today and I have a rebuild kit for the calipers.

I want to hear this thing run.

This will be an awesome machine!  Can't wait to see it!

Why?

Don't get me wrong, the work you are doing on this project is impressive, but what's the end game?  The KZ motor will have a hair trigger powerband and guzzle gas, while not making significantly more power than a modern liter bike.  The featherbead/perimeter hybrid frame is going to look really weird, and adding bodywork might be an issue because of the air cooled engine.  I'm assuming you've got the geometry and weight distribution issues worked out, but still, why?

That is a H1 or H2 motor.. If you haven't written a big bore two stroke on the street it is awesome. I have been playing around with the idea of putting a kx500 motor in a 500 ninja frame for a while.

lol

Update with bump.

Seeing as how this is a tech forum, it was a serious question, but thanks for your well reasoned and informative response.  I don't want to get yelled at for thread crapping, so I'll be leaving now.  I wish you the best of luck with your project.

Why? Well everything else is Vanilla. This Kawasaki is Pistachio and cuz Merica and all that. Very nice restoration.

To be truthful, when i first read your post, I was in a bar eating hot wings and having a beer and I typed out long response. It came out kind of snarky so I deleted it a just posted the pope thingy. I apologize if you are offended.

OK, I'll make an honest effort.

First off, you make some incorrect assumptions. You assume it will have a hair trigger power band, which it won't. I will be using reed valves on the motor, as well as modern, computer designed, expansion chambers. these two things alone will recover any "lost power" on the low end. In the olden days, porting and a set of chambers did tend to destroy low end power with too much reversion the intake from the returning exhaust waves. Reed valves will cure this and modern chambers won't cause as much of it. I'd be willing to bet that the power this bike makes down low would be comparable to a modern sport bike.

Here's two dyno charts that illustrate it. One is a GSXR 750 and one is an H2 750 (not mine.)



As you can see, they both make about 40 HP at 5,000 RPM. At 7,000 RPM however, the H2 makes 85 HP while the GSXR only makes 60 HP. It's much torquier and has a steeper power curve but it is equal in the low range.

Modern four stroke bike engines have to make their power not through torque, but by spinning the engine faster. There is only so much air you can pump through an engine but if you spin it faster, you'll make more power. A modern four stroke bike engine makes it's power much higher in the rev range.

Two stroke engines though, make more of their  power through torque, they don't like to be revved too high, and with twice the amount of power pulses over a four stroke, they are naturally more torquey. Torque is horsepower.

Here is a dyno chart comparing a 40 year old expansion chamber design to a modern computer designed chamber. You can a see a huge difference from pipe design alone.



It should get around 30 MPG, a guzzler compared to some bikes but not a concern, I am not building hyper miler, I am building a sport bike.

Next you compare it to a modern liter bike, honestly, you lost me here. all I can say to this is, it's not a modern liter bike. It's a 40 year old, air cooled two stroke. If there ever was an apples top oranges comparison, this is it but you miss the point completely. That is precisely why I'm building it.

Then, you questioned whether body work would affect the cooling. This is an H2R circa 1972. It was the factory racing version of the H2 street bike and it had an air cooled three cylinder engine. Cooling air comes from the front, not the sides, this is true today as well as 40 years ago.



Well, if you think it's going to look weird, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I think it will look awesome.

pooby, can you put dates next to your updates? Make it easier to figure out what is part of the update and what's already been there, for those of us with bad memories

You're the man though, this is an awesome build. I would love to do something like this, but I'd want someone to hold my hand through it

I'm going to start posting updates in separate posts. It's too confusing even for me.

I don't know much about bikes historic or modern,
But I do know I like this project.

I like this project a lot

Thanks for that, those dyno charts are eye opening.  I was using a liter bike for comparison because I just assumed you would be making liter bike power with the H2, tuning for max HP as opposed to torque (my squid might be showing a bit ).  The last two stroke street bike I rode was an RG500 Gamma, and it wasn't exact a pleasant, relaxing ride.  The flip side of that was the old Water Buffalo, which was about as exciting as Jello pudding.  I was not aware that you can now tune exhaust for power without the massive torque loss.

My fairing comment was based on having bikes getting hot in traffic and boiling the gas out of the carbs, which probably  gives away just how old of a geezer I am.

TL;DR:

Carb bump.

Update 2-5-16


Finally got my front wheel spacers back from the machinist and anodizers. The look pretty snazzy!

Guess what's in this box.

Six inch ruler for scale.

You do such nice work!

Thanks for sharing.

lol

The bike is kind of on hold for a while while they paint one of our airplanes in the hangar. It's just parts acquisition for now and some powder coating.

I'm really excited with the box.

Please say the box is the finished engine.

Please...  

Nope.

I noticed the washers on the front caliper fitup.

I went from 300mm to 310mm rotors on my Ninja 1000 and used these Honda 10mm spacers to get the calipers where they needed to be. They'll probably work on your setup too.

http://www.partzilla.com/parts/detail/honda/HP-51497-MEL-D20.html

I already got some made up by my local machinist guy and anodized already. Soon as I can get back working in the hanger I'll put them on.

I'm gonna guess the box contains the refinshed carbs and reed valve intake cages and associated boots, air filters etc.

Whadda I win?

Would you believe a complete set of expansion chambers?

These pipes are computer designed by a guy up in Canada and get very good reviews for their performance, a lot of the power and ride ability will come from these pipes.

Some assembly required.





I have signed up for a welding course at the local community college. While I know how to weld, I'm by no means good at it and I have almost zero experience MIG welding. For 300 bucks, I figure the course will be worth it before I tackle these.

Very cool build!

Wow! Looks like a good challenge.

I was so depressed reading this that I took my 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO out back and torched it because it'll never be as fast or handle as well as a new Ferrari.














Note, I don't really own a Ferrari 250 GTO.......................


My Dad was a Triple nut back in the early 70s, he had several at a time, even he admitted back then that the 750 was a bit much [especially with the crappy little tires]if he wasn't careful and he liked the 350 Triple better for just running around. They didn't like city riding however and loved to foul out plugs, especially the center one.

Stingers!
Cool, bet that will have a nice growl.
Adding silencers?

There will be silencers of some type....eventually. I may run open pipes for a bit,

Sweet pipes

Do you weld them up yourself or do you farm that out?

RIF

Scalvini makes some awesome looking pipes that work really well on the track.
Got to keep them oiled up or else they tend to rust.  

There a some nice pipes out there for the triples. Funny that there way more and better pipes available now than there were back in the 70s. If you want to see some gorgeous pipes, check out the K2tec pipes on Webike.com. They make a polished stainless pipe with crossed headers that is beyond beautiful but it's 1500 bucks.

I really thought hard about buying some pre-man pipes but one of my goals here is to not do any "check book" customization like some builders do. I figure welding my own exhaust system will take me a long way down that road and make up for the machining and stuff I just couldn't avoid farming out.The cost of this kit and the welding course is less than any decent store bought pipes, and way less than any store bought pipes with tapered headers. I can have them jet hot coated later for 125 a pipe. Corrosion will definitely be a concern here in Florida with mild steel pipes.

I built a few sets of those back in the day. We used to braze them because it was fast and easy, and the brazing stood up well to vibration. The other option is to tig weld them. You can wire weld them of course but given the thin sections it will be a PITA.

I am well aware of what I'm getting myself into. I want to have my hands on as much of this build as possible.

I get it.

In my case it was always on race bikes and knowing they'd get damaged *often* I tended to try and get them done the first time as quickly as possible.

I was so excited over that expansion chamber goodness I missed it.

I give you mad props for doing it on your own.

I like magazine bikes just as much as the next guy, but heck, anyone can toss a bunch of free parts onto a bike they don't own and build something bitchen.

You know what I wish you had done?
Started this post from the end with the finished bike and worked your way to the start.

Yeah, but you have to take things apart and remember where they go when it's time to put them back together.



WAY above my pay grade.