T.E.D. Jordan
New member
Hi all, new here but I decided I wanted somewhere decent to log my project on, and this seems to be a great place to share both my project, and ideas.
The project is termed Karasaki for the basic reason of its a Kart, with a kawasaki engine
lol.
To start with, this project is being built by me and my brother (Mostly me as he's a lazy SOB), and its our third 'road' kart.
Started with a phone call from our go-to guy who we've bought over 30 bikes from over the past couple of years telling us he had a crash damaged 2002 kawasaki 500 bike cheap, which was when my brother decided he'd let me know incase I was interested and I suggested getting it for the kart. Here it is after we got it back:
Everything we needed was on the bike, bar the starter, this and all the other bits are why we got the bike cheap (£80)
Engine removed along with everything else we'd need:
Its comical looking at this kart in this photo, because the engine is actually as big as the seat area! Dug the kart out (A few friends and I bought a few karts together years ago and this is a spare chassis I had from like, 7 years ago!):
Stripped of non-essentials and put on a spare work table:
To gain the length for the new engine, the kart obviously had to be lengthened. a massive loss of rigidity is lost in the process especially with a heavy engine like the Kawasaki 500 and a passenger slung between the supports (wheels), so to retain some rigidity in the add-on, I staggered my cuts in the three existing bars so as not to create a 'single plane' where the kart was its most susceptible to fatigue, then offered matching cut bar from stock we have:
Its late in the UK, so I'm off to bed, more photos tomorrow if theres an interest!
Jordan
The project is termed Karasaki for the basic reason of its a Kart, with a kawasaki engine
lol.To start with, this project is being built by me and my brother (Mostly me as he's a lazy SOB), and its our third 'road' kart.
Started with a phone call from our go-to guy who we've bought over 30 bikes from over the past couple of years telling us he had a crash damaged 2002 kawasaki 500 bike cheap, which was when my brother decided he'd let me know incase I was interested and I suggested getting it for the kart. Here it is after we got it back:
Everything we needed was on the bike, bar the starter, this and all the other bits are why we got the bike cheap (£80)
Engine removed along with everything else we'd need:
Its comical looking at this kart in this photo, because the engine is actually as big as the seat area! Dug the kart out (A few friends and I bought a few karts together years ago and this is a spare chassis I had from like, 7 years ago!):
Stripped of non-essentials and put on a spare work table:
To gain the length for the new engine, the kart obviously had to be lengthened. a massive loss of rigidity is lost in the process especially with a heavy engine like the Kawasaki 500 and a passenger slung between the supports (wheels), so to retain some rigidity in the add-on, I staggered my cuts in the three existing bars so as not to create a 'single plane' where the kart was its most susceptible to fatigue, then offered matching cut bar from stock we have:
Its late in the UK, so I'm off to bed, more photos tomorrow if theres an interest!
Jordan
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) clamped the frame to an old surface bed, measured from the back axle centreline to the front axle hub carriers on both sides (It was perfect as the tubes being pressed into each other kept everything Exactly parallel) and plug welded it all together:
I enlisted him to strip the bike of its ancillaries, dry-store them and give the engine an initial clean, so we wheeled it round to the closest pressure washer, gunk'd the engine, and agitated it as we blasted 28k of English road mank:
