Relatively new rider, recently upgraded to a zxr400

[Danman109]

Hi everyone,

as said in the title iv recently aquired a 2001 zxr400 L9 love it to bits! however, less than 24hours after owning it iv discovered two small pin holes in the exhaust (right in the middle of where they converge) which i believe will result in needing a new system from the headers to the MTC slip-on which i am keen to keep also it needs a drop of oil (if someone knows what oil to put in that would be appreciated ) other minor things it needs are things like a new rear disk. If anyone has spares or knows where i can get some of these things (i am on a tight budget) then it would be appreciated

The future project for this bike is to put a metallic blue k-conversion fairing kit on and to re-spray the wheels gold.. however im sure everyone knows that it costs a small fortune and i am happy with the way the bike looks as it is!

About me!

Iv been riding since august 2010, previously i owned a Yamaha r125 2008 in the limited edition yellow which i loved and kept in pristine condition i bought it at 9k miles and have put 6thousand on it since then, (a 300mile road trip on 'L' plates and A roads included) I brought it down twice, the first being 5miles after buying it, i succumbed to target fixation (£300 worth of plastics damage which i fixed up myself) and the second was the first day the salt went down this winter, i didnt realise how slippery it was and the rear wheel span up while exiting a T junction which left me and the bike sprawled across a main road :/ since then i continued to ride the bike everywhere, including in the snow when the cagers were abandoning their cars!

I have my own Youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/motorius67 in which i post videos, with no real reason other than creative fun, so feel free to check me out, videos of the ZXR will appear in due course!

for those left reading.. thanks and Hi




Edited by CaNsA
Reason : Removed bold tags to make for easier reading.

[Daniel.p]

hello!!! nics vid's buddy just had a look at your channel, with regards to the oil you'll be needing sae 10w - 40 get some pictures up asap

[cargo]

synthetic or semi syn ?

[Danman109]

Thanks for the reply! after doing some looking around the forum it seems semi synth is the road effective oil, and fully synth is recommended for racing use, however i doubt il be doing any of that... not untill the summer with a fresh set of rubber anyway pictures and videos will be happening throughout.. im a bit peeved about the exhaust.. it sounds bloody fantastic!! but it needs sorting, looks like iv located a rear brake disk on ebay for £20... so far so good.. now to sort out the soft and spongey front brakes eh? having only had the bike for 24hours im finding more and more to do with so little time and money!

[Daniel.p]

same with me really, bought an l3 for £1000 so far my sump bolt leaks oil, new cam chain -£400 -.- new front disks, new loom, set of chain and sprockets new front tyre and i crashed it after 7 days! so its a forever running project but other than that the bike is amazing + i love doing odd jobs on my bike learn new stuff all the time

[gavinfdavies]

I got mine (L5) off a racer, £1,400 with 32k on the clock. It wasn't his main bike but I recon it's been raced before. The upside of that is it had actually been well looked after mechanically, and so far has needed nothing more than oil, filter, new tyres, and some new flush indicators. That said, 7k down the road it does need valves/shims doings, a missing o-ring replacing, new chain and srockets with scottoiler, and maybe a few fairing fasteners (zip ties work well but are a tad chip shop).

If you use the bike all the time you might want to upgrade to heated grips and a small back box. I've done walk throughs on them, well worth it. Infact since I did the back box mod I think I've only gone out twice without it - one to the pub for a meet, and once round mallory park, and even then I took it with me and took it off when I arrived!

Good luck with all the spares, if you want new pipes and want something fancy try contacting the moriman, here's around here most days. He lives in Japan and can get you anything!

[Tirpitz]

Hi and welcome to our world!

If the rest of the exhaust seems sound (if you have a poke about with a screwdriver you'll soon know) why don't you take it to a garage which does welding and have the pin holes welded up? Gotta be the cheap way to sort it. If the rest of it is rotten then you might as well put the money towards a replacement now.

Regarding the spongy front brake you might want to check out this thread viewtopic.php?f=121&t=12226 which details my ongoing fun and games. Has it got the original brake lies on? If so they're probably shagged and you might as well upgrade to set of braided replacements. Easy job to do - except the bleeding. My experience suggests you're going to need a vacuum bleeder, £30 - £40 off Ebay unless you can borrow one. Or you could give the whole lot to a dealer to fit for you - depends how keen you are to do your own stuff.

I've only ever used synthetic oil in mine from new. It's a small, highly stressed engine with high compression and high revs, so I reckon it's worth the extra pennies in the added life it will give the engine. I've always used Silkolene, and am currently using Comp4. It always comes back out pretty clean so I think it's good stuff - and 2nd hand it makes an excellent creosote substitute for the shed and fence posts

Keep us posted and lets have some pics.

[Danman109]

I got mine (L5) off a racer, £1,400 with 32k on the clock. It wasn't his main bike but I recon it's been raced before. The upside of that is it had actually been well looked after mechanically, and so far has needed nothing more than oil, filter, new tyres, and some new flush indicators. That said, 7k down the road it does need valves/shims doings, a missing o-ring replacing, new chain and srockets with scottoiler, and maybe a few fairing fasteners (zip ties work well but are a tad chip shop).

If you use the bike all the time you might want to upgrade to heated grips and a small back box. I've done walk throughs on them, well worth it. Infact since I did the back box mod I think I've only gone out twice without it - one to the pub for a meet, and once round mallory park, and even then I took it with me and took it off when I arrived!

Good luck with all the spares, if you want new pipes and want something fancy try contacting the moriman, here's around here most days. He lives in Japan and can get you anything!

Thanks yeah i'l send him a message im only really after the downpipes the MTC exhaust sounds gorgeous on it but if the price is right it would be a crazy opportunity to miss out on! iv dealt with the cold pretty well so far, so im going to give the heated grips a miss untill maybe next year, im curious as to what you mean about the black box? it has a datatool system 3 alarm on it and iv thrown on my old oxford boss alarmed shackle lock for good measure, i have a cheap abus disk lock too if i feel particularly paranoid (haloween, saturday nights.. that sort of thing) I really cant wait to give her a good clean and find out what's what, i'l need new exhaust gaskets too? (iv never really done any mechanical work on anything before)

[CaNsA]

Where do you live mate? Im just round the corner from MTC and i know they offer a lifetime guarantee on cans, not too sure on pipes though.

Got pics of the area that is buggered?

Oh and you are right, i had an mtc on mine. Sounded awesome. I had to keep the baffle in cos it was faaaaar to loud and gave me headache after a while LOL

[Danman109]

Where do you live mate? Im just round the corner from MTC and i know they offer a lifetime guarantee on cans, not too sure on pipes though.

Got pics of the area that is buggered?

Oh and you are right, i had an mtc on mine. Sounded awesome. I had to keep the baffle in cos it was faaaaar to loud and gave me headache after a while LOL

Just north of London, the holes are where the downpipes converge, right in the middle of the gap in the belly pan the can itself is fine, when it's light il try and get some pics but il need a hand working out how to upload them, il take a pic of the rear shock too as i suspect that's not in good shape (all rusty) other than that, short term i plan on plugging (or atleast making it much, much smaller) the hole for the brake light cable as it seems to let in spray and muck and rubbish which is corroding everything inside the compartment underneath the passenger seat alot of the bike could do with a dip in the Anti-rust stuff, then sprayed with light oil if you ask me.

p.s. i think i have the baffle in.. is it MOT'able without the baffle?

[CaNsA]

u will need the baffle for a mot mate.

I have a shock here, needs a clean and done about 10k miles. Another guy on here asked me about it, juat waiting to hear if he wants it.

[gavinfdavies]

I meant 'back box'!

viewtopic.php?f=162&t=12007

[Danman109]

I meant 'back box'!

viewtopic.php?f=162&t=12007

HAHA, oops sorry... *embarrased face* serves me right for not reading it properly! il check that out