RRT rearsets left over from 2 years ago should so the trick...

One of the hard parts to source...

Right then, there were a few parts that would make the Kawasaki an R (K) version and anyone whose owned one of these magnificent bikes will know that the forks on the K, in 91 and 92, had 41mm stanchions (later to be the same as the L) but also compression and rebound settings.

Looking around the web and looking at the prices involved, I wasn't too keen on finding a set..but I did. I really wanted to stick with the ideology that the project would be based around an original r/k and not a modified J.

So here is the latest edition for the bike, a period and correct set of  R/K forks with yokes and of course, the correct compression/rebound mods on board.

I've still got a set of oil seals I bought for the BTA bike, so good to get them changed if required.
Getting a set of yokes is also a positive and one less headache.

To date, almost everything that's been sourced is for a K.

A swinging arm and set of wheels and the rolling chassis with frame and seat unit are complete.

Engine is going to be collected in August after the Industry holidays.

Start Up

As you've read, the OW01 is pretty much ready for start up.
Just have to do some final checks, cleaning , replace some old hose and then go for it.
The pump is in the race tank and I'll have to make sure that's wired up correctly into the now standard wiring loom.
This Ow01 full-race engine hasn't actually been run in one state for many years, probably around 15-20 years. The specs are high , YEC kitted, Pete Beale head and crank and of course the FCR's and YEC race exhaust.. should be interesting..the previous owner said he had never heard a louder race bike in the paddock and that was with the YZF engine he had fitted with a stock crank and pistons and no head job...

So...moving from 2 to 4 wheels..

How about this as a gem project? Porsche 917K , bought from a museum in Europe (no mention of which one or cost..) and first start up after at least 30 years...awesome! what an amazing car! flat 12..

Equinox

Here is a program I watched back in the 80's.

Absolutely brilliant if your into Formula 1 and the advent of the turbo from drawing board to track.

A must watch!

part 1

Part 2

Trains, planes and automobiles...

Well..not quite..More a case of Trains, buses and walking out in the bush to a private house...
And the result:- 1984 Yamaha YPVS K1 with a full fairing and some really nice Micron expansions sweeping up the right hand side...
One the way:

finally there...

So let me see...I've almost lost count on how many RD350LC's I've had...but just the one RD350YPVS...they are incredible motorcycles..especially if you've had your youth stuck in the 80's..going from an old honda 400/4 to an RD350LC with swarbricks and powerjets made life come alive..you never forget the sound of the engine after you've kicked it into life..bag a bolts...

This bike was a very nice representation of a bike I would have chewed off my hand for back in the day. Micron GP style pipes sweeping up the rh side, full fairing...
I couldn't lie to the owner when it came down to how much I felt the bike was worth...these are cult bikes nowadays , so I said I'd help her start up the bike and get it on the market...

fluctuating prices and the luck of the draw...

As you know, ZXRR was stolen back in 2010 after a month of use and then crashed/smashed a few months later by some little fucker with little regard or respect for such a beast...

I had to change so many things off the original bike and it was the little parts that I had to look for months at a time and as I've written previously, a lot of the parts I did eventually find and buy, were not in good condition, sometime bent and then "fixed"...

The prices also differ dramatically from month to month.

So, when these came up , the memories flooded back at how much of a pain it was not only to find them, but the cost and variation in condition. At 12 quid the set, I was delighted as these are one of those parts that are a pain to find in decent nick and all at once:

BARN FIND....

...those two words stir up a special emotion...those dreams or old fables of Vincent Black Lightening's find in a back shed in the highlands of Scotland (true story)..or scouring through the ads on ebay under Barn finds and you come across all sorts of "pain in the ass" projects...

18,10 tonight and I'm jumping on a train to head 40 minutes north to see a Barn Find..well, not really sure that's what you can call it...It's in a barn, but I've known about it's existence for a couple of years, when I was informed that the owner was selling a Swedish championship winning machine. Apparently a two stroke and ...that's about it..
..I'm guessing it's a Yamaha RD variant , but have no idea...could well be an RD350LC as well, as they raced them in the LC series..
Obviously, what you really want to find is a TZ 500/750 ....

Here is a BARN FIND TZ750....found in the USA...jealous? yes, very!

I'll be posting pictures and more info on the find tonight...

bag a bolts...

Some people which call me insane for buying a bag a bolts for 25 quid..but I'm been in that many situations to know that the best thing you can have when rebuilding a bike from the ground up, is a bag a bolts from the same model bike. The japanese have their fun with thread sizes and this will make life easier.. I can also see a few of those brackets that will be required. The exhaust manifolds won't come in handy, but saying that, you never really know..

So, next up , a great deal on a ZXRR front seat pad. Been looking around at prices and they range from  39-85 euros for a J version (presume it's the same), so was surprised when I saw one for only 13 euros.

Pikes Peak and the Peugeot 208 T16.....

Amazing piece of kit and obviously the 9 times world champion was having a good time going up the hill...

Sleipner still alive...

So there I was looking around the net having watched some BOTT racing from Japan from '96 and I came across two pictures of my old racing bike.
I sold the frame to the USA and the XR Sputhe to Germany. I don't regret this even though it was a large part of my life in the design and getting it built by Spondon Engineering in England.

This frame was the first ever built for the racing engine. It was XR style specific, so fitting an EVO engine isn't the way to go. We had frame kits for EVO engines made as well as the Sputhe XR was a rare beast.

Funny when you see your old road racer on the other side of the planet..

Wheels have been painted gold and for some reason the 320 ISR discs have been replaced by wave efforts. The 6 pot ISR's are still fitted as we were sponsored by ISR so got them made custom for us, the front wheel is a marvic made for an RC30, the white power forks are the same and most amusing is the oil catch can, which we made from an alloy spun water holder bottle.

All projects deserve a scribble black book

Tinkering...

As you'll all know, if you've read this blog, I've been tinkering with everything from Laverda Formula Mirages to building/designing my own Sputhe/spondon road racer after a couple of years working on the tractors we call Harleys...

So when this turned up, I had to copy and show. Knucklehead on the salts, must have a been a hoot to throw this down a dried lake!

Basketball? Bikes a cracker mind...

Okay, no idea which marketing dept. came up with the concept of throwing green paint over the arse and back of a model holding a basketball...if you can, answers on a post card sent to the usual address...
(quite bizarre the paint missed her hair..)

Anyway, awesome picture of a Screamer...( both perhaps?)

ZXRR project parts pickup

This is actually a very handy part which, together with the K shock I managed to pick up, the rocker and linkages and top bolt, finalizes the rear suspension set up . Only thing missing is obviously a swinging arm.

Great picture

Z1

When I was younger and driving around on my Honda 400/4, the bike that I always wanted was a Z1..A Z650 would have done it as well..
..anyway, as I was looking around the web I came across this beautiful example of a Z1, timeless classic !

The Owl .....

With the purchase of a new battery, it was finally time to go and see if I could get the Ow01 to turn over. This was always going to be an interesting experiment as I had rebuilt the engine without really understanding if everything was as it should be..so I thought, all in and fire on the starter hoping the ignition timing was gonna be sorted..

As the bike came without a street wiring harness...and as I was fortunate enough to pick one up for sweety money, it was always going to be a "fingers crossed" exercise..And no surprise...it didn't turn over..As you can by the film, I checked the starter relay as it says in the fzr1000 manual and she turned over! First time and sounding manic!

After looking through the entire harness and some serious head scratching..it finally came down to the obvious..open circuit...no side stand switch attached..so I coupled it up and boom! off the switch...
Now it's just to fill her up with petrol and water and ....

O K parts

Not often you see these up on the fleabay..
So, once I'd looked around at what else that was on offer and the costs, I decided to ensure I'd have a K set up on the project.
Having changed the rocker and linkage bars on BTA (the bike that was stolen), I still have the original K parts. So basically, now the check list is looking like:-

frame,rocker/linkages,shock holder,rear shock,Engine (on reserve),alloy tank, rear seat unit,subframe ,Race rear-sets,Full race Muzzy Exhaust.

So, getting there...tomorrow and it's a chat with the insurance company on how we can sort out the theft of BTA.

Parts finder...

...moving forwards..
One of those parts that people don't think about until you need one..without it you'll find it difficult to fit a shock absorber onto the frame without having extra hassle..

Check!

If your ever bored...

Simply mind numbing stats and engineering whenever NASA comes into the picture...

I must have some diagnose as I can watch Shuttle launches again and again...then start googling for some of the facts about the sound suppression water system..which apparently drops 900,000 gallons per minute or something daft..onto the launch pad to assist the acoustic waves produced by the launch...or the main engines helium purge..
...7 million pounds of thrust..
I mean, come on, if that isn't all frikken awesome what is!!!!
the more you research, the more the numbers get beyond outstanding!



NASA=RESPECT

"Discovery Houston, you are Go at Throttle Up!" 

meanwhile , back at the Ranch..

The work is finally coming to an end with the OW01.

The full race radiatorwas basically taken off and the original zxr set-up remounted as I wasn't getting anywhere fast with the YEC works radiator. I will be putting in more effort whilst it's off the bike.

A new battery was bought yesterday so it's finally time to see/hear what the Pete Beale breathed on OW engine does...if anything..

keeping in mind it's had a full rebuild without a manual, a full rewiring with a street wiring harness etc..It will be interesting indeed if she fires up at all...fingers crossed..

Found these pics meanwhile that are the paintjob I'd like to go with :)

The boring parts...but without them, epic fail!

So if you've been unlucky enough to have to have dropped a zxr engine as somebody bent your frame, you'll know how important the following parts are:-

Frame on the way doesn't have them, Engine on the way doesn't have them...
...bit like Willy Wonkas chocolate factory without the chocolate , if you have an engine, frame and...not the mounting bolts...
Thankfully, these were sourced this evening..

ZxRR jigsaw puzzle gets one more part...the central part!

The Zxrr rebuild project.

The one key ingredients to a Zxrr, compared to a J model, isn't simply an alloy tank and single seat hump.. If you've owned one you'll know what I'm talking about..It's the K engine, or as the Japs put it, "full power" engine..

So if there was going to be any big talk about a rebuild an engine with that infamous gearbox would have to be sourced..
I found 1..deep in the middle of Germany...no guarantee...but an RR and with a delivery cost that would frighten the milkman..and of course no FCR's...Regardless I knew that if I was to build a machine it would have to have the gearbox and lumpy cams of the K (same as the L I'm sure..) but at the same time if I wanted to race the bike and have it eligible for classic Superbikes, I'd rather do it with the correct model.

So, just as I was considering the costs of the German model, I came across a picture from a bike shop in Sweden that got me rather excited...

Of course, this could have been a J model with a seat hump off a K...the paint job seriously didn't help...it was advertised as a ZXR , broken in parts..keen eyes will notice the rear shock reservoir at the rear...
A quick call up north and right enough, it was being broken and there was nothing left except for an engine, missing the generator, starter motor and of course FCR's..

Deposit down and a pick up date in the future..

Deal!!

Project ZXRR is now moving forwards with the meat on the bone of the soup...

Zxr750R stolen for the second time.....

Couldn't believe it would happen a second time...

After the first time I received the bike back in a body-bag and it took a long time, and a lot of effort, to try and replace all the parts that were smashed by the first thief...

So after months of looking for Unicorn crap, in the shape of zxrr plastic and alloy tanks, clocks and all the rest, and having set up 6 pots with titanium bolts...

...the fucking bike was stolen from an underground garage which had to be vandalised to get her out..

ironically...I had just bought 4 litres of oil, a new set of clutch plates and a gasket for the change...still sitting in the house..None of this time comes under insurance policies and I'm just awaiting the slap in the mouth figure from my insurance company whom I hope will have a heart slightly warmer than the south pole...

It's been three weeks now and I'm still gutted about it..so, I looked at the scrappy parts left over from the first theft and decided I'd start on rebuilding another bike...

Currently the check list had a few dainty parts to be getting on with:-
Frame, racing rear-sets, Muzzy works exhaust, alloy tank, rear seat unit (both scrappy), front calipers..and..thats it.

So, the key parts to ensure it's an RR again are the hard to source parts:
zxrr engine for the close ratio box
Fcr carbs...a must have
Zxrr Front forks
Zxrr rear subframe

I went out on the net and decided I simply had to find a subframe as I have a frame already.
Looking around I realised this wasn't going to be an easy task. Initially I managed to buy an M rear subframe which I thought would be the same...fortunately the German salesman cancelled the ebay transaction and I could breathe again.
So off I went into the small wee hours onto the cyber bay looking for anything to do with zxr..and there it was, in a shop in California..a subframe advertised simply as "subframe-ZXR" and nothing else..I saw directly that this was indeed a K model subframe as it had the front seat pad lifter fitted..
Initially the classic shipping calculator had been eating shrooms all day and listed a shipping cost of 175 dollars, which was more than the cost of the subframe.. A few mails later and I came to an agreement on shipping and costs, and so Project ZXRR is now officially on the move, with a subframe currently on the way over from sunny California.

A few hours later in the cyber and I'd sourced more of the key ingredients..more on that later though..