The Chief and his Superbike

This post is for my Father. I've mentioned before my love of the late 70's early 80's Superbikes and the club racers that came before them. My dear old Dad has a KZ900 that he's been trying to resurrect for a while now. He's finally got a little time available to put into it. I put together an email this morning intending to explain where he needed to go with this bike, in my humble opinion. I hold my father's metalworking skills in a very high regard. His aesthetic skills sometimes fall a bit short. Perhaps not in concept but in execution. You see, having a picture in your mind and making it out of metal are not always the same. The point here is, not to hi-light any shortcomings but to offer my assistance. I dig my Dad. I know he's capable of building a super Superbike. If you go to his blog shopteacherbob.blogspot.com and search 900 you will find his posts on his bike. What I affectionately call the pink bike. 

He built a matching sidecar that we took on a long camping vacation on when I was in grade school. It was sold off years ago. 

 This is what the bike looks like today. 

I suggested long ago that he build something like...

He's already made side panels like this. Not a huge fan of Mr. Vetter but I am a fan of Reginald Pridmore. 

This is just about perfect. The ducktail trim job is a bit slap-dash, the oil cooler placement is pretty impractical for street use and the paint scheme leaves a bit to be desired. It is however, a racebike. Otherwise it pretty much fits the formula. First things first. Gold. Wheels. I think painting cast wheels gold came from Campagnolo.  Makes sense. They are fugly in a "you just don't understand it because you're not Italian" sort of way. He's got wheels that have the look. No reason to break the bank on a set of original Campy or Lester mags. 

I'm out of time but there's much more to come...