Kawasaki Z1 Super Six wheels - How its made

in this video i'm going to be rebuilding the wheels on my kawasaki z1 super six fitting the spokes and the tires and going out for a little ride on my yamaha yr1 100cc twin before i start to build the wheels i'll get all the parts onto the bench the rear hub the rear inner spokes the rear outer spokes the front hub the front inner spokes the front outer spokes and the rims then i use a bit of zx1 extra lube oil to lubricate the threads this makes the nipples screw on nicely i'm starting with the rear wheel so i grip the rear wheel spindle in the vice using soft jaws then drop on one of the rear wheel spacers to hold the wheel above the vice then when i put the hub on it's nice stable base for assembling the spokes next i'll get some zx1 spray and spray the nipples and give them a good shake and a rub this lubricates the internal threads note the differences between the spokes the internal ones are less than 90 degree bends and the external ones are over 90 degree bands to put in the spokes on the wheel you need to put all the inner ones in first on both sides so you put one in one hole and you miss a hole and put another one in then miss a hole and put another one in and continue so all the inner spokes are in with the top inner spokes in place the next thing i need to do is put the bottom in the spokes in so i pick up the batch of spokes and put them in up from underneath noting that the hole you start on is just leading the hole above like that and you continue missing each hole so you're in one hole miss a hole in the next hole miss a hole until all the bottom spokes are in there's no need to worry about their positions because they'll find their relevant holes in the room when we come to that in a minute you'll notice when you look at the rim the dimples point to the left and the right alternately it's now time to fit the rim to the inner spokes so i lift the hub off the spindle and place it on the bench pick up the rim and find the appropriate dimple that's pointing upwards the spokes drop into place quite easily and they'll line up with the relative dimple that's pointing upwards towards the spoke and you place that one nipple on to hold it in place grab another spoke miss three holes and put it in the fourth hole which should also be pointing upwards then you miss another three holes and put it in the next fourth hole and continue until all the ten inner spokes are in on that side then what you do then is you rotate the hub tight putting the spokes tight into the rim and put on one spoke from the outer spokes and that holds it in position while you do the other side and here you can see the one outer spoke it misses one hole on the hub and one hole on the rim and should produce an x form with the wheel turned over i pick up the inner spoke on this side rotate it around until it hits the rim and you'll see that it lines up with a dimple pointing straight for it and you put the nipple on and just repeat this process 10 times until all the spokes are in at this point in the build i'm only concerned about holding the spokes in place so the nipples are randomly screwed on several turns only at this stage within the spokes in place on both sides and one outer spoke the next stage is to put the wheel back onto its spindle and fit all the outer spokes i like this part of the build the spokes just drop into place you fill in the middle hole on the on the hub drop it onto the rim and you'll see the dimple that it lines up with with the miss one mystery principle with all the outer spokes in on this one side i go around and put on all the nipples well that's all the outer spokes in and the inner spokes on one side so that side is effectively finished so now turn the wheel over and place in the remaining outer spokes the spokes drop down naturally into position and line up with a dimple so with all the outer spokes in place i go around and fit all the nipples tightening them up roughly by hand with all the spokes in the wheel it's now time to synchronize the nipples so i use a screwdriver and screw all the nipples down until you just clear the thread so no thread is visible on the spoke and this is done for every spoke on the wheel at that point it should run relatively true and here you can see it spins great it is out a little bit but not much maybe two millimeters or more that's all but we can soon straighten out in a minute by gradually tightening up the spokes one at a time until they all get a similar tension and then you adjust them by pulling up where it's low and pulling down where it's high until the wood is centralized between the hub it's really good fun straightening the wheel it's really addictive you keep tweaking the spokes to tighten the wheel up if the rim is low you tighten the spoke to pull it up if the rim's high you loosen the spoke and tighten the spoke on the opposite side to pull it down you keep repeating this procedure until the room is not buckled or egged as they say running up and down readily it's really difficult to get old rims exactly true you can get them pretty good within a half a millimeter or so so with the rim true i then check with two steel rules the hub is in the center of the rim on the z1 by just looking at the gap between the edges of the spokes where they bend over and they're exactly the same to my little charlie weaver bartender he's really pleased he has to have a little drink to check i've got all the spokes evenly tensioned i tap them with a screwdriver and listen to the tone they make a high-pitched tone is tight and a low-pitched tone is loose and as you can hear they're all pretty much the same with just the odd one or two that are slightly low so i'll give those a gentle tweak with my spoke key just to bring them into tune and here's a slightly low one here you see the difference i just literally to give it a quarter of a turn with the key tap it again and it's the same perfect so that's like wheel done i hope it's the post i've been waiting for some parts from zeb power oh no it's from youtube wow let's go and see what this might be i rush back in the garage and get my swiss army knife to open the package inside there's a really cool letter addressed to me saying congratulations on achieving 100 000 subscribers and underneath is the silver plaque it is so cool i'm well pleased with that with my plaque safely back in the house let's get on with the front wheel build the front wheel is done in a very similar manner as the back so the first thing i do is place all the inner spokes in on one side of the hub with the first 10 inner spokes in i've proceeded to fit the other 10 starting with the leading hole on the opposite side pushing up from underneath and then repeaters missing one hole until all the 10 spokes are in i then line up one of the top spokes with a dimple that's pointing up and repeat that with all the other spokes on the top and the bottom one's pointing up into a dimple that's pointing down until all the inner spokes are in place and the wheel runs relatively freely and it's just a straightforward case of fitting the outer spokes and lining them up with the dimples with all the outer inner spokes in on that side of the wheel i turn the wheel over in the vice gripping on the spindle again in soft jaws then start putting in the other side outer spokes and what you do you just lean it across onto the rim lean it one way it doesn't line up with any dimples leaning the other way and you'll find the dimple it lines up with there's only one that it'll fit in and you repeat this for the rest of the ten spokes until you've got all the spokes in the wheel then go around with a screwdriver as we did on the rear wheel and tighten up the nipples so all the threads disappear from the spokes with the nipples all tightened down evenly i then true the wheel like i explained for the rear and then check the disc flange mounting surface is flush with the side of the rim with my steel rule which is on both sides which is absolutely perfect i'm well pleased with that don't get too excited yet charlie i've just realized i forgot to buy the inner tubes and the bolts that secure the tires to the rims so i'll have to ride out to the local motorbike shop on my yamaha yl1 to pick some up and this is my 1967 yamaha yl-1 100cc twin it's a great little bike i've ridden this bike 500 miles in one day it's just so nice to ride so [Applause] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] uh well i'm back with the inner tubes but it is so cold i need to warm up my hands so i turn on the barbecue i give them a good old warm it's so nice absolutely perfect for the job on a cold day with my hands nice and warm i can smell the smell of cakes cooking in the kitchen so i pop in to have a look and tracey's been cooking some lovely cupcakes so i pinched one go back out in the garage it was so nice there's two security bolts on the rear wheel of a kawasaki z1 and they fit underneath the rim tape and going through the holes that are opposite each other and always check they go in and out freely before you put the tire on before fitting the tire make sure the direction of arrow is rotating the correct way for the rear wheel then i use some soapy water to lubricate the bead so now i place the tire over the wheel pushing down the outer side of the bead to go underneath the tire security bolt until it pops in place nicely then using my tar lever i gently go around the retire until it pops over the bead i then turn the wheel over and force the tire over the second security bolt using my tar lever i use a bit of rag to protect the rim you just lift the tire up and it pops down into place and that's great i find this the tricky bit now fitting the inner tube but put a tiny bit of air in first not too much just a little bit to give it some shape and you have to poke it into the tyre above the rim force it all the way around but also line up the valve and put that through the hole so what i do straight away is put the nut on so that i don't lose the valve up inside the tire which can be really frustrating when the tire is nearly on starting at one security bolt i use my tyre lever to force the tar over the rim holding it in place with my knee and gently going around the wheel until the tire's on finishing at a security bolt with the tyre on i check that both the security belts are free by pushing them on my thumb and seeing that they go in and out freely i then pump up the tyre to about 35 psi until the tire pops up onto the rim nicely and then set it to recommended pressure finally tightening both the security bolts tight with a ring spanner and here's the two wheels fitted back into the frame i hope you enjoyed this video and thanks so much to everyone that subscribed allowing me to achieve my 100 000 subscribers award i'm well chuffed and really pleased and thank you all so much and there's more videos to come soon so keep watching and don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already thank you hello hello oh that's great i'll see you subscribe to my channel so you can keep an army okay okay that's fine then bye greta

Channel: Allen Millyard

Views: 96,827

Keywords: kawasaki, millyard, Super Six, six cylinder, home made, shed, shed made, old school engineering, engine repair, Z1, Kawasaki Z900, Kawasaki Z1, Hacksaw, hand cutting, MCN, Classic motorcycle Mechanics, The motorbike Show, HCA, Filing, Files, Colchester Lathe, 1970's, Kawasaki, Camshaft, Haveago, millyardracing, hyperride2, Mikuni, Its fast, 500LC, RD250LC, Four cylinder, hca, henrycoletv, twin cylinder, allen millyard, Yamaha, YL1, 100cc, wheel building, spoked wheels, how to build spoked wheels

Id: pW2LpGkmPJc

Length: 15min 47sec (947 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 18 2020