Project The Bedroom Bike Build

The challenges of being a poor student in Wellington, NZ are many and perilous; cost of shipping my cache of parts is prohibitively expensive, most of my tools are still in my hometown too. The police don't much like half torn-down bikes ripping through town on "test missions" nomatter the time. But most notably is the extreme lack of available work space!

My wee work around for this last problem was to build a full mezzanine in my bedroom in order to accommodate my new '91 zxr project! (more on the bedroom later) After picking up the wee beut (albeit in a slightly sad state) for the princely sum of NZD$0.00, I took her for a wee spin to see what gremlins lie in wait- all the usual suspects, slightly grumbly cam-chain, unwillingness to rev above 12,000 (carbs off for a rebuild) and a leaky exhaust valve guide in cyl#4- nothing particularly out of the ordinary for one of these wee beasties at the grand old age of 54,000km.



Very quickly I turned to what i do enjoy the most- tearing the guts out of the poor wee thing! I've decided that since the mechanical's will require a little time, money and attention before she hits the streets again- time to start delving into my "dream box" and set about finally building my cafe racer inspired "micro-GP" bike.



Get ready for months of delays, excuses, cursing and pleading, as I attempt as best I can to document my largest and most in-depth expedition into custom-bike-building thus far!

 

So it's now 1am my time... Far far past my bedtime but hey, got some good preliminary work done for my tank and fairing "plug". Everything will be 'designed' by hand using foam core and wire modeling techniques which I'll endevour to get good coverage of as the project progresses. For the time being, a simple wooden mockup gives a fairly decent idea of the side profile that I'm going for.



When I went back over some photo's in the glorious program "MS Paint" and applied what little computing knowledge I have (yeah... none... you guessed it) along with using "the golden ratio"- I found that my beady little eyecrometer was pretty spot on with my proportioning!



Well, it's time for me to get some Kip now; I shall keep you lovely people up to date as bits of alloy wire, carbon and other goodies start to wend their way onto the frame!

Ciao!
Bryn

 

We seem to find that bloody ratio everywhere in the universe!!! Lucky it looks so good right ;D John Britten style is exactly the method I'll be using! Easiest method given the space and tools I have available to me.

 

Couple of days visiting my Grandfather, spinning yarns about his old bike andstereos, whilst drinking too much beer! Now back at it this evening:
Just the boring bits I'm sure we've all seen before!





I'll be heading down to my local bike shop in he next day or two to have the front wheel removed (I dont have a 14mm allen key, and far far too tight for the old nuts on a bolt trick, so I suppose now is as good a time as any to begin out sourcing! once she's totally bare, off to vapour blasting!

 

Who can spot the tasty bit's




(anyone able to confirm this part number please? I know that I've never owned a "J" CDI






Rather happy to find these (had seen the forks before I owned her, but could not confirm carbs, very tempted to do a full refresh now so I can count the teeth on 1-2-3 gears.

 

I have the SP model forks and carbs as a starting point.