Home

Table of Contents

Message Board

Classifieds

Auctions

Gallery

Workshop

Guestbook

Feedback

Search

Chat

Cinema

Webrings

About Your Webmaster

From the Classic Kawasaki Club Magazines Dec 2000

Mines smaller than yours and Im Proud of it !

In a top secret R&D facility tucked away in a corner of North West England, technicians are busy at work over a revolutionary new machine - entititeld the "Millennium Project". For security purposes only a select few have seen it grow from inception to completion and the time has come to unveil the dastardly creation to the world.
The "think" is wheeled out, everything within a mile radius is cleared of all unnecessary personnel save one brave (foolish?) soul equipped with ignition key and strong right leg, one final thumbs up from all concerns and we are 'Go for Launch' choke on, T minus 3 and counting, kick, kick, and we have ignition. Suddenly the air is filled with a most unholy 3 pipe symphony as 'foolish' stabs the 'thing' into gear and rips off up test strip.

OK so it didn't quite occur in such an impressively organised fashion, but here is the story of the how/why/when/what/why/where behind my new creation.

Dubbed the 'Bike of the Rally 2000' by Rick, I prefer to call it plain H2e. Let me tell you now its no use looking in the Model Recognition Manual for this one as it stands for H2 Edmondson, it even says so on the engine; Mr Kawasaki knew Id get around to doing something with it even though I was just a spotty gimp when the H2 was first foisted upon the motorcycling fraternity.

Having been very tempted to go 'Modern' by Bandits, Buells and Hornets I decided to go the other route and update the old relic to cope with current traffic and road conditions as well as giving the aforementioned a good run for their money, in essence to take the thing by the scruff of the neck and sort it out. Hopefully it would stretch peoples eyeballs out on springs when they first encountered it.

The main areas to be addressed were braking, steering and suspension reduction of unsparing/sprung weight, comfort and ease of use and accessibility of parts for maintenance and adjustment. Anything not needed was to be unceremoniously binned. whatever was required was evaluated in terms of function, performance and cost not necessarily in that order.

On the assumption that I had 70 off reasonably reliable horsepower to play with my approach was to make the best use of it, hence my obsession with weight-saving. In fact I was born to spite excess tonnage. I mean you only have to look at me for instance not exactly a heavyweight; I only have to go for a crap and I weigh half as much!

So just to set the record straight that is was my original intention to use all Kawasaki equipment on it, and I did go to great lengths taking measurements of

ZX9R/7R/6R/ZXR400 swing arms only to find things were too wide necessitating A) drastic machining of parts (a bad thing in my eyes) B) frame widening (not a bad thing but increases weigh and complication). A KR1S rear would have slotted in but increases weight and complication) A KR1/S rear would have slotted in but looked out of place - too spindly. When you start weighing the aforementioned, even though they all comprise aluminium alloy castings and fabrications, a complete rear end comes to more than the two sticks of liquorice, moped wheel and bed springs that Kawasaki used on the back of the H2 - Oh poo. In itself its not a bad thing as modern wheels weigh less than the H2's cast drum, brakeplate, steel rim and myriad of spokes which means less work for the suspension to control the wheel, but still to heavy for me overall. Astralites/carbon/kelvar wheels? I can't afford such luxuries mate. The front wasn't a problem as most modern forks are lighter and stiffer, yokes are more substantial if slightly heavier and wheels/discs/callipers/mudguards speak for themselves in terms of weight, the rear was a total headache.

It was not long after I hit this downer that some clever geezer with a rather special Norton Rotary suggested I try a VFR 750 set up he just happened to have lying around. Well it weighed OK and was a tad wide, but for some reason the 4 'truck bolts' which held it on put me off, that and the fact it had some unspeakably wretched writing cast on it beginning with the work "H" which shall only be uttered at the risk of having all you windows smashed and your tyres popped, not to mention your computer crash. So I passed on that one but the seed of the idea had entered my brain and it wasn't about to go away. Back at the breakers the tape measure was slung across its smaller relation the NC30 (VFR 400R) and lo and behold it goes in, what's this? - All inclusive its lighter too and you only need undo one big nut to fir the wheel on and off- mm tempting. All that remained to be done was to see how much weight a stock NC30 carried on the rear wheel in comparison to the figure I had in mind for the project to see if the spring rate/wheel rate was suitable, in other words see if the NC30 spring was useable. £250 later and I had all the suspension I needed to go on my £25 frame!

Now the NC30 runs an 18" wheel on much lower/stiffer profile tyres than the 'balloons' a stock H2 rolls on, but the effective rolling diameter of the new wheel isn't much less so the overall gearing ratio drops by about 0.5 mph per 1000 revs in top gear; if you dont account for it you lose about 4mph on top end on standard sprockets but who cares, it feels like your heads coming off at 115mph+ on an unfaired machine anyway, just think of the acceleration.

It was about this time that my head was buried in a rather interesting book by John Robinson called Motorcycle Tuning-Chassis, and after trying to digest and come to grips with concepts such as Slip Angles, Camber Thrust, Under/Oversteer, Centres of Pressure/Gravity, Steering Geometry and how they interrelate (blah-blah) and me not having access to suspension transducers and data logging equipment. As you can imagine I became a little bit disillusioned and somewhat bogged down in theory, so I broke free and decided to use the maxim 'If it looks right and feels right - it usually is right' and the plan would be to use my own sensors (hand, knees, feet, arse) to evaluate the feel and feedback from the machine and to tell me if I was going in the right direction with it. This was not helped by people occasionally piping up "What if it doesn't handle?" "What if it lobs you off on the first bend you come to?", "What if it wobbles more than a jelly on springs?". Well my answer to that was simple - "I'll look a right twat!"

As a bit of an aside, it is nice, nay a privilege, no actually its marvellous to sample to odd state of the art bike occasionally and to take it down a fast bumpy twisty road and to marvel at the ease with which they cope on these surfaces and the amount of feel and feedback. This in direct comparison to the 'old' where I would be fired out of the seat accompanied by a general feeling of skittishness all round on poor surfaces (or maybe I'm getting old because it didn't seem to bother me years ago), but in the bikes defence I have to say it was fantastic on smooth roads even in the wet and in Rick's words "always got me home safely".

This is largely why the decision was taken to incorporate modern gear, so I just had to get me some nice inverted front forks and seeing as the "All Kawasaki" plan had fallen by the wayside the obvious choice was Italian. So I'm down at the breakers again with my tape measure straight out of the sewing basket (cos I use all the latest high tech measuring equipment) and it tells me that a Ducati Monster front end looks like it will do the job admirably, the only difference being the headstock bearing race outer diameter. A quick visit to the local bearing stockist reveals nothing that will take up the difference, so I but there next size down to fit the steering stem; the headstock races for these are 1mm small on diameter so I prepare 2 liner bushes at work, press the races into them and then reset them in the lathe and turn down the outside diameter of the liners to fit the H2 headstock. Job done. Fit new races, throw forks in, seat and adjust the bearings and before you know it Im staring at a scabby old H2 frame with mint forks shinier than the crown jewels.

In addition to the forks my £700 got me a 17" front wheel, mudguard, headlight and master-cylinder/brake callipers all off an M900. Now these forks are shorter than H2 units and the wheel spindle is some 40 odd millimetres (inch and 5/8) nearer the ground by virtue of the 17" wheel (H2=19"). The rear wheel is still 18" if you remember so the net effect is to tilt the normally horizontal frame rails downwards at the front, so steepening the castor angle at the headstock to give a sharper 'stance' to the beast. Once all was fitted I took measurements of all relevant dimensions and drew it up to scale and calculated that the castor angle had changed by nearly 3 degrees and the trail significantly reduced! (Largely due to a 20mm reduction in fork offset).

Now its fine having trick and shiny front/rear but one needs to pay particular attention to the steelwork holding both wheels in neutral and steered alignment, not to mention the much increased braking forces which one will be subjecting it to and bearing in mind that every H2 frame will at some time exhibit a fatigue fracture across the horn gusset below the steering head given enough use and allied to this my own 'investigation' of the H2 frame using a 3 metre length of scaffold tube. Strange I know but this was fitted through the steering head of the frame, the frame with engine fitted was clamped securely in 4 positions on the lower frame rails to a machine table the aim being to feel how much flexibility exists in the steering head. Well, front to back in line with the frame it was not too bad but side to side it certainly raised my eyebrows. I can only deduce that Kawasaki, having learnt how to wrap tubes on every motorcycle produced up to this point either A) Lost the plot B) Actually decided to engineer - in 'interesting' handling by wrapping the tubes in such a mad manner or C) The chief designer was a total piss-head.

The solution, to my mind, was to plate the steering-head using triangular pieces to give added stiffness in both directions and to add 2 pieces of 20mm diameter steel tubes to 'short circuit' the tortuous bend from steering to swing-arm pivot along the top rails, making the whole thing more rigid albeit still a compromise. A few more strategically placed tubes to locate the top of the rear suspension unit along with brackets for sidepanels, seat, rear subframe and lower suspension mounts and the 'thing' was rolling. Of course some of you may scoff and say the sensible thing to do would have been to re-frame it from scratch but I would have run into function/form/cost/practicality equation in a big way not to mention the possibility of ending up with something resembling a burst haemorrhoid or worse; an 'H', then I would have to leave a photo of it on the mantelpiece to stop kids play near the fire. No I was definitely of the opinion that a few well though out mods and adjustments would rid the frame of most evils. Exorcist eat your hear out! (Of course the ghost of the old H2 might have the last laugh - we shall see)

Once the basic rolling chassis was finished then work could begin on placement of seat/bars/footrests/controls based purely around my good self with the result that the final weight bias has shifted from 45/55% front/rear to 53/47%, the wheelbase is ever so shorter but the front wheel is in effect now closer to the engine which largely accounts for the change.

A ton of work went into producing the rear-set footrests and instrument console from billet aluminium alloy but I enjoyed the process immensely as these are custom made parts to my exact requirements and no I did not C.N.C. machine them, everything was produced manually 'the old fashioned way' - time to don Corduroy trousers, grow a greying beard and turn into Boring Old Fart Metalwork Teacher. I reckon 300 hours of my time went on machining bits and pieces on it. Whilst were on this subject, the swing arm spindle which was hollow to start with was turned down to fit into the frame bosses, the difference between spindle and inner bearing races was accommodated for by an identical 'top hat' spacer each side of the swing-arm to keep it dead central to the frame which in turn positions the rear wheel correctly. The major problem then was to line up both sprockets. With the engine in its original position the rear carrier on the wheel was machined to move the sprocket inwards which is only limited by the proximity of the chain touching the tyre. Finally a new front sprocket was modified/fabricated to move outwards away from the gearbox to get things perfect.

With regard to the appearance/style of the machine, I wanted something recognisable 'KAWASAKI' with all the little details and features I like culled from various machines all incorporated i.e. flush fitting filler, 3 idiot lights arranged vertically central, hydraulic damper, H2 choke lever!, single round headlight, S series rear light, rose-jointed gear change link etc. etc.

Actually the most daunting part of the whole project for me was the surgery committed on the fuel tank, once a 6 inch hole has been chopped out of the top there's no going back and things dont start to look anywhere near right until you slap body filler on it to cover up the atrocity after welding; talking of welding there were no bangs, pops or farts from the tank or the person who welded it - surprising really.

The speedo was junked (too heavy!) in favour of a multi-function bicycle unit which necessitated a conical wheel spacer to be turned to position the front wheel. Top gadget this speedo with MAX VELOCITY, AVERAGE VELOCITY, TIME OF DAY, TIME SPENT MOVING & STATIONARY, TRIP DISTANCE, ODOMETER and TEMPERATURE! The days of bullshit are at an end, having been on a few decent rides out since completion and keeping up a good pace with the odd flat out bit you return home or wherever you happen to be going to find your average speed is something like 35 mph instead of the 80 you swore you were doing!

Moving on to the bodywork, the tank was H2b, the seat a cut down (shortened) KH250 with grippy seat cover and the tail another KH item to match the seat at the back. But the absolute 'Piece de Resistance' was the sidecovers, originally for a Ducati M750 they fitted perfectly and gave the bodyshape more emphasis as well as revealing the top shock mount allowing easy access for adjustment. The battery is also visible to keep an eye on electrolyte levels, with the fuses nearby - all part of the design requirement!

Now there may be some of you scratching your heads and making a big pile of dandruff on the carpet at this point wondering where the oil tank and air filter have gone, the answer is simple, the new oil tank now lives in the tail section accessed by removing the 'Quick Release Seat' (patent pending of course) and the air filter can/element has been replaced by a RAMAIR foam job on the stock air inlet manifold to help keep the original depression in the venturi, all technical bollox but it means the carburation stays reasonable accurate. Incidentally, the oil tank is in the region of 0.5 litre capacity meaning it must be checked EVERY time I refuel, but provides a first class excuse to whizz the seat off for interested parties to closely inspect the 'thing' at every opportunity.

The stock ignition was retained purely because I have found it to be very reliable and a known quantity, it also allowed me to adapt the stock H2 wiring harness which simplified matters considerably. The only wiring jobs were earth leads for the mini-indicators, a new blade type fuse holder, power feeds inside the headlamp and a miniature 10 A toggle switch fitted in the back of said headlamp as a lightswitch.

The ignition switch came from a KH 250 which plugged straight into the H2 connector block followed by my own home made kill switch under the left handlebar switchgear because I reasoned that if the throttle should stick open then your right hank is working overtime trying to apply the brakes, juggle the throttle and killing the ignition (hopefully before it kills you!). It also enables me to keep the throttle nailed and provided I can co-ordinate left thumb and big toe I can change up without the clutch. Wooo-hooo!

Dealing with the last few things before we reach the motor, I honestly hadn't a clue what to do with the steering damper; indeed I severely questioned the need to fit one at all due to the steering assemble being so much lighter, in techno jargon it now possesses much less inertia due to the absence of lead-weighted steel handlebars, huge clocks, steel beacon indicators all swinging about together, but once again the desire to use something familiar overcame me and I ended up referencing the new 'Sprint' damper to the frame using the old friction damper spigot under the steering head and the left fork leg to operate it.

I could go into great detail about the engine but there's no point cos its virtually standard i.e. stock port timing, head, carburettors, crank and gearbox, the only bits different are the clutch (now 15 plate), main jets and 1.5mm pistons taking it to 781cc if my calculator serves me correctly, plus it is shimmed into the frame tighter than a teenagers grip on a copy of Penthouse.

Of course no special is special without an exhaust system of note and I'm talking metaphorically and acoustically here as I had great ideas for the exhaust initially but these were somewhat diluted once the Guinness wore off, so I soon began reading up on two-stroke exhaust design and taking loads of measurements from existing systems on various machines to familiarise myself. The pipes are loosely based on the 'Denco' dimensions for cones and stinger length and uses J&R downpipes as these are slightly larger in diameter than stock. I lusted after fully tapered downpipes with hydraulically blown chambers but my exhaust fabrication skills are still in their infancy and faced with the prospect of fitting all 3 under the bike plus everything being so tightly packed I opted for the old method of cutting and welding rolled cones (provided by Rob Beckett) with plenty of hacksawing and filing in between just to test one's patience to the limit. Still, in the immortal words of George Formy "It turned out nice".

The 'mufflers' are made from 25mm O.D. perforated tube and are repackable for silencing and boy they need to be; the tone of the system can be altered from 'full on race tone' to 'summat like street legal' depending on the quality of the earplugs you buy and the amount of ear wax in your aural canals, the bloke at the M.O.T. station had to remove one hand from his ears to hand me the certificate. Once you get moving you leave the sound behind somewhat plus its always a giggle on initial starting as kids exclaim "Whoa!" and most other modern bikers look on either stunned in total shock or smile approvingly, I'm sure a lot of you know what I mean. Actually at low r.p.m. the volume isn't at all objectionably from where I sit and only gets really angry above 5 thousand revs, the complete package is engineered to look as low underneath as the balls on our Basset Hound so great care is needed over kerbs and bumps as the dog well knows.

Moving on to the braking department, everything has been plumbed in using braided stainless hose and new brake pads, it anything I think I've now overdone it a bit on the front as the brake action is very direct and needs more feel, but the sheer power of the things never ceases to amaze me especially from high speeds; the bike pulls up straight and true so having a flush fitting filler cap is a definate advantage in a 'goolies up the tank' scenario. The rear brake has turned out to be much more sensible so 8 out of 10 for the brakes overall (at the moment)

Unless you have decent photographs in front of you its hard to visualise all these changes so "Where the f--k are the?" I hear you all saying, erm, well I have to hold my hand up and admit to dropping a major clanger on this score, my feeble excuse is that I was so busy I forgot. But I did capture its progress on video, so it you want a copy send a cheque or postal order for £50 to Dave Ed Developments then you can see for yourselves what you should be doing to your triple.

With regard to the wheels these were checked for truth (as was the frame after welding - neither of them were lying) then they were dispatched to Tazmanic Surface Engineering with the instruction to strip, powder coat metallic Purple and fit and balance some stick radials, which came to over £3000. Prior to sending the wheels the front was in very good nick whereas the rear 'H' wheel was putrid with paint missing in places and an old knackered tyre stuck to it. Well both wheel returned soon after with a gorgeous smooth finish and absolutely no tyre fitting damage or rim marks unlike the toilets at the C.K.C. rally), so I can thoroughly reccommend them to anyone (Tazmanic not the bogs).

Not long after this it was time to commit the paintwork to someone, and to narrow down the possibility of any misunderstandings as to the required design and colours I took the time to prepare a sketch to give to the person in question. Finding someone who could produce H2b type tank decals and custom 750 decals was a problem, eventually it came down to John Edge or Rick. Both came very highly recommended for this type of work and it was only because I was very impressed with a close inspection of some stuff done through John that swung it his way. That and the understanding it must be back at least a fortnight before the rally and it must be right first time. I guess even John will admit he was a bit concerned as to what my reaction would be when I first saw the end result, but then my name is not Mr. Fussy for nothing! John was also entrusted to see to the chrome plate on the pipes and coloured anodising of the aluminium components, the results speak for themselves. Top Job.

Now prior to the frame, number plate bracket and engine plates being powder coated black I needed to move the sidestand bracket forward 50mm to clear the left exhaust and rearset, what started out as a little job turned major because I ended up needing to make a new one and you just cant imagine how much you rely on the sidestand until you've sawn the buggar off and you realise you've run out of gas for to TIG set.

Come the time for final assembly and everything went together smoothly but this came as no surprise as I had a 'dry run' prior to any cosmetic work just to be sure. Being involved in a house move during final assembly I could have done without but everything was transported safely bar an engine bolt which I manage to lose in the process but John Edge A.K.A. International Rescue supplied one just in time for judging at this years rally, thus pulling me out of the poo.

After working on the bike right through the night before the rally I was finally in a position to fuel and oil it, install the charged battery and breathe some life into the beast which I promptly managed at about 7.00am, much to the wife's surprise and the dogs disappointment as in all the excitement we forgot his breakfast. We were just about to load the 'thing' into the back of the van when I realised I had forgotten the final drive chain, so a mad panic ensued to A) find it B) install it in record time using a bit of lateral thinking and a small 'bench' vice to press the master link fully home - PHEW. After 15 months, much planning, many late nights, £2500 of hard cash poured in and countless hours of my time it was ready to hit the street. The rest as they say, is history.

Embarrassing Moments & Disaster.

Fitting the engine on the first dry-run and finding there was insufficient room for the left and right carbs because of the extra tubes I'd welded in. Oh dear, time for some more hacksaw practise.

Starting it at the rally to take it for its maiden voyage on the curry run and having the centre choke barrel stick full on consequently fouling the plug and reducing it to 2 pots-by the time I'd figured out the problem everyone had probably finished their first course so I ended up going for a trundle on my own.

Committing the cardinal sin of failing to incorporate a ride height adjuster into the rear suspension for which I shall wear a placard on a piece of string around my neck saying 'DUMMY'.

If anybody is contemplating doing similar things to their pride and joy I am willing to share my experience.

I would like to thank the following:

Rick for tacho face and needle, Rob Beckett for expansion chamber cones, Ian Richard's for rear subframe, George Benson for stainless fasteners, Tazmanic for wheels/tyres, Spectracoat for frame coating, J.W. Ham for seat cover, B&C Express for custom rear sprocket, M&P for rear hugger/drive chain/brake pipes/mini-indicators, the garage roof for not leaking, Geoff Madden for assistance above and beyond the call of duty/welding, Falken Silencers for exhaust materials, Merv Plastics for wiring materials, John Edge (again) for cosmetic work, Kev 'Mad Dog' Mitchell @ Fastline for NC30 bits and GPZ 600 tank, Bits-A -Bikes for M900 front, Shelly for alloy polishing and strong tea and finally the Bradford and Bingley Building Society for the two M8 purple plastic nuts which I swiped off a for sale sign to hold my headlight on -cheers fellas.
WATCH OUT FOR MILLENNIUM PROJECT TWO!!!!!
Dave Edmondson