W650 Cafe Racer - Polished top bridge - Return of the Cafe Racers

I’ve just finished fitting a polished top bridge/triple clamp to the W650 Cafe Racer. After fitting the clip on bars I no longer wanted the original triple clamp because it had brackets for the original bars on it (and it wasn’t shiny and cool looking). It was a pretty straight forward swap and as you can see it looks slick.

To remove your triple clamp start by putting the bike up on the centre stand or blocks to take the weight off the front wheel. If you don’t do this the bike may slide down the forks when you remove the bridge and possibly fall over…eek!. Now loosen the 2 screws that tighten the triple clamp on to the forks (with an allen key) and undo the nut at the top of each fork. Be sure to take care as each of the nuts are spring loaded and may pop up when you completely unscrew them. Also are made of a soft easily damaged aluminium so don’t slip cause they will damage easily. Be sure to not lose the rubber seals on each of the large fork screws. Now undo the centre nut using a large socket (as I mentioned in my last post you will require a large 27mm socket to do this which you can purchase from a automotive hardware store). Now pull up on the triple clamp and with a bit of wiggling it should lift off.

Undo the 4 screws holding the dials in place and sit the dials down on the headlight. If you follow the wiring from the ignition barrel back under the tank (which you will have to remove) you will find a white wiring plug on top of the frame. Undo this and feed the wiring out so you can lift the whole top bridge off the motorbike (along with the ignition barrel).

This is now the only fiddly part of the job. The screws that hold the ignition barrel to the triple clamp are security screws which means there are no tools available that will undo them. I was able to get one undone by using a pair of needle nose pliers but I had to drill the second one out. To do this you need to made a guide hole using a punch in the top of the screw then by using a series of drill bits (starting small and going up) you will be able to drill through the head of the screw until it pops off and the barrel can be removed. Don’t drill too deep, you only need to remove the head of the screw. If you drill too deep you will make it impossible to get the rest of the screw out. Once the ingnition barrel comes off you will see that the screw sticks out about 5mm which will allow you to grasp it solidly with pliers and remove the rest of the screw from the triple clamp.

See also

Kawasaki Cafe Racer

Crossbreed: Alpha Moto Kawasaki ZRX1200R

The new clamp I purchased was from Deus (thanks again Taka!), which they import from Peyton Place in Japan and was designed especially to fit the W650. Buy a pair of screws the same size as the 2 security ones you removed and you can fit the ingnition barrel to the triple clamp. Now fit everything back in reverse order and you’re done. I am currently looking for dials to replace the original W650 set I have on the bike which should compliment the whole look even better.