Well not finished my `project budget dragqueen` quite as yet as you can see from my build thread, but Im not far off done and the remaining stuff to do is mainly buying parts which I don’t have dosh for at minute. So I thought sod it might as well think about next project in line for me and make a start stripping down and planning it out.
Bike in question is my long suffering daily ride ZX6R fighter. Was standard till hit a stag years back which wiped out cosmetics. Lol. 3 days n £50 rebuild got it on road again as below.:-
Stayed that way for many years being my daily transport through rain n 1` of snow n worst of Scottish highlands weather. 800 mile weekends touring with my wife, etc, etc. Lived outside mostly too, yet never broke down once. Got a garage now and work from home airbrushing so no need to commute any more. Failed its mot recently as swingarm bearings shot so using it as a good opportunity to give the bike some much needed tlc as heading towards ratbike status as getting bit rough round the edges.
What Im aiming to do is make it minimal and light. At mot it weighed in at about 190kg with 2/3 tank of fuel which is already way below 207kg kerb weight of original bike. Has had some jetting n free flowing can so pushing out 100-105 bhp at wheel. Great daily bike as super reliable. Still running original battery and cables and clutch, etc it left factory with 13 years ago! Lol. Had head and sump apart and like a new engine inside. Not even any cam chain stretch. Great handling. Constantly falling off edge of back tyre 2-up with luggage. Good gas mileage even. Perfect bike for twisty little mountain roads up here as nimble n light and geared right down. Cant fault it really. Time to spruce it up n improve it tho. Muwahahahahaha……………
With the heavy stainless guns/rockets n theyre supporting 5mm thick steel stripped off it should drop weight a lot below the 190kg its at now, by at least 10kg if not a lot more. With the bodywork off you can see its pretty lightweight potential.:-
What Im aiming to turn it into is a minimal concept bike/café racer sorta fighter. Practical as no polishing to keep on top of and live 50` from ocean, so black frame, etc. Just a get on n ride kinda bike for everyday use n shopping runs, etc, but still funky. Something along these rough paint doodles from my brainstorming sessions. Twin stacked lights between front nose fairing side plates sat behind mesh for flush unit. All under rear seat, etc flush plate. Side fairings, etc thin alloy plate so light. Rest of bike what Ive already got to make it a cheap ass build. Blank colour to show shapes better.:-
And the colour scheme Im thinking is top of my list so far.;-
Green`s probably in metallic or flakes from Kawasaki green to british racing green or thereabouts. Double yellow racing stripes down the top/middle of bike a la Lotus.:-
Bikes now on my workbench as bandits a rolling bike now n not far off a running bike which`ll be very cool. Time to work.
Ive opted to not strip bike just yet, but to concentrate on getting subframe/body panel mods done n dusted and other parts made up, so then its just strip, paint/polish all the parts and assemble without any hassle as everything will be made already and bolt on.
How Im gonna work back end/subframe without and fancy posh Tig welding gear to weld aluminium is to keep top spars of original subframe which gives me front seat mountings already and can use existing seat and build around it. Remove bottom spars of subframe like below.:-
And build up new seat unit in sheet steel cos can weld it together myself. No alloy welding services or anything to fall back on up here on a remote island. To get strength back into subframe Im going to add in some triangulation again which is what little funky angular subframe sections above will be hiding. Something along these lines which bolts to main frame chunky crossmember and braces up to 2 cross members on original subframe top section. Roughly like this doodle.:-
Made a rough start tonight in an hour or so. Stripped panels/undertray n all crap off subframe to get a proper look. Shitloads of black boxes as per sportsbikes, but there`ll be loads of nooks n crannies to hide them away in on re-assembly. All clipped out of way for now.:-
Bare subframe finally found. Lol.:-
Frame crossmember is pretty major so good place to work from for subframe re-inforcement.
Going to weld up an assembly that bolts onto shock mounting, etc in thickwall steel so plenty strong. Sort of like this.:-
Which will run up to the back crossmember at back of seat.:-
And up to crossmember just at back of fuel tank in above pic. I`ll add in webbing where possible too to make sure its plenty strong. Should be more than up to job I reckon judging by how flimsy original subframe lower mounts are.
This setup will give me the low profile lower subframe run Im after so can be hidden behind little angular sections on frame.:-
I`ll then chop off lower run of subframe and clean everything up leaving top run in position. I`ll keep section behind front seat as has plenty of handy mounts already there I can use to mount battery box and electrics tray, etc, etc.:-
Well that’s the rough plan for now. Progress might be slow right now as main priority is finishing `project budget dragqueen` off. Not much left to do on her now tho apart from spray a side scoop. After that its spending on last parts which I cant afford right now. Leaves me time to make a start on this project tho in meantime. Loads I can make and strip down without cash injection.
Here we go again! lol