Right starting a build diary for this little monster. The chassis is an Onyx Mongoose item which i bought from www.Onyxsportscars.f9.co.uk near Grimsby about two weeks ago. There own car is powered by a rover 1.4 K series lump producing 100bhp and weighed in at a little over 400kg and was quite impressive on the road and track but like most people i wanted more power and less weight. After contacting David at Onyx i was offered there last chassis for £1000 (only 5-6 chassis have been made so far but the company has currently put it on hold to concentrate on other projects)

My first plan was to fit the Mongoose chassis with a Yamaha XJR1300 engine but due to issues i would have had with cooling a mid-mounted air/oil cooled engine would have been more trouble than it was worth. So after a couple of days searching i found a 1988 Kawasaki ZX10 at MP Motor cycles just at the side of the M606 Bradford and got it for £600 with T&T.

The Chassis


The bike

It actually rode quite well and it was sad to break it.

The bike after about 3 hours


All the parts now all over the place


XJR engine now straped to pallet awaiting collect. Its going to Ireland.


The ZX10 lump stripped of its casings and cleaned up. Had 19 years of poo to remove



A few parts removed cleaned and painted up.


Stripping and cleaning the carbs


3 already done just need to polish them up now


The exhaust will be reused. Had a nice stainless system on it with a Micron can



My 3yo nephew liked the bike. He was in tears when i stripped it




Im hoping to have the engine mounts welded in by next weekend and the engine trial fitted. I'll update as more progress is made. The finished product will weigh around 350kg and have around 140-150bhp. should be fun.

[Edited on 3/6/07 by CraigJ]

ZX10 top tip.

If your carb dashpots don't slide fully open they are the restricted ones. 125bhp.

If they slide all the way up, you have unrestricted ones.
137bhp.

If yours are the restricted ones (like mine) you need carb tops of a ZXR750 as this takes you up to the full 137bhp. You'll never find 12bhp cheaper than that.

I found a coat of bright white exterior masonry paint on the breeze blocks in by garage increased the light enormously and stops the blocks generating gritty dust.

You should be able to ebay lots of bits from that bike, it looks (looked) in good condition - but you knew that already I'm sure Are you going to use the mirrors from the bike, looks like they could me made to fit.

Interesting to see a mongoose getting screwed together. Which chain diff are you using?

Could you make the bike screen fit?

When I had a Kwack GT550 I had to replace the exhaust on it after some blind twerp spilled me off. IT had been fitted with a 4-1 Motad and I replaced it with a 4-2 Jama, which replicated the factory original. The difference in engine characteristics was marked. Whereas before it had been all top end and rough midrange, now it had a lovely midrange whilst admittedly losing a little at the top end, but for most if not all road conditions it was better. Just a thought
p.s. went to London for a photoshoot at the Cutty Sark on the back of my mates ZX10, what an experience that was!

Thanks for the replys people.

Ive not even checked the carb tops to see if they were restricted lol. will have a look tomorrow.

No plans to use the screen or mirrors.

Little up date today.

Engine is in but not fully fitted yet, its only in so i can mount the chain diff and other components.







The diff built up




Sat in place in the chassis, will be making the mounts this week.





Will be fitting the steering column and rack this week, just need to nip to the scrappers to get a Metro column.