1984 Katana 7/11

[nvr2old]

Close is good, Pete. You'll be all set in no time. Are the legs on hinges, too..?

 

[Guest]

Yep Larry, they're hinged to fold straight back. The only thing I need to sort out is a way to lock them in place so I don't kick them out and lock them back against the door.

I have a plan which involves some steel plate I have here and some rod to make a pin. Basically one hole in the leg and two holes in the plate, one locks the leg forwards to stop it being kicked out, and the other hole to lock the leg back against the door so it can shut.

It's a bit hard to explain but hopefully I can get it done on the weekend and hopefully it works.

 

[Guest]

I've been trying to get a mock up done of the colours I want to paint the Kat but I stumbed across a photo on the Interwebs which closely resembles what I want.

I'll use a "redder" red as this one's a bit off but it's pretty much the scheme I'm going for.

I was initially thinking just a black seat but the KA guys are right that a two tone seat is part of the visual appeal of the Kat, so I'll be sticking with a red seat too.

 

[Charlie G]

That will be nice Pete!

 

[Big Rich]

I'm just going to drop this here......

http://lazonenoire.blogspot.com/2016/01/tattooed-katana-gyuszi-gulyas-artwork.html?m=1

 

[SVSooke]

WOW that looks WAY better than I'd have thought.With a "reder" frame it would look even better IMHO.

 

[Guest]

Cheers guys! Yeah I think it will work well but yes, definitely have to have a different red.

Rich, that's some serious skill there! Well beyond me but thankfully I'm not keen on that on my tank

 

[Guest]

I finally got the shed that much closer by finishing the shelving and getting some pegboard up.

No photos of the pins to help hold the compressor room door/workbench legs in place yet as there's still too much crap up that end to open it, but here's the shelves and peg board at least:





I've been able to move everything from the work bench in the garage back to those shelves now so I should have some room to get going on the tail light again.

 

[Guest]

Pretty much got the shed sorted yesterday so I can start using it now. I have still yet to organise fans/filters for spraying and the little section out the front so I can expand it for some extra room, but I'm nowhere near paint to need to do that just yet.

Gave it a big clean out and got some whiteboards and cork board up.

Here's the pins in the compressor room door hinged legs to make it a workbench. With these in I can lock the legs back real easy:





And the whiteboards/cork board I picked up from KMart...



Unfortunately my skills with applying sheets of contact are not so good... this was $3 so I can tear it down and do it again if the bubbles/creases are too annoying, but it's a real good size:



That should mean today is steering head bearing day provided my phone doesn't keep ringing like it has so far this week...

 

[Guest]

Progress at last! Got the lower steering head bearing on.



30 minutes in the oven for the bearing, freezer for the lower triple clamp, Bob's your aunty.

Got a bit of organisation done in the shed...



Means I have room now to do this...



One of the fellas on the KA forum has made a spacer to replace the speedo drive, just have to collect that hopefully on Saturday morning.

 

[Guest]

I got to have my very first pretend ride on the Kat last night

And yes, she already has a fan...

 

[Guest]

My wife donated an old gym mat to the cause yesterday so I've been able to quiet down the compressor in the shed quite a lot by removing vibration from the concrete:



And one of the very generous fella's from KA handed me the holy grail of spacers Saturday morning:



Seems to be a pretty spot on fit:



And my excitement level went up a notch when I got to wheel her out of the shed very easily...



I don't think I'll be putting the indicators back in the stock location but that depends what happens with my headlight idea at present... I just put them there for the moment because I could

The only thing I'm missing for a complete roller right now is actually the swingarm bearings which I keep forgetting... they're a standard roller/needle bearing so one of the KA folk will have the numbers for me.

Now it's time for me to pull my finger out and finish some things I've started like the battery tray and tail light!

 

[Guest]

I managed to get out to the shed last night and get a mock up done of an idea I've had floating 'round in my head since seeing Icon's NewJack Katana where they had the oil cooler in place of the headlight.

I found some small projector headlights in the UK that are E marked so good for rego and safety certificate here in Aus.

When I had them mocked up underslung on the front cowl in place of the shark fins, there just wasn't going to be enough clearance. The Kat fork travel is 150mm and while they're shorter than the fins and therefore in theory have more clearance, the fins are out to the sides whereas the lights are much further into the centre, so effectively leaving only about 100mm for fork travel which means the front guard will be hitting them before the forks bottom out. Not good!

So I figured I'd see what they looked like if I had the bottom of the lights in line with the bottom of the cowl. It results in the top of the lights impinging on the stock headlight area, but that's not an issue as I wouldn't run an oil cooler that's full height in there anyway as it would probably be too effective at cooling.

Here's how it ended up looking:



And after a bit of time in the GIMP this morning, here's an idea of what it would look like with the screen and an oil cooler:



While I love the idea of it, I just don't think it will look right... a bit too bug eyed with the lights up on top there I think.

Of course with it all painted a nice glossy black it will change how it looks a bit, but my imagination and skills with the GIMP don't stretch quite that far unfortunately...

So I'm still undecided to a certain extent but leaning towards abandoning it at this point...

No progress on the battery tray as I decided to wait until today or tomorrow when I break out the jigsaw to cut the aluminium.

PS: No front cowls were harmed in the making of this mock up...

 

[ptegsotic]

I don't think I'll be putting the indicators back in the stock location

yea, tuck 'em in tight, yet still functional / observable (esp @ night) ...
(it's a 'gap' just wanting to be filled!)

 

[Tim Tom]

Too bug eye'd looking with the indicators on the nose like that... ptegsotic had the right idea, they look awesome there!

Good to see a bike out of the shed. Get to it!

 

[nvr2old]

I love that look, Pete. If you can blend/mold the headlight surrounds smoothly into the fairing, it'll look really cool. I also really like the look of the oil cooler there, too..I mean, if you're gonna customize the tail section of this bike, I think it needs to be done to the front, also. It ties it all together very nicely that way IMO.

 

[John Kat]

I personally would attach the radiator to the frame in the conventional manner and recess the elliptic headlights behind a fake number plate.
In any case that's what I'll be doing on my XR 41 replica: http://www.thegsresources.com/_foru...000-engine-in-GSXR-1100-first-gen-frame/page2

 

[Guest]

Cheers for the feedback guys!

Ptegsotic/Tim Tom... just to be clear these are headlights not the indicators I do have the stock fake oil cooler grill mounted at the moment between the side covers where those indicators are in Ptegsotic's photo. I haven't really thought about indicator location yet as I figure that will partially be determined by what I do with the headlight.

Larry, it's growing on me... although a suggestion has been made by the KA guys to try the headlights on top of the oil cooler which I hadn't thought of so I'll see how that looks. I think the bottom works better but we'll see. And you're spot on, it all depends on how well I could blend it in with the stock cowling. I don't want it to look like a hack!

John, do you have a mock up or something of what you're planning? Had a look through your project (very cool btw) and can see the headlights at the end but that's about it...

 

[Guest]

I did some other mock ups and so forth yesterday and took some photos so I'll play with them in the GIMP and see what I can come up with.

I did however get some good progress on the battery/electrics tray.

Got it cut out on Saturday and after a good suggestion I used a small round file to relieve the corners where the bends were going to happen, and I reckon it made a big difference. In future I'll drill a small hole in the corner before cutting the shape out.



And it seems to sit in reasonably nicely:





I do have some tidy up work to do though. While I took into account the width of the aluminium while bending, I didn't take it into account enough when laying it out in the first place. So when the bends were done, the electrics tray sides end up being a little taller than I intended, and the sides of the battery tray are also a little longer than I intended. Nothing a bit of trimming won't fix easily but a good lesson for me to learn for next time.

Once I trim it to size properly I'll attempt to braze it and see how that works out.

 

[John Kat]

Cheers for the feedback guys!
John, do you have a mock up or something of what you're planning? Had a look through your project (very cool btw) and can see the headlights at the end but that's about it...

I've updated my thread but the holes in the fairing are not done yet...