New pictures of my yellow Z with inverts. Few action shots too!

[Billy Golightly]

Yup... new pictures. I busted my ass wednesday to get them finished up in time to leave and try them out on the Rumble down here in FLA. I worked from 10:00AM on them till 10:00PM non stop at the shop. Never left. My dad and I got the whole thing dis-assembled off of the other roller Z we were using for mockup, figured out the mounting location for the front fender mounts, made the pieces to weld on for the fender to bolt to, I welded those 4 pieces on, painted the top clamp (didn't have time to paint the bottom one :lol:), spotted, drilled, tapped holes, for that new Brembo caliper to go on the front forks. Tried bleeding it for an hour and it wouldn't bleed :mad: Ended up working once I got down there and rode it though, weird. Ended up getting everything assembled around 9:00PM wednesday night and went for a short spin around the yard. Went and met William (Lomax) at a truck stop around 11:00, left Thursday afternoon after getting all my stuff together to go down there to the ride.

(More pictures in my next reply below this)

[Billy Golightly]

Forgot to mention in the above post, I also swapped out the original KTM85SX front fork springs for some heavy duty Eibach ones I got from Moto Pro Suspension out in WA. John from Moto Pro is a super guy and helped me out on getting the springs next day air so I could put them in and use them this last weekend. I had to end up trimming a little off to shorten them up, and do a little filing here and there, but hey everything else needed customizing to be put on the Z why would the springs be any different?:D Overall I'm very happy with the purchase of the springs, they are way stiffer then they were before. They have .46kg tension now, and had like low 30 something before, because of the weight of the youth rider and bike they went on. They could still stand to be a little bit stiffer...I might put some more oil in them.


Alright, above post there are pictures of the Handle bars when your sitting on it.

A close up of the weld beads on the bottom tripple clamp that I didn't have time to paint.

Close up of the Brembo front brake caliper thats from a KTM520SX (I think thats what it was from?)

Close up of the CGR products I have on the Z. Stator cover, and sprocket guard.

And 2 of the Works rear shock I got off of ebay a while back for a smokin hot deal of about $130. It fits an old Warrior, like an 88 or something. It kind of needs to be gone through but its working 1000% better then the original one.


Rest of the pictures are just some of the Z out in the yard here back home this afternoon. I got a headlight rigged up on it now. Still needs a little bit of bracketry to hold it at the top but atleast its on there now. I had to wire Louis' headlight from his Z onto mine Saturday night for a nightride down there at Kissimmee :lol:. I also bolted back on the little plastic front fork guards. I kind of forgot to put them on before I went down there. Next post is action pictures and a write up on how they worked over the weekend and what I think of them so far.

[Billy Golightly]

Alright, I know you wondering, how did they work?




They worked AWESOME!



I've never rode any trike or quad with suspension this good before. Some of the sand trails we were riding on were very whooped out. I could slide my weight towards the back of the Z and just HAMMER through them. I mean litterly float across them. Lomax commented while he was riding behind me he could tell that I wasn't getting thrown around like him and most of the other guys, that you could tell the suspension was working good. It soaked up the whoops really good, and it jumped very well too. I only bottomed out twice and thats because I didn't have good posture in the air and screwed up my landing. I even gave it the ultimate test...right down the middle of a pair of rail road tracks riding on the cross ties. It was a little bit rough, but you could feel and tell the suspension was doing its job and soaking it up. Theres no doubt in my mind if I had been on my trx250R I woulda had to be wearing a mouthpiece to keep from jaring the teeth out of my head. Ronnie, YAMAHONDAMAN rode the Z saturday night and Sunday afternoon and commented they were working good for him too. Infact he decided to jump a small pile of dirt about 4ft tall and land about 3/4 of the way up a 60ft hill climb and finish riding the rest of the way up on it so they must have been working good :w00t: That Brembo front caliper clamps the Z disc like mad, I can do a trike stoppie in the grass with it!

My ONLY complaint is, that when I had the 18's on the back running around down there the frontend must not have had enough weight on it, because in the loose sand it wanted to plow a little bit. You had to be careful where you put your front tire in the quad ruts when coming into a corner or you wouldn't make the turn. This drasticly improved after the 20's were put on. I believe I could probably solve the plowing problem with either a different front tire or possible adding a little bit of weight to the front 500R style (AKA some water in the front tire). The other minor thing is that because the front forks were moved out further forward then stock, some of the cables are a little short and tight like the clutch and throttle. Thats one reason my bars seem like their turned on the trippes to be down lower then normal. I needed to get some slightly longer ones or something. Theres still some tweaks I want to do on the forks to stiffen them up a little bit more, but for the most part its working awesome. I want to get started on a new aluminum set very soon. The steel ones turned out pretty good but Aluminum is way lighter and alot more trick looking. Thanks for reading :)

[BigGreenMachine]

Thats awsome!!! Man billy you made it look easy putting those forks on there.

The 20's make it seem like the bike is tipped foward? With the 18's, maybe if you had some lower handle bars to put your weight foward on the forks? (would solve your cable problem)

Looks like your already running a 23 inch tire. Try an R rim and a 22?

[Yamahauler]

Those are some pretty sweet pids

You probaly have said this somewhere, but where can you get those stator covers, and sprocket guard? Or are they custom made?

[Billy Golightly]

Yeah...The 20's do make it sit a little higher in the back, and put the whole thing a little bit more forward like you said. I'm sure thats why it didn't want to plow as much as compared to the 18's. I hadn't thought of some low-bend bars like that, but yeah thats a good idea. Might have to try that. Get some CR-low bend Renthals or something. And yes, already running a 23.5inch front tire. I've thought about the R front rim swap but I really just all of this put together and not sure I want to tear it back apart yet. The front wheel is centered now, the axle and spacers are adapted, and so is the caliper. Maybe eventually I'll swap over and use one of those douglas 10in front wheels.

[Billy Golightly]

Those are some pretty sweet pids

You probaly have said this somewhere, but where can you get those stator covers, and sprocket guard? Or are they custom made?


Yeah, their kind of a custom thing. Marco Marzi AKA Greenboy and Hagen makes them in Germany. He has been MIA since shortly after Haspin though. I haven't heard anything from him and neither had a few other members. Hope nothing has happened to him...

[twgranger]

Looks great!!! Them forks look strong as hell too.

[Yamahauler]

Yeah, their kind of a custom thing. Marco Marzi AKA Greenboy and Hagen makes them in Germany. He has been MIA since shortly after Haspin though. I haven't heard anything from him and neither had a few other members. Hope nothing has happened to him...
Damn, I need a metal flywheel cover, I dont want to have to chrome the plastic one.

[BigGreenMachine]

nah, don't tear it down for the sake of that just yet. Try some bars or just enjoy it for what its worth and when you do change it'll be easier to notice the difference.

[Louis Mielke]

Billy. Could we get some measurements on those forks? upper & lower diamaters.
Over all length, lower tube length, travel. or perhaps a link to a site or post with those measurements. What do you think about them on a 500. Enough or not enough? Input appriciated. Thanks.

[Billy Golightly]

Louis, try these links:

http://www.3wheelerworldforums.com/showthread.php?t=42535&highlight=inverted+forks
http://www.3wheelerworldforums.com/showthread.php?t=42535&highlight=inverted+forks
http://www.3wheelerworldforums.com/showthread.php?t=39964&highlight=inverted+forks

The last link has a link to the KTM website that has most of the measurements of the forks. I've got my draft plan here of the tripple clamps, the top clamp has a clamping ID surface of 49mm. I can't remember the lower clamp but its a considerable amount more. Like 58 or something.

I think it'd be fine for your 500. Your gonna have it for an all around machine. These forks are not to long to make it tall like the full size dirtbike forks. You will have to respring them, but mine were only like $80 from Moto Pro, http://www.moto-pro.com/. You'll have to call them and tell them exactly what you got going on and what you want to do. If you talk to John, mention my name. He'll probably remember.

[grundlegrabber]

That's a bad ass mount. Just goes to show how hard work and determination pay off. I'm sure once you're done perfecting the bike it will be the envy of trikers everywhere!

[IrvSLedman]

ahhhh... how i want a tri-z lol lucky s-o-b's lol but nice trike man.

[2XTREME]

AWSOME JOB!!!!!!!
I would love to do that mod.keep us informed on how things turn out after riding the hell out of it a bunch,I think it will be great.You should set up and make the aluminum clamps and sell it as a kit with instructions on what to do.
X:beer

[Yamahondaman]

COOL PIC'S !!! that thing jumped up that 60 ft. hill with NO Problem !!

[Jeb]

Ya done good, Billy! Best USD fork conversion on a Trike so far. :beer

[2XTREME]

Man,I love this job you did.I can't stop staring at the pics.How did you mount the Z caliper?Can I get a better close up?Did the stock Z axle work or did you use something else?
X

[Billy Golightly]

Haha I know Ronnie, and you hit it TWICE! Crazy mofo.

Jeb, Thanks. I've definetly got alot of time into these. Mostly just trying to get all the bugs and complications worked out. Luckily I didn't run into anything that couldn't be fixed without a couple hours worth of work. Now that its done, I dont think it'll be to bad to make another set. Infact I'm gonna try and save up and get some aluminum stock to get the pieces cut out to make a new aluminum pair. I think a set of aluminum ones with some stratigecly placed knurling on the round parts would just be hella nice looking.

2Xtreme, Thats not a stock Z caliper! Its Brembo off of a 03-04 KTM400EXC dirtbike. The original mounting holes did not match the caliper brackets on the front fork, so new holes had to be spotted and drilled, and retapped for the bolts to hold it on. Right now it has some washers inbetween the caliper and the mounting bracket that is made onto the fork to keep the spacing correct. If you dont, the caliper will be pulled over and drag on the inside of the disc badly. Hopefully I can make a little aluminum spacer or something to do away with the washers. The front axle is a Z one but it has some mods. On the fork side opposite of the caliper, there is a piece of brass shim stock around that end of the axle to keep it fitting in the hole on the fork properly. On the brake side, theres a metal bushing type thing that actually threads onto and over the end of the Z axle that screws into the stock Z fork. This is an OK setup and it works, BUT I dont like the fact that the outside is a larger diameter then the middle where the bearings ride for the wheel. Its not a big amount or anything, but your sort or making a weak spot on the axle. What I need to do is get some of the KTM wheel bearings and but them in my Z hub. Then I can make a whole new front axle the correct size without having to worry about the bushings and whatever to make it fit in the forks correctly.

[Kintore]

Thats awesome Billy! glad you got those forks working for ya. I would like to try them at TF... if thats ok. Looks sweet, question-
To me, it looks like your fork rate is in alot compared to other Z's, is that just me? and if so why did you do that?
And-
Where did you find those peg kick ups? I would like to own some.
And btw, im taking your advice on buying those progressive springs for mine as well.

[2XTREME]

Where did you end up finding the forks and caliper to buy?
X

[Billy Golightly]

Forks, www.ktmtalk.com under their mini classifieds after looking for close to a month. Caliper from www.ebay.com. I just kind of guessed on the caliper. It was big, and looked like it had alot of bracket space to drill new holes if I needed to (Which I did)

[2XTREME]

Forks, www.ktmtalk.com under their mini classifieds after looking for close to a month. Caliper from www.ebay.com. I just kind of guessed on the caliper. It was big, and looked like it had alot of bracket space to drill new holes if I needed to (Which I did)
If you don't mind my asking,What did you pay for the forks and the caliper.
Thanks,
X:wondering

[Billy Golightly]

Caliper was like $10.

The forks...however, are very spendy. I got mine with the front axle, and the original KTM brake caliper (Which was worthless because it was so small) for about $450. Yes, that does seem like a lot but these forks are off of an 2003 dirtbike that is for the most part pretty rare unless there is a KTM dealership close to you. Each fork lists for over $800 new.

[Red Rider]

Billy, how does the weight of the KTM forks compare to the stock Z forks that they replaced?

[Kintore]

Question-
To me, it looks like your fork rate is in alot compared to other Z's, is that just me? and if so why did you do that?
And-
Where did you find those peg kick ups? I would like to own some.

Trikes own!

[Billy Golightly]

Billy, how does the weight of the KTM forks compare to the stock Z forks that they replaced?

Believe it or not Red Rider, I'm pretty sure they weigh less! I'd have to get a scale for sure but I'm almost willing to bet money they are. If they arent, their darn close.


Doh, sorry Kintore! Yes, the frontend does not have as much rake as a normal Tri-Z and that also makes it sit a little bit taller. As I discussed in an earlier thread, the stock Tri-Z tripple clamps have the steering stem pressed into the bottom tripple clamp at an angle. Mine is straight in. If you check I believe its the second thread I linked in a post to damnit (It should be the one where I'm rolling the black Z with these for the first time). Footpeg kickups were on the Z when I bought it, I believe you can still buy them from James Lucky. I think my next project though is going to be adapting a set of pegs off of a banshee, yfz, or something else onto the Z to replace the stock ones. Then I could get some aftermarket IMS ones or something that are nice and wide and come stock with the kickups.