Benno

With a bit of fiddling you should be able to get them running 'close enough'. You'll need to go up a couple of jet sizes as it will be running lean due to the additional air flow. If you do some searching around you might be able to find someone who has done it before to get an idea of the best jet size

Also keen to do something. ^agree, same as the Christchurch ones, works out well.

Running pod filters by any chance? If so, you're in for a whole world of problems man. These stupid vacuum slide carbs don't work well without stock airbox, lots of fucking around to get them running ok but probably not as good as stock. I don't have the original carbs or airbox for mine and can't afford decent replacements, but if I could I would have just binned them long ago

Looking sweet. My only suggestion is to try shorten the bars a bit, I went to shorter bars on mine and the difference in handling is like night and day. Way better for high speed lane splitting too

Hey man, that seat looks sweet! How have you attached it? Are there any issues with the tyre touching it under suspension compression?

Painted the wheel black and trimmed the guard down a bit. Pretty happy with how the wheel has turned out, was debating keeping it completely black but quite like the look with the 'spokes' polished. Not entirely sure about how the guard looks yet, may end up trimming it down a little further at a later stage.

I think it's more of a safety issue in that if a tyre blows out the car won't dig a chassis rail into the ground, it could be fairly dangerous at 100km/h, so that is the main factor considered in low cars?

Slowly making some more progress on this. Got about 3/4s of the wiring done now, just got to sort out the rear indicators, brake light and number plate lights. Have got some of those LED bolts for the number plate, quite impressed with how bright they are. Pretty happy with how the battery box looks, I definitely prefer the lack of side cover. Still need to remove the tabs and fix the paint, but will probably wait until I do the rear section as well. I've also bought some new mufflers off trademe, a bit shorter then the current ones. Hopefully will sound a bit better and get rid of the annoying whistling noise the current ones make. Seat looks pretty ridiculous now, but will probably have to stay that way for a wee while as I'm sick of having the bike off the road. Having issues deciding what colour to paint the tank. Was keen to bare metal it, but pretty sure there is too much bog in it so will need to be repainted. Currently quite liking the look of this. Might look good with a black leather seat with brown stitching maybe? Thoughts or better suggestions?

Still working on this thing, slow progress is better then no progress. Was originally hoping to have running by next weekend to ride down to Invercargill, but no chance of that happening now. Have got battery box cut out and welded up, now just need to make some mounting tabs and weld them onto the frame. Have been starting the re-wiring job, got some connectors from the auto sparky and am using braided sleeving to protect and hide the wires. Coming along well so far, can kind of see from the very crappy photos.

That looks so sweet man

Thinking that a seat along the lines of this one might be the way to go. Thoughts? Quite liking the look of the bare metal tank too, will see how much bog is in mine when I get around to stripping it.

Got most of the wiring in it stripped out. Was even worse then I thought it was, twist n tape connections everywhere, crappy connectors coming loose, dodgy fixes so I ended up stripping pretty much everything out and will start from scratch. Before I can get wire lengths and stuff sorted I needed to sort out the battery box. It's going to sit up under the seat and will contain a motobat battery, ignition switch, solenoid, flasher and fuses. Made a cardboard mockup to make sure everything would fit where I wanted it to. Would have liked a bit smaller, but the bike is electric start only so needs a reasonable capacity battery. Shouldn't look too bad, still cleans up that triangle like I wanted. Now just need to get some suitable steel from somewhere and get it folded/welded up.

Cheers, but have hopefully got a replacement one sorted

Interested to see results if you do end up making your own. I've looked into it for when I get around to trying to sort my carbs properly, bit of 2 stroke oil and some clear tube doesn't look too hard.

Most of those things on the first list shouldn't be too hard to sort yourself. For the bonnet latch cable if you can track down a replacement one you should be able to fit that easily enough yourself. If that's not easy, something off something else should fit without too much hassle. You can get the lock nut off with an old socket and a hammer. Find a socket that is a tight fit over the nut, hammer it on then try to remove. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJUUyjJqk5A Do you have a multimeter or test light? Check for voltage at the coil (should be 12v on one of the terminals). If no voltage, try to trace the wire back to find the fault. If there is voltage at the coil and no spark, pull the main lead off the distributor (from the coil), stick a nail or something into the end and hold next to the block while someone cranks it over. If the is a spark check your points and condensor and ignition leads. Fairly simple electrics on these cars, shouldn't be too hard to sort out. Similarly with the electric fuel pump you can track down an ignition wire with the multimeter or test bulb, then wire the pump up with a relay.

Slowly making some progress on this. Got the front looking a bit tidier now. Have replaced indicators, flipped headlight holders, painted black and made a new bracket to move the gauges closer and lower. Will eventually end up replacing the massive headlight with a smaller unit and getting some smaller gauges, but its looking better then it was. Still undecided what to do about bars for it. Would ideally like something a little shorter and lower. I tried my drag bars on, but wasn't really a fan of the riding position. I might end up shortening the stock ones a bit

Sounds awesome man! Glad that my idea of the big flange seems to be working out well for you

I've got some braided sheathing on the way in a few different sizes. Planning on sheathing all the wiring in this, with heatshrink ends to stop fraying. Supposed to be flameproof and abrasion resistant and should look a lot tidier. I am going to end up replacing most of the connectors as a lot of them have been done really crappily with cheap crimp connectors and are loose or water has got in. What type of connectors am I best to replace them with, and where do I get said connectors from? Not keen on using those cheap narva ones. Ideally I'd like a good quality crimp connection which I can heatshrink.

Rode this thing down from Christchurch to Dunedin, went like a dream apart from an issue (assuming with carbs) that stopped it revving higher then 6000 rpm. Tried to take it to work on Monday as my car didn't have a WOF and the fucking thing lost all electrics at the side of the motorway, ended up having to call AA. Since then I've started to get into stripping it down and sort out the dodgy wiring. I'm flipping the headlight mounts to get it lower, will replace with a smaller light when I find one suitable. Painting it and the mounts flat black. I'm tidying up the gauges and ignition on the front. I'll move the ignition to the side of the bike and move the gauges closer and lower. Keen for some smaller gauges, but will make do with what I have for now. I've got some small LEDs ordered which I will use for warning lights. Chopped up the clamp a bit to make room to lower the gauges and bring closer Got rid of the fog lights on the front. Just some cheap chinese LED units, will see how well they last. Less then $10 for the pair, so not too worried if they aren't great. Turns out I'm an idiot and didn't look closely at the carbs. They aren't actually factory KZ440 carbs as I thought, they are Keihin VB52s. Not sure what they are off, a quick google suggested off a bigger bike. I just saw they looked the same as the factory ones and hadn't looked closer. Anyone know anything about these carbs, reckon they will be suitable? Might end up having to get some mikuni slide carbs after all.

Thanks man, pretty much exactly what I was after! You wouldn't know roughly what size jets you are running do you? Did you just go for the 'drill them out until it runs nicely' method?

Hey man, what carbs are you running? Did you successfully get the stock carbs running alright with the pod filters, or have you replaced them with slide carbs?

For anyone else interested in it, this is what the new flange looks like (or close to with a few minor changes). Exhaust manifold will bolt directly onto this (end and center ports) with the runners welded directly to this.

Bolt it up to that spare head, tighten bolts up and heat it, should be able to get rid of the worst of the bend like that I would imagine. Yeah, a bit of bowing is to be expected with laser cutting, especially with a part that large. There is nothing to support the part vertically from flexing, and a large amount of heat is added in the cutting process. Wasn't an issue last time due to the size of the flanges.

I don't believe so. Not yet at least..

I am planning on shortening the frame slightly on my KZ440, then welding in a new rear loop very similar to that pictured below. Is this likely to cause issues at WOF time? Are there any requirements or specifications I need to adhere to? Cheers