PETER’S GPZ750

Peter rode Sportsbikes, Peter had one too many close calls, Peter stopped riding sports bikes. A change of approach was required and one beery night trawling through ebay the solution presented itself. Dutch’s big Zed Thou was a machine that had many admirers (indeed the first time I met him was after I had chased it up the Camden Road) but it was Peter that secured the big beautiful beast.

“That summer riding the ’78 z1000 brought back everything that made me first fall in love with bikes as a teenager. The noise, the smell, the wayward handling – all those things which can be so clinical on modern sportsbikes. There was one itch however which had not been scratched. I had not built the Big Zed, and I really wished that I had.”

“Built not bought” is a phrase that encapsulates the shed dwellers dreams. The sense of pride as you ride in the knowledge that the nuts, bolts and heavy metal singing away beneath you were combined by your own hands is reason enough for the hours spent skinning knuckles. For Peter it was a feeling he craved that the big Zed just could not sate and so he set about planning his own build.

“It all started with the tank. Someone on the Z1OC forum had it in the classifieds. I’d always loved the shape of those ‘70’s Kawasaki tanks and this one was from a z900 LTD. I just had to find something that I could put it on.”

Keen to look beyond the usual pool of donors that are starting to command silly money Peter decided to seek out an old flame, the Kawasaki GPz750,

“I once pushed a GPz unitrack 3 miles along a dark motorway in the rain. Despite this I kept a soft spot for these mid-‘80s Kwaks because I had one as my first ‘big’ bike. It was great until the bottom end gave up resulting in that damp trek.”

After investigating the measurements of the top fame rails Peter was convinced his prized tank would sit well in this new home, so he again took to ebay, hoping for the same luck that found him Dutch’s Zed.

“I bought a tidy looking, but non-running ’85 GPz750 unseen. The seller assured me that it had been fine the previous year, but upon awaking from it’s winter slumber it had refused to run right and the brakes were seized. It was the kind of price that I didn’t have to think twice about. On the way home with it on a borrowed trailer I went right past another eBay GPz750 that hadn’t sold, so I stopped off, offered beer-money and came home with the pair.”

“A strip and clean of the carbs brought the non-runner back to life so I rebuilt the brakes and put an angle grinder on my birthday list.”

With the birthday request met, Peter set to work de-tabbing and tidying the rear frame. To install the classic rear frame loop he sought the assistance of a local engineering workshop who also assisted with the welding of new tank mounts.

“The tank itself went on with some minor modifications (repeated blows to the underside with a heavy mallet).”

Peter was very conscious that he did not want to build a clone of the Zed he already owned, the best way to achieve this was of course to use his own hand made parts. He used sheet aluminium and wood to form the seat base before carving foam of various densities into the desired shape. He had the seat cover stitched up by a professional. The minimalist mudguards were fabricated from generic aluminium units and were dispatched to the powder coater, along with the frame and swing arm, for a layer of satin black goodness.

“I fabricated a new battery tray by folding aluminium sheet and set about modifying the old wiring loom to suit the new layout. Spending time in the bike shed is the perfect antidote to my desk-bound job in I.T., but working with decrepit wiring must stretch anybody’s idea of fun and this was definitely the low point. It was eventually finished however… and done properly because this is one area that I do have some experience with.”

The stance of the bike was improved by cutting the front forks down about an inch and fitting a second hand pair of CBR600 clip-ons that set Pete back a measly tenner. The top yoke is drilled and fitted with LED warning lights, a small speedometer rounds off the tidy cockpit. The chunky oversized tyres are Pirelli Scorpions.

“Then, just as suddenly as it started, it was finished and I was taking it up the road on a shakedown run. That itch had finally been scratched.”

Peter completed the GPz within a tight budget creating a fabulous machine which he can proudly declare as “built not bought”. Aside from the few hundred hours of his own time, the bike set him back no more than £1000 including the cost of the donor. And what of that second GPz? Well it is still in the shed and Pete has some ideas for it….

via The Bike Shed