I could go for something like this with some minimal street gear.. . .
Anyone into motorcycles?
- Thread starter justarn
- Start date
Back when I was in the Army I had a Honda 600F1. Fun bike, sold it when I went to Germany. Never did get another bike. My father tho that's a different story. He worked in bike shops/had his own for decades.
So one day a friend of his gave him a 76 Kawasaki 900 for free. A couple weeks later he rolled it out of his Frankenstein works garage and turned it into this.
This is the first iteration of "Lady"
He still has her and she has gone thru radical upgrades over the twenty plus years he has been refining her.
It's now a 1238, 300 HP at the back wheel. Weights in at a slim 410lbs with four gallons of gas in the tank. No electric start, it's a kicker. There are only two wires when you get off the engine on the rest of the bike, headlight, and brake light. The steer tube and the down tubes in front of the engine are all that are left of the original frame. But the VIN in stamped in the steer tube so it's still licensed as a 76 Kawasaki 900. Forks and wheels are from a GRXR1200, head is from a 1200 Police interceptor, barrels are after market drag bike, 12to1 compression, racing fuel only.
The thing is an absolute beast. I have rode with him a few times and so often cafe bikes will try to race.... dropping gears, revving what have you.... all he does it is roll the throttle on and hes gone....
So one day a friend of his gave him a 76 Kawasaki 900 for free. A couple weeks later he rolled it out of his Frankenstein works garage and turned it into this.
This is the first iteration of "Lady"
He still has her and she has gone thru radical upgrades over the twenty plus years he has been refining her.
It's now a 1238, 300 HP at the back wheel. Weights in at a slim 410lbs with four gallons of gas in the tank. No electric start, it's a kicker. There are only two wires when you get off the engine on the rest of the bike, headlight, and brake light. The steer tube and the down tubes in front of the engine are all that are left of the original frame. But the VIN in stamped in the steer tube so it's still licensed as a 76 Kawasaki 900. Forks and wheels are from a GRXR1200, head is from a 1200 Police interceptor, barrels are after market drag bike, 12to1 compression, racing fuel only.
The thing is an absolute beast. I have rode with him a few times and so often cafe bikes will try to race.... dropping gears, revving what have you.... all he does it is roll the throttle on and hes gone....
My KZ900 was also a 1976. One of the finest production engines ever built up to that point.
I didn't know that when I walked into Mathew's HD looking at used lowriders, but they had this used one with no miles and no scratches. I gave them $700 cash plus $99 a month for one year. I had it 65k miles, ran great, amd clean, and I sold it foolishly at my boss's insistence.
I didn't know that when I walked into Mathew's HD looking at used lowriders, but they had this used one with no miles and no scratches. I gave them $700 cash plus $99 a month for one year. I had it 65k miles, ran great, amd clean, and I sold it foolishly at my boss's insistence.
My Nomad weighs in at a porky 780 dry and stock.
But with the Chrome dresser accessories and a full complement of fluids, Plus my wife and I, and all our luggage for the Mojave Desert trip, we were 1300 pounds.
He lived in the SeaTac area and would at times buy boxes of scrap from Boeing. They had all kinds of aircraft grade stuff in them. He used this stuff to make all the brackets, mounts, changing all the nuts and bolts that he could to titanium. The battery is 2"x3"x3" tucked up under the swingarm pivot. Everything that shines is polished aluminum, he said "Chrome is dead, polished aluminum has depth and soul"
He was going to completely remake the frame in aluminum but then it would be a what ever year he made it "Homebuildt construction" not a 76 KZ900. The lower cases are the original 900, though they do have an 1200 tranny crammed into it.
Another of his lines " Shes the only Lady that never cheated on him, stole his money, drank all his booze, or smoked all his weed"
Two years in Nam driving tankers of JP4 or the 23 kids by 20 mothers gave him this unquenchable need for speed or maybe growing up next door to Indy raceway...lol
He was going to completely remake the frame in aluminum but then it would be a what ever year he made it "Homebuildt construction" not a 76 KZ900. The lower cases are the original 900, though they do have an 1200 tranny crammed into it.
Another of his lines " Shes the only Lady that never cheated on him, stole his money, drank all his booze, or smoked all his weed"
Two years in Nam driving tankers of JP4 or the 23 kids by 20 mothers gave him this unquenchable need for speed or maybe growing up next door to Indy raceway...lol
It wasn't JDM or anyting. It was one of those Honda 50 mini bikes that they sold in the late 60s.
Took out the taillight on the first wheelie.
Your dad raked the frame quite a bit different than I did.
That mod gave me about 4" of stretch & along with lowering the rear end of the bike I gained about six degrees of rake. Did a lot for high-speed riding.
In stock form these bikes used to shake their head passing through 105 mph. They were set up for lighter Japanese riders, or at least that's my theory and it's why the bike got traded to the Harley dealer. What he told me when I bought the bike was, "There was something about stability".
That little shake went away before you hit 108 and then it was smooth sailing up to about 130 mph, but if you didn't have the balls to find that out you might sell a brand new bike too cheap instead of fixing the problem.
When I stretched the front end & the forks the shake went away. It was always mild with me on the bike but I only weighed 170 and if the original owner was 200 it might have been much worse for him.
I did a lot of work bobbing the frame and I molded everything with brazing rod which anealed the welding.
Being a total idiot in those days, I proved it strong enough by putting my buddy on the back seat and jumping it over the railroad tracks.
