Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

the latest addition to the 4th. Have been after this bike for a few years, it finally became available at a good price and thusly has been delivered to the Fourth Dimension this afternoon.

GPz600R, 1985 vintage. Complete and running. A bit rough around the edges but everything is there........including the OEM exhaust system

Came with a few spares including complete spare bodywork. The bike used to live on the Central Coast of NSW and was purchased by the local VJMC pres a few years ago as a running example that needed some cosmetic lovin'.......

The reason for the purchase of this bike is due to the availablity of this kit at a really good price compared to 2009 !!! that is 38hp. It is about 1/2 of the OEM hp figure for this bike.

I think some long and meaningful conversations with Red Dave about good 12V batteries will be happening shortly










work will not start on this rig for a while - there are a couple of other jobs on at the moment at the front of the queue.......but I am looking forward to riding to work on a decent little rig without having to pay a cent for fuel.....ever. This will be nice

Wow thats a big project

Going by Christmas?

robracer wrote:......Wow thats a big project .....

well in some ways it is - hooking up all the batteries and sorting out the controller etc - and sorting out a decent belt-drive to the rear wheel - that is a big part....I also need to fabricate a decent battery 'frame' so that the batteries can be safely secured......

But in a lot of ways its also pretty easy. Remove the 4T motor and all associated hardware - radiator, carbs, exhaust etc etc - and then clean up the rolling chassis. The beauty about this particular frame is that both lower frame rails unbolt from the main frame.....

So I just need to get the rolling chassis nice and tidy - will possibly run ceramic wheel bearings as well - clean up all the bodywork, which is all in good nick at the moment - and that part of the project will be done.

Sorting out the controller and fabricating the battery frame will be a bit of a challenge but nothing too hard. There is an EV group in Canberra at the moment and one of the members has already completed building his own EV bike using an XJ750 as the donor bike. He used a hub motor and had it spoked to a skinny rim, and is also using LiPoFe batteries - I think he spent like 12k on batteries or something ???? fuck that I am happy to use these..... or something that Red Dave recommends

Wattie wrote:....Going by Christmas?.....

of course !

Youre going to ride something that doesnt involve the suck squeeze bang blow process?

Blasphemer......theres too much of that Ozone shit around. We need to burn more stuff

Cool project

I would never have guessed you would go green like intel (dont worry it isnt because it still needs coal and steam to power it)

So where on the list of projects is this, above the Jag-sled or below?

Awesome Gos always the innovator!

Really looking forward to this build, the ultimate's gotta be to round up a 1000 at a track day and go past making no noise

Nice pick up Gos, aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh the memories........
I had one of them many years ago and apart from the usual warped front disc's she never missed a beat........
Actually the other issue I had was when I put the carby hose clamps back on the wrong way round which resulted in the throttle stuck on when it started. Of course it wouldn't start normally so clutch starting was not much fun down hill in shorts t-shirt and thongs with full throttle
A pic for inspiration

Great project for you Gos ! I must say when i was at school we done the parliment house,australian mint,the science museum thingy ect,but i am thinking they should add the fourth to there exursion list,probably worth the tour from what i have read

you've been talkin 'bout a 'leccy bike for years... this should be fun!

Glen wrote:......Youre going to ride something that doesnt involve the suck squeeze bang blow process? ....

Yes mate that is the plan........it will be weird I think at the start, but should be heaps good in time.....

Jonno wrote:......So where on the list of projects is this, above the Jag-sled or below?.......

below. The VN is almost ready to drop the new motor in, and the Jag is following closely behind that......

tim wrote:....Really looking forward to this build, the ultimate's gotta be to round up a 1000 at a track day and go past making no noise ........

cheers mate - there is actually a current EV bike *championship* being run this year, I think there are 2 rounds at WP in support races during FX events ?? The best thing about the new control units like the one in the kit is this - you can set it up for Mon-Fri commuting, maximum speed of say 100kmh for just running through the 'burbs to work - and get battery life of 20-30 hours running. Basically a full week of commuting, possibly longer. Then for the weekend - crank up maximum speed to 180kmh and get battery life of 3-4 hours max !!! So it may be possible to get out to the local scratchers roads and carve the place up !!! 600R's actually handled OK for what they were at the time.......

smithy5 wrote:......Nice pick up Gos, aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh the memories........A pic for inspiration

GPZ600R 001.jpg

......

nice pic mate !! In that photo - its easy enough to picture the big DC motor replacing the clutch/transmission section. The basic diameter of the clutch cover and the DC motor is roughly the same. Everything else - will be batteries. But the standard fairings and seat/ducktail etc do not change at all. At a glance - it will look identical to any other GPz600R - except for the lack of an exhaust system......

h.b.bear wrote:...... i am thinking they should add the fourth to there exursion list,probably worth the tour from what i have read .......

hell yeah its a great place to have a drink, watch the footy - and look through 40+ years of motorcycle magazine history.....

Six Addict wrote:......you've been talkin 'bout a 'leccy bike for years... this should be fun!.....

its been on the radar for a while - have always liked playing with bike electronics and have never been fazed looking for those shitty 'electrical' issues that plague older bikes......this is probably the ultimate extension of a lifetime of being a pseudo-sparky

Gos you do realize humans don't live to be 300?.....Unless you have miracle like time management skills you don't have enough christmas's left

check this rig out - R1 converted to electric power.......does a great burnout !



plenty of Xmas's left in me Disco.....

well I dragged the 600R out of the holding sheds late this afternoon and down into the workshop for some lovin'

Most punters here know I have been playing with bikes for decades now - and in that time I have bled a lot of brakes. There are all sorts of techniques for this, some good and some bad.........but I have to share this story about the brakes on the 600R.....

When I picked up the bike a few weeks ago, there was no lever pressure at all. I just figured the m/c was dry. Amd so it turned out to be, when I took the cover off it was bone dry. So I filled it with some brake fluid......and then had a look at the front end.... FMD.....

I had forgotten about the anti-dive fitted to the old mid-80's GPz models. The 600R has anti-dive - which of course has its own bleed nipple. So does the caliper - and so does the fucken brake-line splitter - of course there is one of these on each side isn't there.. !! So there is not 2 nipples to bleed, not 4 .....but 6 of the little bastards in total !!!! FMD !

It was about this time I remembered buying one of those one-way brake bleeder valve thingys from Supercheap last year. It hadn't been used in anger and quite frankly I have always thought these things were just a gimmick........but with 6 nipples to bleed I just thought ' 'fuck it', will give this thing a nudge......................

So hooked it up to the top nipple on the r/h side - this nipple is fitted at the brake-line splitter where 1 line goes to the caliper and the other goes to the anti-dive unit.....and I started pumping the lever.

Well the clear line filled in about 3 pumps......and as soon as the fluid had gone past the valve on the next pump an absolute shitload of air came through the line.....followed by fluid - another pump on the lever - a bit more air - another pump - and I had a totally solid lever !!! All this and the m/c had not needed a top-up !!!

I couldn't fucking believe it. Tightened up the nipple, took off the one-way valve - and that was it. No shit, the entire exercise took about 2 minutes.........and now the brakes are just fine

I think this one-way bleeder was about $15. It will be used from here on in for every brake bleed I ever do on any bike ever.

Next job on this bike is to start removing all the dirty petrol and oil bits.... and weigh them all. I need to have a good comparison between the OEM motor weight and the replacement battery weight.....

Good job Gos...thanks for the heads up on the one-way bleeder. bleeding brakes is not one of my favorite things to do.