right then here we go, i was getting close to being killed while riding the mountains of thailand as the stock forks n brakes are useless at 'going for it' speeds so i did tons of online searches which resulted in me joining this site due to the great write up by david and his malayasian er6/zx10 fork swop.
i havnt found any info on a 12 swop and its quite a different beast so ive been hanging round the kawasaki shop in the UK and trawling ebay for months to find some reasonable priced parts (not an easy job in the UK as the breakers are greedy barstewards)
so 6 months on n ive got most of what i need and getting it half way cross the world was no easy task i can tell ya..... 1st problem was leaving the UK as the tards on security were gonna confiscate my calipers cos they thought they looked like hand grenades and that i was going to hit someone over the head with 1..........i told them it would be much better and cheaper to use a litre bottle of duty free booze if i was planning on being arrested and taken off a plane so couldnt understand the issue?? moving on........
well, having evaded the thai customs maffia brigade with my 45kg of motorcycle parts i went on down to tinsel town for a spot of 'love you longtime' fun and a bit of other riding. 2 months on n its time to do this swop so heres where im at........
working with chinese quality tools in my small room and faced with a population that scream 'oh cannot' even before youve asked the question ive managed to trial fit the forks and im now working out the bugs with remounting the headlamp and the lockstops.
so far ive bought a couple of brackets from the local hardware store and with a bit of cutting and bending they need to be welded together which sould solve the headlight fit.
the lockstops are a different pain as the position they need to be in is right over the strengthing rib that runs under the yoke. then i spotted some crash bungs beind used to protect the lockstops on a ZX10 and thought this idea will work on my bike as the point where i need to drill the frame is in a rib under the main spar just in front the holes for the vin tag (we dont have them there on a thai bike) ive added a pic.
i could knock something up to bolt on the yoke but i use my lockstops a lot while navigating slow traffic and need something that wont give out on me. ill locate some bungs for a scooter tomorrow and fit them using mudflap type self tapping bolts.
next headache is the bars........
z1000 bars are not rubber mounted and are also 'fatbar sized' which is a pain as fat bars here cost as much as a whole bike! so im gonna have to fit the ER bar mounts and make a spacer up to take the extra length of the bar mount stud. they will be slightly further back as well but im hoping that wont be an issue as im an old git who cant bend over a bike anymore (did manage to bend over 1 up a waterfall last week but that was a different kind of bike) i dont mind sitting up a bit.
suddenly the lobby has emptied of russians so it must be happy hour for cheap hooch at the 7/11 and more chance of me upload pics quicker than i can grow a beard
sadly this piece of motorcycle porn wont fit the ER6 swinging arm so ive just bought a hyperpro........well, it aint like theres any choice round these parts..........
-i will be pricing up a versys arm soon as i think theyre quite cheap here...
Hey, nice looking project, just an FYI the Versys swingarm won't work on that frame. Just wanted to give ya a heads up before you go buy all the parts! Check out my blog below for some pics of my project.
sadly this piece of motorcycle porn wont fit the ER6 swinging arm so ive just bought a 2nd hand hyperpro........well, it aint like theres any choice round these parts..........
-i will be pricing up a versys arm soon as i think theyre quite cheap here...
for some reason i have completely lost a large chunk of info and it has been replaced with the word *trim* if any mods are reading this couuld you have a look for it and nail it back where *trim* is? cheers.
ive been back spacing like a mo-fo and this is actually post #2 and not the word *trim* must have it on my mind.......
so now the lobby has been invaded by 300 russian tourists all screaming gibberish into a counterfiet ipad so im gonna have to post little bits here n there and just hope theres enough band width left to upload a photo or 2.............
so i bought a front end off a 2004 ZX10R for £375 minus the top yoke but i dont need that anyway. then i spotted a 2011 z1000 full front end and saw that the top yoke looked almost the same as the ER including the steering lock.......damn! it didnt really matter too much tho cos i want gold with black sliders and the z1000 forks are black with silver.......and have the abs mount.....damn again
so i ended up buying them n all for the top yoke with the intention of doing a mix n match. well sod me if the z1000 forks are 2mm slimmer on the bottom yoke and have a different rake meaning i couldnt use the zx bottom yoke with the z1000 top so after a bit of head scratching i took the z1000 yokes off to have 2 mm bored out of the bottom. now i had forks and yokes so it was on to sorting out some new lines for the abs.
not 1 barsteward brake line company in the Uk could be bothered to help me
so i ended up buying a 2nd hand set of z1000 lines to use the bottom caliper line manifold as a pattern to get a new hose end. in the end i found some at a hose maker who also couldnt give a shite about helping me.
i also needed a front fender and i bought a 2012 z1000r repro glass item from slovakia for a lot of dollars and was chuffed to find that fits with a slight trip around the mounting lugs.
Holy crap parts are expensive for you guys on that side of the water. Geez. 375 pounds for first generation ZX10R front end? Those bikes were frowned upon for their brakes by the way, but they'll definitely be an improvement over your stock ones.
Everything is coming along nicely. Good luck with everything.
yeah the UK is the rip off capitol of the west. if any americans out there want to do good business with us brits then start sending us 2nd hand stuff and send it cheap as possible with minimum value on the ticket so we dont get ripped a new 1 by customs when it arrives.....
forget shipping to thailand cos what ever price you put on the ticket they will still add 300% tax......
and for todays edition of my holiday fun i managed to get the brackets welded up bu my new village friends and their stick welder. these great dudes clagged all the bits right where i wanted them and all done with a 50 cent pair of sunglasses and a claw hammer.
then it was back to my mates mosquito farm where i tried to assemble the new bits while thrashing away like a dude with his arms of fire due to the amount of banzai barsteward mozzies biting the feck out of me........
i gave the brackets a quick coat of black and then got the call from last nights spicy chicken n rice, the call was a bit urgent and resulted in me jumping over the wall to download in the bushes but i was soon back to fitting the front end.
theres a few issues with z1000 yokes and i soon noticed that the ER6 bar brackets sit lower on the yoke and are 40mm too long. so back to my new village mates for a solution which came in the form of some garish blue aluminium bar ends which fitted a treat...........till i checked the turning radius. they hit the top frame tube.
no worries tho as ill cut them in half tomorrow and put 1 bit on top the yoke which will raise the bars back up a tad. they are very close to the plastic tank cover as is.
the other problem is the bottom brackets are too far forward making the headlamp shine at the moon so ill need a bit or hammer action tomorrow to solve this. everything else went in quite smoothly. sadly the steering lock pin doesnt come out far enough to engage with the z1000 top yoke which is a pisser as i was sure that was gonna work....oh hum......
it was getting late in the day when i got round to the brakes. i was also getting bored with doing the river dance to keep the mozzies off my ankles so a bit of thai-style bodgery took place here. i reused the stock pipes by routing the front pipe behind the yoke and getting on with bleeding it all. as usual i could only get half a lever so thats how i rode it home.........carefully.
ive got braided hoses to go on there as long as the fitting will mate up to the steel pipe under the headstock, ill get back to that tomorrow. riding home felt a bit odd as i could feel a sort of grinding feeling, i pulled over to check nothing was falling off and sure enough it was all good. the feeling must be due to the bars being solid mounted now and not rubber mounted as before so id say im feeling the road through them.
i fitted the kevlar front fender but found it was fouling the tyre......this turns out to be a coat of stone chip i added to it cos theres loads of gravel on the roads here n i didnt want any cracks in the gel coat. i guess a few laps round the block with bed that in then
so to round off the day im supping on some upcountry fire water thats classed as moonshine here n carries a stiff fine if found by the feds. it sorta looks like buffalo jisum and most likely is...........but it hits the spot. later then.....
not riding in thailand they dont..........these cnuts are out to kill and will ride right over the top of you if you dont have 1 eye constantly scanning your arse..........
didnt do much today due to sum thai cnuts coming back to the condo every night @ 4am and then partying till 8am. i went out to voice my annoyance which was met with a 9mm on the end of a pissed up coward with penis envy. should i survive another night here ill try to do some more on the bike tomorrow
well thankfully the tards went back to bangkok so were still alive........
ive had a few issues to iron out with the mod and the final bug is the brake lines. the local kawasaki shop didnt want to do squat to help me .....again. and im going to have to grind a slot through a 10mm ring spanner as the lines are done up real tight and wont budge on an open end.
living on the 20th floor and working in the underground carpark is getting a bit tedious now as i have to keep going back up there to make every grind or drill every hole. i asked the nice maintainance man if i could hook my grinder up to their electric (that they were using next to me to cut ceramic tiles) in return for some local head banger beer and was told "NO, NO HAVE ELECTRIC"
to which i replied, "oh, ok then. you dont have an ER6 either do you?"
so back n forth we go to do a few more bits.
the ABS can be reused by utilising a random kawasaki bracket the came with the bottom yoke and giving it a bit of grinding action.
Ive been looking for any info on how to solve this problem on ZX10r forks for days. Seems your the only one i can find thats done it...
Anyway thanks for posting all that time ago
and to anyone still reading this im having issues with the caliper pistons centralising, theyre fully bled out and all reconitioned back home but when i apply the brakes i get a fair bit of 'sizzling' as the discs move around on the rivits and it continues for a few seconds after till they free off again. any input on this would be appreciated.
.......and is there any point in fitting the 04 zx10r master cylinder as both the er6 and the zx10 cylinders have 14 on them which i take to be 14mm bore?? cheers
chhers for the positive, i was forced to use diy store shelf brackets which i got welded up at the local village bike shop with a 100 yr old stick welder
they didnt work out right in this photo as they stuck out below the headlamp shround and the beam was too high.
i nipped back to the shop where they were most pleased to see me (i pay them double the asking price ) and we junked those brackets and made new ones which work perfect, no need to adjust the headlamp beam and the indicators bolted right up with no issues. ill have to add that pic tomorrow as my phones died on me.im cleaning them all up today for paint.
this job cost me £4.00 which is a lot less in $dollars
and the new brackets are 50mm right angle brackets which i drilled and fitted as tight to the bottom yoke as possible with the right angle sticking out. then bent upwards and tapped in so they just curve over the top of the yoke. this is exactly where they need to be to get the light back in the right place. we then sliced of the stock bracket and refitted it to the headlight and fitted the shroud. after locating the bolt holes for the shround i held the bracket together while the shroud was removed and marked the position with a marker pen.
then mr somchai welded them up and it was a perfect fit....well worth the £2 he asked for the job so i handed over £4.
and finally the steel lines were fitted this afternoon using an adaptor to connect up the abs pipe under the ignition lock. this was a fiddly job and at first it wept a little so i graunched it up a bit tighter and we seem to be leak free tonight. im off for a proper thrash tomorrow so see how it all works.
and this is the finished (i hope) job. i do apologise for the fugly bike racks but i bought a pair of givi panniers for next to nothing as im bored with throw over bags rubbing on the rear tyre and filling up with stink water when it rains....
oh......i lied. theres the steering lock to sort out. it all lines up but the z1000 yoke is a bit smaller so the locking pin doesnt quite enter the hole on the yoke. im thinking on how to lenghten the pin or fit a protruding tube from the yoke to meet the pin......later then.
and all thanks to your excellant blog! it was reading your mods that made me decide to do my bike. thanks for making me about £1000 poorer but a lot more faster round the bends
Glad I could 'Help'....just a note, many of the 2012 model bikes in malaysia are having Valve issues until the local distributor is organizing a mass re-inspection of the bikes for possible faults. How is the situation in your country.
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