Pictures of my slightly custom 900F

Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2014 7:25 pm

I've been lurking a bit gathering info on here, and am finally getting around to putting up a couple pictures of my bike. I got it from my father in law about a year ago. This poor bike has sat in his garage for about 10 years being neglected. Last year I got it running great again, though it really needed help cosmetically.

Unfortunately for the purists, I like customs.. with that said, here it is with black vinyl, shock spacers, and my first try at making a seat pan and upholstery. The seat came out terrible!

I've changed the lines a bit now and decided to upgrade the suspension some. Jim (Jjam) milled my CBR swingarm to fit perfectly and I put a ZX6 front end on. I've learned a lot on this project as I've never really stripped down a street bike to this extent. I really appreciate the help I've got on here! I'm not really into owning a piece of art or history, although I appreciate lots of people enjoy that. This is going to be my every-day kind of bike, which means I want it reasonably quick, it needs to handle well and be fun to ride. I'm young enough that comfort tends to rank lower than those key things.. We'll see how long the clip-ons last as I've always liked to tour.

This is where it sits now. I have some of the electrical mounted and the front fender on, but still waiting on lots of other parts to get it together. I mounted a lithium battery under the tank and am squeezing everything else in under the seat, so I'm hoping to keep it all low profile and stripped looking (think Exile choppers). I'll also be running bst34 carbs and HEI ignition along with lots of other electric upgrades thanks to Melchiro, PGSmick and lots of others. I made an uber-crappy photoshop rendering of a seat option, though I'm still not 100% sure what it will be. I'm thinking of a flat 2-up seat with a removable rear cowl that matches the tank. This makes room for my wife or, more likely, a seat bag for traveling.

That's where I'm at as of now, I'm currently tearing into the harness again to get things wired up and waiting on a spacer to get my sprockets lined up, but it's exciting to finally have it coming together!

Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2014 11:29 pm

The bike is looking awesome.How long do the kawi forks measure from the center of the axle to the top of the fork tubes? Thanks Jamie

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2014 2:14 am

They are 29"

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2014 4:03 am

Did the fork tree stem need modifying or was it the correct length?

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2014 5:09 am

Ya, it took some head scratching to fit it. I used a spacer to press my CB stem into the new lower triple and took about 10mm off the bottom of the top triple to get it to the right overall height. Its still thicker than the original CB top tree and has a lot more bracing cast in, so I'm not at all worried about strength after milling it down.

I went with ZX6 when I found they have the same size bearings on All Ball's website. They DO, up until 2006. I got a screaming deal on this set from an 07 which is the first year of USD forks (from what I read). It took a little more machining and some extra spacers since the upper bearing is way bigger on the 07 zx6r.

If anyone is thinking of doing the Kawi swap, make sure to check into the difference between ZX6-R vs. ZZ6. Its super confusing how the switched model numbers through the years, some bikes are identical from different years but sold under different names. Either way you can get the front to work I'm sure!

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2014 1:54 pm

Great start .... would you consider adopting a more modern tail section and seat? With the frame supports the way they are designed, it might just work and look the part.

See this link, where he used an R6 real tail section >>> http://www.cb1100f.net/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=44944&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2014 9:06 pm

Ya, his bike is pretty sweet! I like the look of the modern tails, but I haven't seen one that really matches my tank. New tanks and tails seem a lot wider, i like how narrow the original tank looks.. Well, narrow compared to my new fatty tire! I'm not really wanting to swap to a new tank, I'm going more retro-modern I guess.. Something like the sport touring style you see in muscle cars where you keep the classic body lines, just clean them up, lose extra trim bits and throw corvette suspension under it.

I just don't want to end up with another cookie cutter cafe racer.. They're all staying to look the same, just in different shades of black and tan.

Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 9:57 pm

Time for an update! I've finally got the bike almost all together, just need to get the pretty paint done next. I'm still sorting out a few things, especially the headlight. I'm going to replace it's fairing mount with a custom one that lets me lower it to the center of the tank, it looks a little high now. It rides amazing though, feels like a proper sport bike! I'll need to change the exhaust a bit, I've scratched up the tip of my Harley salvage yard pipe on hard right turns, no bueno.

I've still got the bst34 carbs that will be going on, and I've got the HEI ignition stuff together to swap it in as well. I've just been loving having it put together and riding too much to tear it back down while we've got sunshine. Always more to do on this project!

Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2015 11:54 am

Is it just me or is your chain really loose?

Rest of the bike looks great, nice job!

Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2015 1:36 pm

Tdem, definitely not just you, there's a lot of slack until you sit on it. When I'm on the bike is only about 3/4" of slack. If i set the slack to a normal amount the chain is tight once I'm on it. I figure it must be the different swingarm angles? Not real sure. The shock is pretty stiff, it doesn't squat down much. Ive thought about incorporating a tensioner to take up that extra slack, but it seems to be fine as is.

Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2015 1:42 pm

Fun build. I like it