Via my good friend Luke,
Check out these pics that I took a couple weeks ago. I saw this beast parked on the side of the road and had to pull over. It’s a Peterbuilt roadster on 24’s and bags. He’s got front, back, side-to-side on semi. Check out the custom 4-link and frame notches for the rear suspension. This guy clearly has way too much time and money on his hands.
In my opinion, it is this sort of unique work that keeps hotrodding fun.
As Ebay auctions get taken down after a while, I have copied the text here:
Up for auction is my HIGHLY modified Kawasaki “KH750″ Cafe Racer. Old School Style with the help of Modern 2-stroke Technology….
It has taken the better part of 4 years getting this bike to what it is today…. Plenty of trial and error, a ridiculous amount of time and money, and a HUGE supply of help and advice from the good guys on the KTW (kawasakitriplesworldwide) forum. The bike has gone through 3 major transformations, all a step in the right direction, and finally ending up as you see it in these Photos.. An ultra lightweight (nearly 90 pounds lighter than a stock H2), ROCKET of a two-stroke street bike!!! I have almost enjoyed building it as much as riding it, and luckily I’ve been able to ride the bike in the Mountains surrounding Deals Gap for 2 years in a row….Not to mention all of the back road riding here in Minnesota chasing (sometimes leading) friends on modern sportbikes and old two-strokes alike…………….anyways, enough talk..On to the description!!!!!!!!!
CHASSIS and SUSPENSION
1. Lightened ‘76 KH500 frame…. the final year 500 Triple (KH500) frames came from the factory with headstock gusset plating and extra corner bracing which greatly helped ridigity. Frame was thoroughly de-tabbed, and shortened, (15+ pounds of unnecessary weight removed from frame alone) Frame was then Powdercoated “Satin” black
2. Aluminum FZR400 swingarm…. Mono linkages removed and 3 position “dual shock” tabs welded in place. Allows for shock angle and ride height adjustments in addition to adjustability of shocks themselves. Swingarm then De-anodized and polished. New pivot needlebearings were installed as well.
3. Works Performance shocks…. Dual rate, valved and sprung for 175-180 pound rider. These shocks work wonderfully on this bike!
4. Front fork…. Stock H2, with Progressive springs. Lowers powdercoated black. New seals and dust boots. Caps are custom road-race Billet extensions that allowed for mounting clip-ons above upper triple clamp without sacrificing fork travel.
5. Fuel tank…. Late ’60’s British Aluminum Thruxton or Triton style “Cafe” tank cut and modified to fit KH500 frame. New Billet Aluminum “pop-up” cap installed including vent hose to catchbottle which eliminates vent leakage under hard cornering. Pingel petcock. Graphics on fuel tank are 3M vinyl and are easily changeable. This is actually the 2nd color scheme I have had on the bike. The bike spent a year in “Candy Green” before deciding on Black when I added the Gold Sun wheels last year. Fender and Tail section are all that needs paint if you do decide to change the color yet again. I will include a few rolls of different colored vinyl for you to experiment with if so inclined.
6. H2R style fiberglass tail section…. Cut and modified to fit KH500 frame. Seat and side areas reinforced with additional fiberglass for strength. Storage compartment is accessed through perforated aluminum panel (shown in video), which is attached via Velcro (light weight!). Tail houses Oil-Injection filler cap (tank located beneath tail), and is still large enough to carry tool kit, spare plugs, etc. Seat Padding is 1″ closed-cell foam and believe it or not, it isn’t as uncomfortable as it looks….. Riding position is comparable to most modern sportbikes, with a little less weight on the wrists.
7. Aluminum (Vortex? i cant remember?) Clip-Ons…. doweled into top triple-clamp to eliminate possibility of rotation on hard braking and acceleration.
8. Sidestand… shortened ZX636 Ninja…. 1/3 the weight of a stock “solid” sidestand.
9. Rearsets are modified Raaske… to be honest, this is one of those things I intended to eventually upgrade and still a bit rough around the edges. Modern ZX Ninja, Honda CBR, Yamaha R1, R6, Suzuki GSXR style pegs would save a bit more weight and look a lot better. Shift lever is a single unit (KV75) mounted directly to the shift shaft. This eliminates ALL possibility of slop through linkages for more positive shifting. Shifting does require a bit more “force” as leverage was lessened, but once used to it, shifting becomes 2nd nature. Brake lever is cable to drum as described below.
10. Stock H2 steering damper…. in excellent condition and works well.
11. Stock H2 triple clamps (lightened) with new tapered roller bearings
WHEELS AND BRAKES
1. Sun Gold Anodized 18″ Aluminum rims (2.15 front 3.5 rear) laced with stainless Buchanan spokes to lightened S3 400 rear hub and KH500 4-bolt front hub. All hub and brake components powdercoated “Satin” black
2. 520 DID X-ring chain conversion with Sprocket specialist “Titan Tough” hard anodized aluminum rear sprocket. 16/51 or 3.18 (stock H2 being 15/47 or 3.13). 16 tooth countershaft sprocket used to gain chain clearance around larger FZR400 swingarm pivot tube.
3. Bridgestone BT45 Battleaxe tires (140/70-18 rear 110/80-18 front)
4. Rear Brake is stock A1/A7 (lighter than S3 unit) drum. This brake is nothing more than a road-race spec “Hill holder”, as there isn’t a lot of leverage with the Raaske brake pedal/cable set-up.. No Matter, as I do not use rear brake unless riding in rain or dirt… This bike obviously wasn’t ridden in those conditions. (save for getting caught in a rainstorm at Deals Gap 2 years ago). If you are a “Rear Brake” type of guy, you will definately need to address this…
5. Front brake…. Nissin Master (Sudco), Stainless braided brakeline, rebuilt Nissin EX500 caliper with EBC HH pads.. MORE than enough brake for this bike during spirited street use. Will lift the rear wheel under hard braking.
6. Front rotor is stock KH500 (4-hole) that has been lightened. Drilled and thinned to 5.5mm.
7. Speedometer is a magnetic sensor (Stingray) Bicycle Computer. Battery recently died in this unit, so I purchased a new Sigma Computer to replace it. The stingray was only good to 120 mph any ways and needed upgrading. The Sigma is good to “as fast as this bike will go”, which is definitely higher than 120. Buyer of bike will get the new Sigma in box and ready to install.
ENGINE
1. Early ‘74 H2b engine cases w/rare factory aluminum slugs. Slugs removed and cases then fited with Suzuki GT750 “silentblock” rubbermounts. Takes away ALL of the nasty H2 engine vibes, and makes the bike a pleasure to ride long distance. Oilpassages drilled to accept ‘72 H2 cylinders and early (better) ‘72/’73 oil injection system.
2. ‘72 H2 750 high-cut cylinders… Cylinders are on 1st overbore and have been ported to a “Stage 2″, which I was told is similar to Denco 120 specs (crank hp)
3. Aylor Engineering Reed Valve kits installed to bring back all the missing “bottom end” which happens when any amount of portwork is done.. Kits feature Boyesen Dual Stage reed petals and modified Wiseco pistons. Probably the best “Drivability” modification done to this bike. The engine is just as happy putting around at 2000 rpm as it is screaming past 8000+. Engine no longer exibits any amount of typical “H2 surging”, and has excellent throttle response even from low RPM’s.
4. Heads… Outer heads welded for strength. Heads beautifully machined by Chuck “Supertune” Quenzler in Florida to modern specs. Combustion chamber design, squish, volume info sent to me from Leo M. in the Netherlands, who is always on the leading edge of Kawasaki Triple technology.. Static compression is at +/- 150 PSI, and runs perfectly (without detonation) on regular 91 Octane pump gas.
5. Transmission was sent to Mark Doucette at R&D racing transmissions in Florida, a foremost authority on high performance Motorcycle dragracing and roadracing transmission. Parts received magnaflux and roadrace spec back cut on all 5 gears. Shimmed to better than factory specs using all new shims and clips.
6. Clutch is stock H2 w/full Barnett spring and plate package.
7. Project-H2 Sytech clutch actuator makes clutching a 2 finger affair, even with the 5 Barnett springs. New cable.
8. Stock “early” H2 oil-injection system with stat-o-seal crush washers. Oil pump cover drilled and “sight window” installed so you know at a glance that the oil injection cable is working (a common failure on these bikes)
9. Mikuni TMX35 Flatslide carbs.. These carbs have AMAZINGLY “crisp” throttle response when coupled together with the Reeds and Chambers. Still set up a bit on the “rich” (safe) side of things, but once again.. I like my engines to last…. One thing these carbs will probably need is new “lighter” gauge springs made. These carbs are originally designed for modern single cylinder 250 Moto-X bikes (cable pulling on only one carb), so 3 of them together requires a bit of force from your throttle hand. I just got used to it.. You can tell by the looks of the right handgrip.. lol
10. Neville Lush (Australia) designed expansion chambers. Mild Steel cone kits rolled by Leo Molenaar (Netherlands), and assembled to fit frame by myself and good friend Pat Foner, who is a locally renowned bike-builder in his own right. Pat and I have well over 20 hours into cutting/welding/fitting these pipes to the frame for maximum cornering clearance. Old-School welds were purposely not ground down or cleaned up as a tribute to the roadrace pipes being built in the late ’60’s-early ’70’s…although these pipes are Substantially FATTER/BETTER than the skinny chambers of yesteryear…. I have been applying “Mop-N-Glo” to these a couple of times a year to keep the rust away.. So far so good. I was going to have them ceramic coated, but the “RAW” bare steel just works with the rest of the bike. Pipes are a “Torque” designed pipe for EXCELLENT streetability. I’d guess they are making max HP around the 8200 RPM mark and sign off well before you hit 9000. No reason to over-rev an H2 on the street. Crankshafts last MUCH longer that way. Silencers are modified DG “Ovals” held in place by moto-x spec “Moose” clamps. Silencers are Lightweight, and not overly loud, but still retain that wicked H2 howl when you’re “on it”.
11. Crankshaft was sent to Damon Kirkland (”the crank god”) of Dothan, Alabama for FULL rebuild. Crank was fitted with newer style “slotted” rods, new Factory Kawasaki Seals (now NLA) and new bearings.
12. Engine covers (clutch, stator, oilpump, countershaft) all Powdercoated “satin” black. Shift and kickstart levers were also Powdercoated.
IGNITION SYSTEM
1. Ignition system is primarily “Stock” H2 with the exception of the Neville Lush Mini-coils, which offer higher output at 1/3 the weight and space. New non-resistor plug caps and wires. CDI box is stock H2. Stator is NOS (new old stock) H2. Kill switch located in hidden toggle. Wiring harness custom built to accomodate only those things necessary for spartan street use.
LIGHTING, GAUGES, AND OTHER ELECTRICS
1. Headlight is PIAA Diachronic 55w beam. Extremely bright, lightweight and compact. Remote on/off switch mounted to side of Tachometer. I did not modify the headlight wiring harness when installing, instead tightly bundling it up and locating it under the headstock gusset plates along with the inline fuse.
2. Tail/Brake light is LED, which is also Extremely bright and lightweight. (brake light is only operated from Master Cylinder switch as I do not use rear brake)
3. Charging system is as stated above…NOS. Has stock (late model H1/H2) Voltage Regulator/Rectifier and Bat-Pac Battery Eliminator Capacitor.
ALL of the ignition components are located beneath the fuel tank (barely). Coils are fixed via an aluminum jacket and zipties, and CDI box and Voltage R/R via small brackets. This bracketry is meant to be solely utilitarian, and cosmetics weren’t an issue being mounted beneath the tank. “Pretty” brackets will be up to the next owner.
4. Tachometer is cable driven “tiny tach” and is back-lit for night use. I had originally planned on updating to a Vapor Trailtech or Acewell style digital Tach/Speedo unit, but with a cable driven tach, it gives you peace of mind knowing that the oilpump is spinning since the tach and oil-pump are driven off of the same gear set.
5. As stated before, Speedo is magnetic pickup Bicycle computer. New Sigma included in sale, but needs installing.
6. There are NO turnsignals on this bike as Minnesota allows the use of hand signals.. Check with your State. Turnsignals wouldn’t be terribly difficult to add to the system.
7. There is also NO horn on this bike. Another thing that could be easily added at the expense of more weight.
I’m not going to go into any more individual detail, but there are MANY other subtle changes and modifications I have made to this bike over the last 4 years..all of which were done to improve its everyday “Ridability”…. As it stands right now, the bike/engine has approximately 5000 miles on it, and it is as dialed-in and set-up as it has ever been.. As for what it needs? Nothing really, but a new owner that is going to respect the power and capabilities of this machine. Even for a 30 year old design and frame, this bike is VERY fast, fun, and exhilarating to ride..all of the modifications (especially the huge weight reduction), giving it a very confidence inspiring feel. It is solid as a rock up to and well above 3-digit speeds, even bent over in corners. I am not a good enough rider to explore the limits of what this machine is capable of.. I do know that I have owned CBR’s, FZR’s, Ninja’s, and currently have a ZRX1200 as my “push button” bike.. NONE OF THEM come close to the sensation of riding this motorcycle. That said, This bike is NOT recommended for anybody but an experienced rider/mechanic that understands how a 2 stroke works and isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty when something breaks. It is a 2-stroke. Something will eventually need attention. You can count on it.
I suppose I should touch briefly on Cosmetics… I did not build this to be a “showbike” or “trailerbaby”. It was built to be RIDDEN, and if so desired.. RIDDEN DAILY..for hours at a time.
It is a true testament to “Form Following Function” and in my humble opinion turned out to be a beautiful machine. There are however, the typical small scuffs, scratches, nicks, dings etc associated with building a “New” bike from mostly “refurbished” parts. It has NEVER been dropped in the time I have had it. Up close and in person it resembles a very nicely kept racebike..Speaking of which, if it were safety wired, I’m sure this bike would do VERY well on the track with an experienced rider aboard. Like I said before….I am VERY happy with how it turned out, as it far exceeded my expectations of what a 30 year old bike is capable of….Not only cosmetically, but functionally as well. Even though the bike represents well as-is, it could use a thorough detailing as it has spent more time being ridden than being polished. I honestly only dusted it off for these photos….
So why am I selling it? Well, I have another “Custom” H2 project waiting in the wings that is going to take some serious time and financial dedication to get started (and completed). If I had deeper pockets, I would not even consider selling this bike, and up until a few months ago, you couldn’t have offered me any amount of money to buy it… But things change, I’ve come to terms, and I’m ready to move on. Bottom line is that I cannot afford to keep this and start another. It would cost you well in excess of $10,000 (parts and outsourced labor alone) to build this bike. That doesn’t begin to include the 100’s of hours (seriously) of labor, design, parts sourcing, fabricating, tuning, and maintaining that I have into it..
I don’t know what else to say..I’m probably forgetting a few things, so if something is not mentioned in description above, please dont hesitate to ask. I just REALLY hope that whoever ends up with it, will take as much care and have as much fun with it as I have!!!
Please be sure to click on the Youtube link below to see the bike in action. Video was taken Sunday 8/26, and bike was parked directly after. Motorcycle will not be driven again until auction ends and new owner claims his prize. Bike has clean and clear Minnesota title in my name and is currently insured and licensed for street use.
This bike is sold 100% AS-IS with no guarantees, warrantees, expressed written or implied. It is a 31 year old motorcycle and is being sold as such.
Typically the MTV show “Pimp my Ride” sticks to a well tried formula of adding Audio and video equipment to worn down hoopties, swathing on a low-rider inspired paint scheme and adding some chrome 20″ rims. Recently they broke the mold with this absolutely amazing build. Xzibbit teamed up with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and presented to the world, this stunning 1965 Chevy Impala SS is now being powered by a v8 Durmax Diesel running on b100 biofuel. This is car is not only more fuel efficient and possibly cleaner running the it was in stock trim, it is mind-bendingly, kill a Lamborghini in the Quarter mile, fast.
The diesel work in the car was done by a company called Pacific Performance Engineering
This car is my personal pick of all the hybrids that I have posted up so far. The car is a 1993 RX-7 with a 2002 LS1. The car was built by Luke Lonburger of shock drifting.
Give the shock drifting website a look for more information on the cars buildup.
Before I begin to detail the roll cage installation in my 1990 Mustang GT, I just want to state that this was not a one day installation. I have really cut down this page to the basics. Building a cage from scratch requires a significant amount of time in the design phase. Careful measurements must be made of all the dimensions of your car, then you need to calculate the angles and locations of all bends. Once you finish planing out the cage you have to strip out the interior and prep the metal in the areas where you will be attaching you foot plates. Then the foot plates themselves must be contoured to match the floor of the car. This takes a significant amount of time and I did not want to misrepresent that fact due to the small number of pictures that I have in this article.
The next step is to bend up the main hoop. For this cage the main hoop is the only section that will require bending. Before bending the final hoop out of .125 DOM I practiced on a stick of ERW.
Here is a better shot of the tubing bender. Thanks to Steve McClenon at Hotrods to Hell for letting me use his bending equipment and for lending me some guidance.
Here is a shot of the main hoop after I finished my final bend. The only thing left at this point was to trim down the legs of the main hoop. Since I had already done a mock up hoop out of ERW this step was easy.
Here is a shot of the cage mocked up in the car before final welding. You can see the foot plates in this picture. I chose the location for the rear spreader bar so that the foot plates would tie the rear upper shock mounts, the wheel tubs, and the top of the rear spring perches together. The spreader bar itself works like a massive shock tower brace. I was able to feel a dramatic difference with only the rear foot plates and spreader bar in place. Yes I took it for a test lap to see how much of a difference it made, before the rest of the cage was welded in. Even if you are not considering a cage, the rear spreader bar is a good idea.
When I chose the Fox Mustang as my basis for a drift car I viewed the cars light weight as a major advantage. Less weight means less car for the engine to accelerate, smaller brake requirements, and lower spring rates, and small swaybars. Since this car will still serve as a daily driver I will be retaining the Heat and A/C as well as the Radio.
Stereo (~35 lbs)
No impact on comfort or drivability. The car came to me with an aftermarket stereo that had 2 subs in the rear hatch, 3 amplifiers, and EQ and a CD changer. The first action that I took was to remove all of this. When I placed everything, including all the RCAs, power wires, etc it weighted in at just over 40lbs. The Kenwood CD player that I replaced it wil weighs 5 lbs. This was the most painful and involved process that I have yet to undertake on the Mustang project. The reason for the difficulty was the method by which the old stereo had been installed. The installed had paid little attention to the function of the factory wiring loom and simply tapped into power at the fuse box and added their own loom for the stereo. I can understand doing this for a very high end system, but high end this system was not. I had to spend about 2 hour removing the aftermarket stuff, but then spent another 3 hour repairing the factory loom that had been cut in numerous places.
Alarm (~5 lbs)
Depends on how you feel about car alarms and their effectiveness. My next action was to remove the aftermarket car alarm that had been installed in the car. I have been driving cars from the 60’s my entire life and I don’t care much for car alarms, and have learned to operate a manual door lock, so for me this was a no-brainer. The noise maker part of the alarm was probably the heaviest part and in my opinion the least useful, so you could probably just remove that and get most of the weight saving while retaining all of the “useful” alarm functions. All that I need to remove the alarm system was a pair of snips, a screw driver and a crimp connection to repair the ignition kill and door lock circuits that the alarm system tapped into. If you are not comfortable around electronics, I would recommend picking up a wiring diagram for your specific car to make sure you know what each wire does.
Rear Seats (~40lbs)
None but a wee man could fit back there anyhow. All the brackets, seatbelts, fold down covers, hardware and the seats themselves start to add up quickly. The back seat in a Mustang is a joke anyhow.
GT driving lights (~15lbs)
No impact on comfort and drivability. The support for the driving lights on the GT Mustang are not only heavy, but located about as far forward on the car as possible. Mustangs are already nose heavy and do not need additional help. The removal was quick and easy with basic hand tools.
Rear Swaybar(~ 5lbs)
I am not a big fan of rear bars, ask Ryan Hampton, I fought with him about it on the rear of the Formula D Camaro. I feel swaybars are band-aids and do not address the core of handling issues. The rear swaybar on the Fox Mustangs is mounted between the two lower arms of the triangulated 4-link and in my opinion simply serves to make an unsatisfactory rear suspension even worse. I like the feel of the car much more with the swaybar removed, but like the Moose Balls, the bar can be easily re-installed to take it off and see what you think.
Still free, but the car becomes a little more Spartan and a bit louder:
Moose Balls (~10lbs)
Supposedly this thing has an impact on NVH, but I could not tell a difference. On the 8.8 rearend Ford has placed a huge cast iron weight that is mounted to the center section with rubber isolators. My research into the part uncovered that it is intended to eliminate certain types of driveline harmonic vibrations, but I was unable to detect any difference with it removed. This was an easy removal and can be re-installed in just a couple of minutes.
Carpet, Jute padding, sills, plastic interior cladding, and extra dashboard and kick panel covers (~25 lbs)
The car is quite a bit louder inside, but I can still talk in the car without having to yell.
At first I removed everything, but the whine of the electric fuel pump was a bit too much for me so I put the heavy jute padding that covers the spare tire area back into the car. The good thing about this piece is that it only takes about 5 seconds to remove at the track so keeping it in the car is not a real weight penalty. I would just make sure that if you do any scaling of the car make sure to remove it as you want you setup optimized to race conditions and not street driving conditions. The car is still a whole lot quieter then my ‘66 Chevelle.
Sun Visors (~2lbs)
They kept falling down and blocking my field of vision. I want to rant a bit here. I have very little love for sun visors, especially those with little vanity mirrors, besides adding weight up high in the car they encourage makeup application whilst driving. They simply must go.
Some stuff I did not remove:
Headliner (~3lbs) I think that the negligible weight is not worth the increase in cabin temperature.
Console (~6lbs) A car with no place to put cell phones, change, etc. is no fun to drive around town.
Windshield washer fluid bottle.(~2lbs) It is located mostly underneath fender which would take quite a while to remove. I figure just leave it empty when it is time to hit the track.
Summary:
In total I removed around 125lbs and the car is still quite civil on the street. At the track the spare tire, tire area cover, and jack can be pulled out for another 25lbs. The tire itself is a light weigh aluminum unit. Some of the weight that has been removed will simply offset the weight of the roll cage that I plan to install, but I am pulling weight from areas that in no way help performance and putting it into something that does.
I do not currently have a set of corner scales so my only way to get a weight for the car is to go to LACR and hit the scales, I hope that I will have a chance to do this soon to get a baseline weight.
Looking Ahead:
Basically that is about it for the simple “bolt off” weight removal. The next step is to attempt to lighten up some parts where I can. After that it will start to cost money to save weight. The only major purchases I have planned is a lift-off fiberglass hood and moving the battery into the rear passenger area. This will help with both weight removal and weight distribution. One more future possibility would be a lexan rear window, but I have not made a decision on that yet. I will also be removing the quad shocks once I work out a better rear suspension setup for the car.
Summary
Since my high school days I have wanted a Fox body Mustang. Last week I finally got my hands on one. A 1990 Mustang GT with a 5-speed. The car has 140,000 miles on the odometer, but other than fading paint, the car is in strong mechanical shape and should serve as a good starting point for a buildup.
I have big plans for the car and will be documenting the buildup here on the Hot Rod Homepage. My goal is to build a street drivable car that I can take out to some local Drift Day and Just Drift events and have a good time in. So far there are not a lot of Fox Mustangs out in the drifting community, but I think that I bound to change once someone does the initial legwork and developes a proven recipie to making one work well. Vaughn Gitten Jr and Ken Gushi have had great success with their ‘05 Mustangs, but for the average guy that just wants a car that he can have some fun in without breaking the bank, taking a brand new Mustang and converting it into a track car, is simply not a reasonable option.
To quickly get to this article simple type www.drift50.com into your browser.
Articles:
Why did I choose a Fox Mustang:
My requirements for this Buildup:
I intend to give it my 100% effort and document my success and failure here on the Hot Rod Homepage.
Fox Mustang Internet Resources:*
*This list is very much a work in progress, if you have a good resource let me know.
A classic Challenger is reborn. A whole new take on the Iconic Camaro. Both are pretty exciting vehicles, hopefully they will make it from being “just a concept” to something that can be bought at your local dealership.
More news about GM products can be found at GM Fastlane Blog. I will warn you that this site is primarily an advertisement for General Motors and I have my doubts about Bob Lutz actually reading all of the comments on the site, but there are pictures and video of interest.
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