my new twin build

[Yamaha_chop]

Ok, so its not an XS, but I have been wanting to build a bike for my wife for a long time. I have been on the lookout for an old twin in the smaller displacement range. I just got this KZ440 with a clear title for a great deal. Not running, been sitting for about 15 years now, but its all there. Kind of a shame because I'm going to change a lot of it.



Stripped a few things....



Chop chop, cut the factory bars down to a usable size, chopped the back of the frame off for the mono shock conversion, slapped my f3 rear wheel in the swingers. Cut off all the excess tabs and tossed on a potential Honda gas tank.





For the coup de gras I put on my gsxr front end with Vfr wheel. Those who have seen my builds before know this is pretty standard on my builds.







Pile o parts not to be reused



Anyway, not bad for a start

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Somebody's been eatin' their wheaties/cheerios! Git 'er done!

I'd like a pic of that lathe...

 

[Yamaha_chop]

Got the vast majority of the Mono-shock conversion done today. Couldn't be happier with the result!











More to come tomorrow hopefully...

 

[jdizon]

Wow man! Inspirational work. Looking forward to seeing this come together.

 

[angus67]

dayum!! you and hugh are in a ingenuity contest or what? what will the seat structure be like? im feeling the visual impact brat thing type.

 

[Yamaha_chop]

Seat is still in the air for the moment. Current plan is a cbr1000rr tail section. Something a little more race inspired.

 

[Yamaha_chop]

Little bit of work today. Finished the mono shock mount, mounted the front of the gas tank, and drilled the top triple for the bar risers. Need to swap the 180 rear tire for a 140.

 

[RockinRam96]

This is pretty cool. I've always wanted to take an XS, do a big bore 750 kit and build a "sports" bike out of it

 

[Airwolfie]

That looks great! Unless you are cafe-ing it, I would do something different, closer to a brat or solo seat something. Either way, that mono is awesome!!!

 

[Yamaha_chop]

Hey guys, back at the bike. I'm really pleased with how quickly I have been able to progress with it!

I swapped the rear tire with a 130 fits much better now. Got the cushy drive milled down on my lathe so the chain lines up properly. Was a bit of a pain to get it chucked up properly, and had to take almost a full inch off of it to make it work!





The chain has more clearance than it look from that picture. Won't be a problem.

And the thing I'm most excited about: got my subframe built! Love how it came together, I used the bottom of the tank to make a straight line for the top rails. Check it out and let me know what you think...











That is the last of the major frame modifications. Some tabs and brackets and such need to be made now. I'm going to try to hide almost all the electronics under the tank and seat. Speaking of the seat, for the first time I'm going to try and make one myself. Don't know yet if that's a good idea or a bad one

Thanks for looking, and let me know what you think so far.

 

[Airwolfie]

I like it! Looks a lot better than I have imagined it! Those bars do need changing to some drags or clip ons I think. Not feeling them right now, might be different once the seat is on........

Just my .02c, don't take any notice!!

 

[RockinRam96]

This thing is cool as hell man. I think a set of drag bars will look awesome on there but I think the bars you have on there now could look cool set up correctly.

This thing is going to end up looking like a Buell. Thing is going to be awesome!!!

 

[Yamaha_chop]

I have a set of clip ons that I could throw on there just to see how it looks. Although I do love clip-on's they usually don't work well with these type of bikes.

 

[Airwolfie]

Won't hurt if you do. Might work, you never know until you try!

Who cares, that bike looks AWESOME!!

 

[jdizon]

Loving this build. I also did something similar to my xs400

 

[Yamaha_chop]

Ok so a bit of time between updates, but I have been working on it. First thing is I decided to build my own tail instead of buying one. Would have been FAR simpler to just buy one, but I wanted something unique.

I built the tail on my tracker bike this way so I decided to do the same thing, first I built the skeleton out of round bar.





Then I started skinning it up with sheet metal. I used 16 gauge again because I can't find any 18 gauge. This stuff is pretty thick and doesn't want to form very well. On the upside it's quite strong.











Overall I'm thrilled with how it came out. Still have the center section to fill on the bottom, but really happy with it. Too much work!

Got a few parts for it, new headlight, tail light turn signals, battery.













Tail light is an led unit for a r1 with sequential turn signals. Free internet cookie to anyone who can guess what the headlight is from. It's from one of my favorite bikes of all time.

A look at it on the bike





I originally was going to just reuse the stock round headlight, but the tail I made was so new age looking it just looked completely out of place, so I went in this direction. For those of you who don't like it, it's my bike

Oh yeah, also got my bearings for the fork conversion



Had to take of picture with me on it to check proportions. I was surprised, I don't dwarf it as much as I thought I would, should be great for my wife.



I'm beyond pleased with how the bike is coming together right now. I'm currently working on the seat area, that will be in the next update. Stay tuned!

 

[xskid]

Dude! This bike is awesome, love that tail section. Keep up the good work!

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[goodgollyjosh]

That bike is gonna look sharp! Nice garage/workshop, lots of equipment. Did I spy an intercooler on the shelf?

 

[retiredgentleman]

Very creative work. Your skills are far above the average.

 

[Yamaha_chop]

Thanks for the good words guys, this hobby is so much fun and such a creative outlet for all of us.

The intercooler is just wall art, it came off of a dodge sprinter van with about 300k miles on it.