A regular customer of ours, Gary, brought the donor bike to us just over a year ago. It was a very neglected, non running 1977 Kawasaki Z650 B1 which he'd bought (having had a T100 put together by us previously) thinking he fancied having a go at building his own cafe racer in his own garage. Fortunately for us he's far better at building houses than he is at building bikes and not too stubborn that we had much repair work to do before build proper could get under way. Gary had already arranged to have the scruffy non running engine fully rebuilt, so that was fully stripped and built from the ground up taking it out to a 750cc with every single component being worked on. A second engine came with the bike so we had something to build around as well as a seat cowl which he wanted us to use. The original idea was to put together a fairly basic bike with a quick build but we soon convinced him to let us make it a little more unique and being a self confessed magpie, the lure of loads of custom made polished parts was too much to refuse. Gary is pretty patient which is good as the simplest/cleanest looking bikes always take the longest to make look right and we always end up having ideas that result in a massive amount of work for us to do. The end result is well worth it though, we all love it, it's a great looking bike with loads of neat detail that you won't spot at first glance. The Z is also a good size bike, at well over 6 foot the CB 550s we've built in the past would be too small but keeping the original tank and a few other bits the fit is just right.
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Modifications
New EBC drilled discs
HEL braided brake lines using a Honda CBR RR master cylinder
Foundry stainless headlight brackets
7" clear lenses headlight
Modified and polished top yoke
Koso speedo in a Foundry stainless housing
Motone switchgear
Kellerman bar end indicators
Bar end mirror
Tarozzi adjustable race clip ons
Original fuel tank modified to use Monza style fuel filler
Dynatek ignition and coils
Fully rebuilt engine taken out to 750cc
Rebuilt and rejected carbs
Foundry complete stainless exhaust system
Foundry crankcase breather
Tarozzi folding rear sets
Foundry stainless gear linkage
Early JMC swing arm
Foundry rear wheel baffle
YSS rear shock absorbers
Detabbed and hooped frame with integrated Foundry stop/tail light
Avon Road Rider tyres
Fully rebuilt wheels with Moras rims and stainless spokes
Custom supplied seat unit which we had retrimmed
Under seat electrics powered using Motogadgets M unit basic and keyless M Lock
Talon rear sprocket
Foundry rear brake torque stay
Foundry rear brake cable conversion
Other work carried out by:
Trim Deluxe - Upholstery
S.Jago Design - Paint
AM Metal Polishing - A lot of polishing
Chris Lanaway - Photography
