Truss Rod Adjustment opens up a new world!

Those familiar with the "la Carbonita" project will have followed its way from the start. However, having looked and played her the other day, I couldn't believe the string height and also the fact I'd never really finished her with regards Truss rod adjustment.
So, loosened off the strings, removed the 4 neck plate screws and popped her outta body...just.
Then adjusted the Truss rod and slapped her back together , pretty much guessing she be right once I put the neck back on.
What an amazing difference! The string height is now basically at the point where you breath and it plays itself! Without actually fret buzzing on the low E! Feels like a totally new beast transformed , with the TVjones Bridge "extra" which is meant to have come from Gibbons himself..or something..
regardless, brilliant sound!

Ok, I'll admit watching ZZtop the other night had me looking at "just got paid" and trying out my dunlop glass slide..when I bought it I wanted a large size, but now felt it was time to get a smaller one for my pinky. Off to the music shop today and bumped into my mate Silver who recommended this;

Ok, so I went ahead and trusted him that these are the dogs bollox and once I got home and started playing on the LaC with E tuning (EBEG#BE) I was so very much impressed that I picked up the phone and praised his opinion and thanked him for pointing me towards this porcelain slide..Brilliant!
At the same time I told Silver to try out the tuning to which he did so and was last heard opening a beer and sliding away on E tuning! Brilliant, and classic swamp sounds!

PART 1/ Upgrading the performance

Well, I just had to win this Muzzy full race exhaust I found on ebay in the USA.
First of all, they're nigh on impossible to find for the 91 and everybody pretty well knows that Muzzy was the most successful of the tuners.
Looking at the add and there is a mention that the headers came off Scott Russels race bike. Well, that I wouldn't believe, and who cares, look at the attention to detail on the stainless headers, the spring catches, just the whole set up stinks of "race". I was looking at Acropovic full systems, but at prices over 10,000kr I felt that was a bit high. A Muzzy pipe was searched for and a Muzzy pipe was found! delighted!

And here again, decided to take the step to follow in the footsteps of a guy who has a great website about his ZXRR, and his advice included finding some GSXR1000 K1/K2 front calipers and fit them to the R. This proved more difficult that I thought, these things aren't that common! But here are the ones I did find,and currently a man in a machine shop is making up the required spacers which will have them slot perfectly onto the RR stanctions.What is a real bonus is the fact that despite being 6 pots as opposed to the standard 4 pots, they weigh less and save recip mass weight of 200 grams which is indeed a bonus.As they replaced them on the following years bikes I reckon it was a cost excercise.

Here was a real lucky find! See the small seat lock next to the key: really not easy to find, but somebody in Germany decided to break a ZXR750M and sell the Lockset. That was fortunate (and expensive) but means that all the locks that were ripped and stripped on mine have donors!

Now obviously the main part of the bike which was smashed was the frame, so that had to be sourced as soon as possible. Fortunatly the K models had exactly the same frames as their standard cousin, the J model. So I looked for a J model and found a 91 J frame which is now on the way over as my brother had to buy it and once I've sent in the paperwork it will end up over here.

so far then, the shopping list hasn't really been for the parts that are 100% required...
91 Zxr J  frame (essential H101 KUD)
95 ZxrM lockset complete (essential)
97 P rocker suspension (optional)
L series 18,5 cm dog bones (race kit length apparently)
A full race Muzzy stainless exhaust (optional)
Six pot brakes (optional)

Tomorrow I should be moving the bike to it's new home which , after several months, should have it coming out the other end looking and feeling and sounding like a true SuperSport ZXR750R!

The Shift through time

wow,
can't believe its been so long since I turned my eye to the Blog.August 27th...and that was just a token picture of one of the guitars I put together from parts..

Well, its been an interesting past months.

For a start, I managed to buy a rather amazing bike which I have been after for a long time. As fate would have it a person I knew had one over and sold me it. And after trying to get used to the bike for a week it was stolen from outside my work.Amazing and not for the first time that I've had a superbike stolen from me either.This time it was insured, but being a very rare bike I was still gutted and of course "sans bike"...
The following week I recieved a phone call at 1.00 in the morning from a police woman asking me if Kawasaki Bt* 3** was mine? They had followed some guy and seen him crash it in front of them...
I called a mate who gave me a lift out to the crash site.
There she lay on her left side...froman immaculately kept version to a down and out tramp in the gutter....she leaked onto the cobbles...

She was taken away on the back of a flat truck and I was left wondering where I could get another in the same shape for the same price, but at the same time feeling rather sorry for the one I'd seen lying in the gutter.
...it's a strange emotion and possibly only left to those who have spent many late a night working on machines of speed or wooden shapes of sounds...almost Buddist in that everything has a soul...

And yesterday the verdict came through.A price was offered. I was almost gonna accept when a second offer came in with "you get your salvage back"...well...that was it. I'll take her back was my immediate reaction as at the same time the cyber keys started working on getting parts to rebuild.

I'd be the first to admit that despite being a grand shame that the bike is now very rough, I'm more for driving them than so called "keeping them under the bed as an investment" and this will be the thought behind the rebuild. Parts are either impossible to find or cost an arm and a leg.
The list to do is as follows:
To be replaced;
Main frame
l/h clip-on
l/h fairing
nose cone fairing
l/h foot rest and gear change
Fairing /mirror/clocks brackets
indicators
Lock set 

To be looked at;
dent in alloy tank
scratches to rear seat section

Basically the tank and rear seat section can be kept as they are either too expensive to replace or simply not damamged enough to warrent replacement.
Everything else on the list has been found and will be purchased as soon as possible.