First a little background on me and the project bike….
I’ve been riding and racing motorcycles, in one form or another, for over fifty years. My first bike was a James, given to me by my brother-in-law, in 1956. I started drag racing a Triumph Cub in 1958 at the local strip in Las Vegas. Back in those days Nevada allowed you to get a motorcycle license at age 13 as long as your scooter or motorcycle was governed to 35 MPH. I rode home right after I passed my driver’s test and removed the restrictor gasket from behind the carb, the following weekend I was at the drag strip having the time of my life. I took the overall win in my class that weekend and I guess that set the hook for the rest of my life!
My passion for motorcycles found me racing TT, motoX, Desert, Sand Drags, the Mint 400 off road race and the Barstow to Vegas event but somehow I always ended up back at the drag strip!
The last serious drag bike I built was a 1600cc normally aspirated Kawasaki. Very quick and fast bike but lots of maintenance and attention needed after every race. I sold that bike in 1999 and have just been building small 1200cc bracket bikes since then. I seem to build them, race them for a season, and then sale them….. and then the cycle (no pun intended) starts all over again.
I’ve always thought about building a bike for Bonneville and so last June I decide it was time.
I attended the SCTA Sidewinders Club meeting in June of this year (2009) and became a member in July. I started going out to El Mirage in June as a spectator just to get a feel for the event and nose around the bikes to see what was being run. I saw, turbo Suzuki, turbo Suzuki, turbo Suzuki, small cc Triumph, Harley, turbo Suzuki, normally aspirated Suzuki, Harley and etc…..Looks Suzuki is the way to go, or not!
Since 1988 I’ve been using the Kawasaki Z1/KZ 900 and 1000 engines as the base power plants for my drag bikes. I have a very old and worn Kawasaki drag bike frame setting beside the house and a lot of spare 900 and 1000 engine parts in the garage. I decide to update the frame and build a normally aspirated 998cc Kawasaki four cylinder engine to run in the 1000cc A/G class at El Mirage. Since the majority of parts for this project will be recycled from previous race bikes, ie left over parts, I’m hoping to keep my project build cost under $2,500.00.
For a bike built with recycled parts and a $2,500.00 budget I don’t expect to set any records or wow any fellow racers. I just want to see what the bike will do and whether I’ll successful at riding it to its full ability on the dirt. I’ll just have to live with the power and speed it produces. Besides I shouldn’t be thinking about records or 200 mph speeds as a rookie in this type of racing. I figure that regardless of the lack of horsepower the older style KZ engine makes, that eventually I should be able to get up to 150 mph, and on the dirt with a ridged frame that should offer a little excitement…
I’m going to use a stock Kawasaki GPZ750 rear wheel, 18X3, and a stock Kawasaki GPZ1100 rear rotor and caliper on the bike. Spacers need to be fabricated for the rear wheel as well as a rear caliper torque arm. I’m going to run a 26 inch tall tire on the rear to help with the gearing I want to run as well as adding a bit of additional rotating weight to help absorb some of the engine pulses and smooth out the power delivery.
I discovered that the front wheel I was going to use was not legal so now I’m going to use a 2004 Kawasaki Vulcan front wheel, 2X19. I had to fabricate front wheel spacers so the Vulcan wheel would set correctly in the Betor front forks.
So the old frame is sand blasted, all of the old welds inspected, new gussets added, seat mount modified, rear inner fender added, one additional steering damper mount added, fuel tank and battery box mounts redone, rear brake stay arm mount added and zeus fasteners tabs welded on for the aluminum body panels. Frame is painted and I’m ready to assemble the rolling chassis.
It’s taken me four months to get to this point. I only get to work on the bike about 6 hours a week, in a good week.
More later….
Buzz