ZX10 Cafe Racer Build

Rather than approach this build like the last one, I have decided not to smash the bike up first but to start with a perfectly good, well proven bike.
I should also add this build has nothing to do with my talent at all - it's all via Ben at Extreme. He did an awesome job on my previous bike and so he was the obvious place to go for this one.

I wanted to get a cafe racer built. I had a great SF from a K4 GSXR and it handled so well, it's always going to be hard to top it.
And i actually like the feel of a bike with clips ons. So a cafe racer was a good alternative. Originally I wanted to buy an old 999 and but that meant not enough cash for the build. So i'm taking my current bike and using that. And then I'll work another bike just for the track.

This is the last time it was seen with it's kit on and then Ben quickly got rid of a sizeable 17kgs

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There's quite of bit of custom stuff to build now that it's been pulled apart but the end game is to have something along the lines of this..

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I'll bet it comes back with a turbo :)

yeah i reckon your right ivan

Nice one Dave. A Cafe racer looking bike with that sort of power will mess with quite a few heads.

Love the cafe look. A bit hard to do with modern type of frame :( but the 3rd pic looks great !

I love the idea!
http://i735.photobucket.com/albums/w.../avatar_43.gif

Its gonna look great when its done mate.

yup im with Ivan and Rod on this itl get boosted,

So stuff is starting to arrive and get made and whilst it's not on the bike yet, you get an idea for where it's going

Bens going to get rid of the stock top clamp and build a new one probably something like this:
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And then a similar dash but in black will drop in to replace the pretty ugly and heavy set up that's sits in it right now:

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The seat is being made in carbon fibre and will look the same style as this;

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It's being made now(ish). I hope so anyway. The dude speaks spanish so I assume he said he'll finish it in Jan. If nothing happens I know that what he said actually means, 'fuck yourself, it'll be ready when i am'

There's some other bits on the way - new clip ons, engine guards and carbon fibre bits so I'll get up once they get here.

Ill be very intrested in what you think of that moto gadet clock
I am looking very hard at same one but taco

Santa got the postman to get his arse in gear and suddenly everything has started turning up.

Seat unit is here. It's a little bit rough in spots but it the right shape. Just need to now work out of the old sub frame can be made to fit or that has to be changed too.

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This will get painted along with the tank so it's not too much of an issue that it has the odd spot on it.

Got to pull the rest of the stuff out of boxes later and i'll stick it all up. Then off to Ben's on Sat to get some pictures of where it's all at.

And because i am getting what was a perfectly good track tool chopped up, i got hold of this last week to replace it. It's got rego til April and then once that's up, I'll just get race glass for it and keep it for track days. First one os Sunday providing the rain stays away
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nice

Looks loud.

Had a catch up with Ben at the weekend as a bucket load of stuff has arrived - clips ons, new levers, rear sets, carbon guards front and back, engine casing etc and the seat unit.

The actual arse end that will make it look like a cafe racer is from a site that makes after market stuff for Ducatis. So the profile is perfect but it's too skinny by far. So It's being cut in half and widened so it'll fit the new subrame

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Even with the widening though, the old subframe just looks nasty. It looks like a couple of RSJ's hanging out the back once it stripped back. So Ben's making a custom sub-frame for it that'll look something like this

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You can see that the new hugger is too big once you get the arse end on. So that's going to be cut back too so it finishes shorter than the tail unit. Need to work out what the lights and hanger will look like but I'll probably get a new number plate.

I'm not a fan of personalized plates only because they seem too easy to remember for anyone who clocks you doing something you shouldn't be. But i figure once this is finished it'll be pretty unique so it doesn't matter. So I will change it for less letters and numbers so the width of the plate is less.

Still stuck on how to finish it all off. The original idea was to have the whole thing orange with a carbon fibre GT set of stripes running a little off centre from front to back. The guards will be carbon fibre and anything else will be black or silver.

Closest colour I could find that suited was this as the orange is a bit deeper;

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But I'd forgotten that the ZX10 came in an orange anyway. So it might end up looking just like a standard 10 after all the paint work. As Large pointed out, he's got an orange one anyway so he'll just chuck a cafe racer seta on it and say they are the same bike.

So might start again on that but either way it'll be bright

fuck thats looking good

Nice mate!

Looking good Dave. The Radical seat unit has been used on a Ducati ST2 in the latest Motorcycle News. It does look a bit small.

Yep you're right - they do some pretty cool stuff to turn a ducati into a cafe racer - this was the original inspiration for the idea:

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But that means having a Ducati for start and I've already had a shite experience with them so don't really fancy one again. And the 999 feels like a mountain bike with a motor when you're on them. The tail end and tank are skinny as.

But the profiles right and Bens already doing a perfect job on making it suit so it's probably saved some time and money.

Know what you mean about the Ducati experience. Brothers got a 749S and needed 3 speedos/dashs replaced in the first year not to mention the computer and a thousand other problems.
The ZX10 is going to be very different. Great to see.

Top clamp has been cut and it looks awesome. It'll be black on the finished bike but this is a shot of it now with the new clock, clip ons and levers all attachedAttachment 3346

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And now the tail unit is a bit wider it looks better too. The battery is going to be changed to smaller and lighter jobbie so the power commander and computer can all still be wedged in under the seat bump once it's finished.
The lights will all sit on the back and probably just look like old round ones to suit a cafe racer. Issue is the number plate - whether to wedge it right in against the shock and encourage getting pulled up all the time. Or just live with it hanging off the end.

Going to get a new one anyway with only 4 characters on it as they now come on a smaller plate - see what it looks like when it arrives
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And this is the headlight. Its off a VRod and probably the closest I'll get to a Harley for a while. its got the perfect gradient on it though as it follows the rake of the forks.
Only thing to work out is how to get the air flow in behind the light. It's not like the GSXR when the air flow went through the vents in the frame. It sits right behind the light so it's going to need some kind of scoop that sits over the vent and hen comes down under the light. Without looking like that thing that is on a ZX12

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keeps getting better and better

I'm loving this build. This bike is gonna be awesome when finished

For slightly less positive reasons, the conversion of the other bike into a track only toy, has been a bit accelerated. Last Sunday i was at Eastern Creek on it for the first time. Awesome day out and had a lot of drama free fun. I put some Dunlop cut slicks on it which are ok but get chewed to fuck like Pirellis just don't seem to. There were OK but slide around a bit once they ball up. Cool at the track, not so cool on the road.

So on Tuesday I put the lights and plate back on and went to go to work. On my road there's a little bend at the bottom. I lent over just like normal and went to open it up just like normal. As I did, the back suddenly slid way more than I expected and then gripped. Chucked me right in the air and had a high side for breakie. I was probably only doing 60 so no real chaos but enough to take it off the road.

You can see on the tyre pick where its just started to spin and not gripped before it grabbed the road again. If there's a silver lining, all the bits that are fucked - fairing, exhaust, pegs - are all getting replaced anyway. And its my fault - i know better than to give it handful on cold tyres. I must have had a big cup of fuckwit before i left.

On the bad side, I am now spunking way too much cash so i am having to sell my truck to pay for them. Which sort of fucks me as that's what I take the track bike to EC in. But Ill work that one out later. Getting the bikes up and running trumps worrying about where my 4 wheeled transport is coming from.

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I had a similar problem with the number plate, Dave.
I tried about a dozen different locations till I found one I hated less than the others.
The plus is you get a smidge more protection from the rooster tail in the wet...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...ps6ec3c454.jpg

I had mine on the 7 like that the only problem with the plate like that is the angle they will defect you for it and the problem with NSW is 2 defects for the same thing and they pull your rego

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yella

I had mine on the 7 like that the only problem with the plate like that is the angle they will defect you for it and the problem with NSW is 2 defects for the same thing and they pull your rego

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Is the angle that bad? I've seen plenty of dirt bikes with the plate mounted horizontally on the rear plastics.

If they are looking for something they will find it mine wasn't that bad but still defected for that, no rear reflector and no rear indicators but they didn't see the turbo so I took it without a fight and moved on :)

Good to hear you are ok mate. Shame the gixer isn't a K6 I've got a set of race glass to fit one thats going spare....

Cheers dude - never mind - race glass is on the way, the stuff from China is cheap as fuck these days and as its just a track bike, that'll do fine. Bit of messing about with a heat gun and it'll fit.

For the plate, I'm thinking your option is right Dan. I have a mate who's put one of those new Ducati Pengalis (spelling?) and he has the standard tail tidy on the back. But he's been nicked 3 times since he's had it as the angle is just a little high. The last time, like Yella says, they said they'd suspend his rego til he got it changed.

When i had this streetfighter, although it wasn't technically in line, the fact that enough effort was made for it to be nesr enough meant I never got pulled and too much agro to get stuff changed back. i think if i can stick with that principle on this one, it might be OK. so the plate is probably going to have to go on the arse with the lights just to suck it up and keep the peaceAttachment 3357

That bike is coming on nicely Dave. Good choice mate.