Vaughns zxr

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The whole point in buying the zxr in the first place was to enjoy riding a more powerful bike than a 125
Not to spend all my time in the garage making it rideable

unfortunately a ~25 year old bike is never gonna be a "rev and go" bike that will just keep on going regardless, its not a modern car, things will go wrong.

it cost me a lot of money to get mine initially right, but now that thats done it just needs its regular maintenance and new bits every now and then - remember the electrics have been sat next to all the hot bits of your bike being slowly cooked for the best part of two decades of abuse...things will fail, and if its got high mileage (like mine had) then they will fail more often and in larger/more costly amounts.

if you always buy a road bike to change it into something better, your gonna have a bad time. save your cash and buy something more modern, it WILL be faster, it WILL be lighter and it WILL all work.

i bought mine as it was cheap insurance/tax, i will sell it next year at some point and buy a more modern 600 as my commuter.

[Vaughn]

Yeah that's a fair point. It's just so disheartening, if I knew then what I know now I probably would have bought a new bike in the first place.
Gonna ring up kawasaki at lunch and try get finance
I'll most likely keep the 400 either for a project or a track bike.
Looked at second hand bikes and you can get a mint gsxr for between £1000-2000 but then you don't really know what your buying, could end up in the same position I'm in now, after all the 400 ran mint when I got it, it wasn't till I tightened the plugs up the problems emerged
Sad times

[cargo]

Yeah that's a fair point. It's just so disheartening, if I knew then what I know now I probably would have bought a new bike in the first place.
Gonna ring up kawasaki at lunch and try get finance
I'll most likely keep the 400 either for a project or a track bike.
Looked at second hand bikes and you can get a mint gsxr for between £1000-2000 but then you don't really know what your buying, could end up in the same position I'm in now, after all the 400 ran mint when I got it, it wasn't till I tightened the plugs up the problems emerged
Sad times

Your bike ran mint till you tightened the plugs ?

Seems to me that every problem you had is entirely of you own making or am I missing something

[Vaughn]

Your bike ran mint till you tightened the plugs ?

Seems to me that every problem you had is entirely of you own making or am I missing something

Yeah you have missed the point a bit
When I bought the bike it ran mint, I bought a set of plugs and when I got round to fitting them I found the old plugs were finger tight, I guess it was either to lean it out or lower compression, I put the new plugs in and torqued them down and that was when the problems began.

It caused a major misfire and the bike run rich, I started trying to find the problem and realised the timing was out so went about correcting that at which point I found some major scoring to the cams and cam journals. Managed to find a cheap engine and took a gamble on fitting it only to find that needs work doing.
I was gonna strip and rebuild the old engine and fit the new head and cams but after pricing up how much I've already spent and how much I need to spend I've come to realise it's just not worth it.
So yes in a way it was my fault for trying to keep the bike maintained and in a roadworthy condition, wish I never bothered now, but if I had continued to ride it in the condition it was in it was more of a danger than anything else

I've been accepted for finance on a brand new er-6f so might go for that and turn the 400 into a track bike at least then I can get some pleasure from it.
Either that or break it and sell the parts

[Vaughn]

I think I'm gonna keep her
Just got back from a blast around some local roads and loved every minute of it, what a bike I feel like I am starting to learn how to ride it.
I have been using her for the last few days and touch wood the battery has been fine but no doubt it's due to die again but to hell with it this is too much fun.
It does make a hell of a noise, thinking I might swap the clutch basket over from the other engine and see if it helps.

Normally I just cruise everywhere because of the amount of cars on the road but tonight there wasn't a car in sight so managed to open her up a little bit on some 50 limits.
Got onto a nice roundabout and got as far cranked over as I felt comfortable and kept the power on a little bit to keep the revs up, started to leave the exit opened the throttle and bam off she went like a rocket playing sweet music for my ears, the front wheel started to go light as she was pulling like a train got up to 60 in no time. What an amazing feeling, I got home and nearly went for another lap, I love this bike but it's in need of some serious tlc, I really don't think I should be riding it really either.

I'm still tempted to get the er-6f because I get 4 years warranty so shouldn't have any worries, it'll be paid off in 2 years and I'll have a bike I can ride straight away and should be reliable for the whole time I need it, meanwhile the 400 can come off the road for a proper rebuild, I can take as long as I need then and not be in a rush to get it back on the road

It's just doing my head in having a full licence and riding around on a crappy 125, which is also showing signs that it might die on me, there's a knocking noise that sounds like it's coming from the crank, my front brake still doesn't work and it feels like it's loosing power and s and splutters a lot more these days. She's in need of some tlc as well but it's hard trying to share all my loving between Leah (aprilia), Cheryl (400) and my misses, one of thems got to go, lol only joking not really I love them all too much.

Roll on Saturday when I get the er-6f for the day thanks to the kind folks at Bournemouth kawasaki, actually come to think of it the demo bike is a er-6n, it's the same bike but without the fairings I'll be riding

[ross46]

Sounds like a plan, guy I used to work for had a ducati 749s, beautiful bike, took mine out for a ride and came back with a smile on his face. He used to own a gsxr 400 before getting loads of others including a tlr1000 but he came back and said he forgot howuch fun the little bikes were

[Vaughn]

Oh they are great fun, been having a right blast over the last few days, the journey home from work takes about 5 minutes on my 125, on the 400 it takes about 20 minutes.
Not cos the 400's slow oh no, because it's so much fun and I end up riding straight past the end of my road and going on a little mission.

Well I've also been tempted to get a zx636.
I rang the insurance people today to get a quote for both bikes.
Unfortunately they won't insure me with the 636 so that's blown that out of the water, she said it's like buying a scooby for your first car lol.
The er-6f which is a 650 so a tad bigger engine will cost me an extra £250 to put on my policy but that's if I take the 400 off.
Obviously it won't produce as much power as the 636 at 96.4kw but on the other hand it is just a little bit more powerful than the 400
Er-6f 2013- 53kw
Zxr 400 h1- 45.6kw
Hopefully it'll be a good bike to learn on and it's not going to have too much power either, as long as it's got bag loads of acceleration I'll be happy, not fussed about top speed, not even had a top speed out of my 125 so 130 mph is overkill, might even slap a bigger back sprocket on there and an akropovic although the bike doesn't sound that great from what I've seen so far, sounds a bit like a tractor but I guess that's what you get with a 2 cylinder bike lol

[ross46]

Er-6f will be a lazy bike, loads of torque, just sit in top gear and pull the throttle and it will go, none of the constantly searching for a gear like on an IL4

[Vaughn]

Yeah my aprilia is like that as well, you've got to be in the right gear before you try accelerate or it starts shuddering and spluttering, nightmare sometimes pulling into traffic and things, even if I roll off the throttle for a second I have to knock it down a cog before I give it any throttle lol

[KwakKwak]

Well I've also been tempted to get a zx636.
I rang the insurance people today to get a quote for both bikes.
Unfortunately they won't insure me with the 636 so that's blown that out of the water, she said it's like buying a scooby for your first car lol.

636 earmarked as my next purchase, tempted by a ZXR750, but three old bikes, nah. I will keep the 400, fun fun fun.
As for insuring, I insure Scoobies all the time, so I'm sorted

636 would appear to be rather brilliant.

Btw dealer over here is selling a new unregistered 2011 ER6N for £4699, 2012 for £5499.

[Vaughn]

Yeah I was looking at the 636 in the dealership, lovely bike would love to have one.
Maybe in a couple of years time ill trade in the er6 for one.

Got quite a good deal really. Cost £6500 but I got a tinted double bubble screen, tank protector and datatag chucked in with the deal.
Also comes with a full tank of fuel.
What a great little bike though, was so easy to ride and loads of fun.
He even said if I get a tail tidy and exhaust system they will fit them for free when it's in for servicing

Gonna break the 400 and sell all the parts on here if anyone's interested, I'll make a post in the for sale section

[Vaughn]

Done an er6 conversion on my 400

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Had her for exactly a week and have loved every minute of it, so much easier to ride than my 400 and nearly as much fun, running it in at the moment so driving around like a grandad can't wait till I can start opening her up a bit

[KwakKwak]

Looks good mate, nice pic beside the water too, you old romantic

Enjoy.

[ross46]

Next will be a picture of them kissing by the seaside or walking of holding hands into the sunset...

[KwakKwak]

Two can play at that game matey boy, quick 50 miler today along the coast, revs out to 14,500 without missiing a beat, oh such fun.
Romance is defo in the air.

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