Back on 2 wheels!

Ok, so no it’s not a project bike, but a change in work circumstances has seen me move closer to home and be able to get back into riding, with the aim of both a) getting to work and b) getting back into bikes again from more than a spectator perspective!

So after a lot of searching around and research I kept coming back to Ninja, Ninja, Ninja! My mates had always stuck to their brands and I decided that I should stick to mine as well, my favourite bike had been my GPX750R so looking out for a new Kwaka seemed logical.

After a few painstaking weeks of waiting for the right deal, here she is..my new green meanie (well she’s pink and purple, but you get the idea!)

It’s a Kawasaki ZXR 750 L3, the last of the ZXRs before they went to the more universal ZX7R branding and a redesign.

Happy New Year!

2011 is here and a little bit of time to have a look around at what kinds of weird and wonderful projects are on the go and share some of my findings. Another year and another family addition (of the two legged, not two wheeled variety) will mean that this is NOT the year that I will begin said ‘project’ but I will do my best to keep up to date with things and as always share my love of motorcycles as best I can, with some inane blogging from myself and some beautful pictures courtesy of the brilliant people designing and working on their dreams every day!

I came across these guys recently…

http://www.mac-motorcycles.com/story.html

Similair in a way to the work going on in Sydney at Deus – simple engines and great design….I like these for the post-modern, retro styles.

All of these bikes share the same engine, a Buell® single cylinder, air-cooled, 2-valve, push rod, 492cc, 5-speed ‘Blast’ engine.

With one combustion for every 720° of crankshaft rotation when that cylinder fires. Stock motors produce 34 HP at 6500 RPM but a bolt-on big-bore kit (515 cc), Andrews Cams, a Mikuni HSR 42 carb’, Screamin’ Eagle ignition and a Supertrapp exhaust will produce around 50 HP at 7200 RPM.

There are four models they currently produce, each with their own charm and sense of style. I think my personal favourite is the ‘Spud’ a nice bobber incarnation indeed!

Hope to bring you more crazy, sexy, cool projects and happenings throughout the year, thanks for your continued interest everyone!

All Quiet On The Western Front?!

I know that I have been somewhat absent of late with keeping the blog up to date, apologies to any regulars hoping for an update, sadly work has had me too busy to find the time and energy to update. I did however go on my first bike ride in 6 years yesterday (Thanks Mark!!) and loved it, it all came back so naturally (“like riding a bike” I guess you could say) and so I have been achingly reminded of why I started this blog and why I shouldn’t continue to pursuit of a project bike!

In my absence I have had some great comments and following up on one or two led me to the beautiful work being done by another enthusiast over at

http://cyclestudios.wordpress.com/

So in the absence of any more time to update just now, let me leave you with his link, and also these enticing pics of his KZ400 Build Project!

The Donor Bike - Kawasaki KZ400

And just a few teasers from the great work he has been doing so far, and some of his skills/tips and tricks will definitely be employes by me when the time comes!

Frame Repaint

Custom cafe racer seat design and creation - Great Stuff!

My Kingdom For A Garage

Every project of course must need a home, a place to build, a place to store and a place to be at one with the world, zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance

Currently our beautiful first home does not come with a man room, or garage in which I could start a project, so all I can do at this stage is dream and prepare (as with all of my ramblings really) but hopefully you can join me in the admiration of some of the great stuff which exists for kitting out the project garage, as well as some great shots I found of some dream garages and their contents.

One of the key things to consider when building a project bike, or restorations (and even general motorcycle maintenance) is ORGANISATION. Now if you ask my wife, this is NOT one of my best qualities, so I’m going to need some order and structure.

I found some great places online which give me inspiration.

“The Organizer’ from the below site seems like just the ticket for an unorganised soul, a place for everything which may come (fall?) off a bike!

http://www.wereorganized.net/caboptions.html

I fear that without something like this, my darling wife’s vision of my garage would not be this:

but rather this

Key to the space will be the storage solutions as mentioned, as well as sufficient bench space and all of the technology required to do a resto or project bike correctly. It would also be nice if it had a style of its own, below I’ve included some great images I have found on the web, enjoy!

Love those Chryslers!

Love the artwork touch!

Functional, but full of class

mmmm, Where did I stick all those vintage motocross bikes again?

Street Fighter Projects

The project style of which I am least convinced of is the street fighter style.

Wikipedia defines a streetfighter as: A streetfighter is a superbike that is customized by removing the fairing, and making other changes that result in an overall more aggressive look.

Whilst overall I think that the style itself is open to interpretation and can in many instances be successful and look ‘the goods’ I think the thing that has puts me off somewhat is the tendency to create bikes with unusually raised rear subframes and cowlings. An examples of which I have been quite impressed with besides the tail section.

so much promise...but the tail??? ummmmm...gee I dunno

I think that the more I look at examples the more I can easily talk my way out of it, but then some truly beautiful examples as well and some good commercial examples coming out now which shows the popularity of the concept in the urban environment where people look to stand out from the crowd, and also reduced need for aerodynamics.

A nice BMW example, I would say this crosses the boundary between Streetfighter and Cafe Racer

A popular example is the MV Augusta Brutale....simply beautiful

So it’s a bit of a mixed bag, the more radical styles seem to be adopted by the DIY projects whilst the commercial streetfighter styles tend to blur the lines between streetfighter and cafe racer..something which I think is a little more to my liking and opens up the possibilities of taking a classic cafe racer theme, but with some streetfighter aggressive styling choices for things like pipes, wheels and brakes.

Option 1 – A Honda V-Four Restoration

Ever since my best friends father bought a Honda VF1000F brand new when they were first imported into New Zealand back in 1984/85 ( I forget which ) our two families have had a love hate relationship with the might V-Fours from the big H.

In my case my hatred of all things chocolate cam shaft are far outweighed by the low grumble of the beast at idle and the way it sounded and reacted once it hit its magical 7,000 Rpm, the rush was fantastic! Sure the beast was heavy and didn’t stop too well…but hey, that’s living on the edge and it was great.

My model was the 1983 VF750FG as pictured previously and re-inserted here (more for my enjoyment than yours )

Having been many years without the V-Four now I can still hear it’s sounds and have a certain sense of nostalgia which is pulling at me to seriously consider such a bike for my project. This silly notion of picking a heavy bike with a twitchy 16″ front wheel, weak suspension and underpowered brakes is one that probably defies logic…but then I came across the wonderful people and the forum at www.vfrworld.com. They have added fuel to my fire and reinforced that I’m not the only silly bugger out there to have a soft spot for the old VFs!

Of particular note so far in my research is the great restoration (+modernisation) work performed by the user ‘Sebspeed’ at vfrworld…his restoration project of a 1983 VF750F is truly some work of engineering brilliance and mastery. I could only hope to achieve the results that he has, and I frequently revisit the thread to follow his progress

http://vfrworld.com/forums/1st-2nd-generation-1983-1989/12782-not-teaser-1983-vf750f-resto-project.html

Here is a shot of the bike fairly much as it is now I believe, looking better than new!

A new one I came across this morning was a restoration of a VF1000R, and ‘Salvo’ seems to be doing a great job!

http://vfrworld.com/forums/1st-2nd-generation-1983-1989/22123-restoration-has-begun-now-questions.html

These don’t hold the same ‘nostalgia’ for me, but they are becoming a collector’s item and the gear driven cams were really the first incarnation of the modern VFR we know of today, it looked quite the race bike to and I remember the aforementioned family friend picking one of these up as a few boxes of parts once in a motorbike shop in Auckland, NZ and rebuilding it…only ever got to ride it once…I should have bought it!

Some of the common modifications to early VF models when people are restoring is introduction of a ‘camshaft oiler’ modification to stop the dreaded ‘chocolate camshaft’ disease with which these fine animals had a hereditary predisposition to. The other common mod is the marrying up of CBR600F2 wheels, this option is adopted because of the limited tire choices available with the old wheels.

For more reading in/around both of these ‘Sebspeed’ has done a great job of them both

Probably as rare as hen’s teeth are bikes which have been modified with an HRC kit. I know I have seen a picture of the contents of this kit before and blowed if I can find it now, but here is a pic of what a race version looked like.

I found another good site or a nice restoration of a VF750 using a custom black, gold and silver paint scheme, very nice job, nothing as complicated as ‘Sebspeeds’ work, just a nice job.

http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=46531

and here’s a pic of the finished bike, next to a pic of what it started off like

Before

After

 

Check out this site also for a great pictorial of the Honda V-Four

http://www.honda-v4.eu/en/en/History.

With plastics being a problem to find in good condition for the older bikes, it was nice to come across this on the interweb, will keep it here for all those interested and also for safe keeping

http://www.airtech-streamlining.com/hondaz/VF7501983-85.htm

Cafe Racers – some more beautiful examples

Happy New Year everyone!

2010 is not a year in which the famed ‘projectbike’ blog will see it’s first post in around what I am actually going to be purchasing/working on. Instead it will sadly just be another year of research and ideas, hopefully by me storing them here along with some of my mindless ramblings will entertain the thought of such projects in some of you! So if your new years resolution for 2010 is to build a cafe racer, then I have just found another 3 very classy examples worth aiming for.

 

A factory Bimota cafe racer? I will have to do more research, but looks great!

An great example of a CB750 Cafe project for more see these guys! http://www.wrenchmonkees.com/bikes.html

I love the style and KTM colours - see http://rookecustoms.com/latestnews/?p=63