Kawasaki ZZR1100 Project - the big one
Have I bitten off more than I can chew with this one? This monstorous 1059cc 130bhp superbike was a snap at £900 with front-end damage. No harm to the frame or engine, which sounds superb.
Stripped everything off. Top fairing is in several bits, headlight is smashed, right fairing very messy, left OK, mudguard in many pieces. Brake disks bent, slight ding on the wheel, right fork tube terminally bent, but left tube and yolks still spot on happily. Radiator bashed but not leaking, gear lever broken, battery dead.
Fortunately the wonder of Ebay and friendly folk on http://www.bigbikeworld.com have provided me with C-model wheel, disks, forks and battery for under £200. That just leaves the top fairing and mudguard (knackered) and side fairing (scratched) to replace / fixed and it will be back on the road and worth around £2000.
One minor set back is that Kawasaki have used a painting technique called Candying that is almost impossible and very expensive to reproduce, so respraying parts is not really an option. ZZR plastics are rarer than an Ann Robinson compliment so I'm going to have to be very patient. Not easy, I have just read a full page article in Bike about the ZZR, how brilliant it still is and more to the point how plain fast.
UPDATE: After waiting an incredible 4 weeks for an useless ebayer (who shall remain nameless) to send me the C model wheel and disks I had paid for, they finally turned up. And were crap. The wheel was painted blue, badly chipped, and the disks were thick with rust. A battery bought from another ebay was also destroyed in the post as he hadn't sealed the top or kept it upright as I'd asked.
While waiting I had replaced the fork seals, but seeing the state of the wheel I decided abandon my plans to put a cheap C model front end onto the bike, and switch back to the D model wheel and forks lowers, using the tubes from the spare C forks and the shit brake disks as a temporary measure, I'm getting very quick at stripping ZZR forks now!
I pieced the top fairing back together and in a single long day installed it with the new headlight, ram air, forks, disks, wheel, screen, and fairing bits and bobs. All went well until it came to fit the fairing lowers, which err.. didn't. Shit, I though, the frame's bent. But no, it seems not, the fairings are just rather more mangled than they appear.
First ride
No insurance, wrong brake disks and fairings held on with zip ties and gaffa, but the project ZZR 1100 is in one piece so took it out for my first ride!
It's a big heavy beast, takes all my oomph to get it off the centre stand. It's wide at the back -- I keep scraping the cans on the door frame -- and it's a long stretch to the bars, arms are almost straight. Pegs are quite high but not set back. There's little support behind, giving a strange sensation of being about to fall off the back all the time.
Took it very carefully at first as brake disks are too small and covered in rust, but after a bit of use they started to bite. Soon I was able to get the front Bridgestone 020 chirping and squeeking, though oddly the ZZR doesn't feel like it's stopping as fast as the Cat, probably the extra weight and lack of fork dive.
Engine and gears are totally different from my Thundercat. 1st is even taller, 2nd is almost too high to use in town but then again, you get smooth power right from 2000rpm. In top it cruises at less than 5000 rpm at 80! What 4th and 5th gear are for I'm not sure.
Mmm power, loads of it. It builds and builds from 2500rpm and before you know it it's you're at the 10500 redline, no sudden powerbands, no raucous noise, if it wasn't for the feeling of someone pulling you off the back, and the speedo, you'd say it wasn't that fast. But it bloody is. I still haven't opened it up all the way in first or second, so I've got that to look foward to.
Gear box light and accurate, a joy to use even with an old bolt in place of the toe lever.
Suspension is firm but works really well, lovely smooth ride, takes bumps of all sizes beautifully (good because the adjuster's jammed!).
Steering is not as slow or heavy as I expected, turns in nicely but sometimes feels like it wants to stand up or run wide a little in corners. A gently rising throttle seems to sort it. Probably due to having the wrong fork tubes fitted - the C model tubes are 8mm longer and you can't drop the forks through the yolks sadly.
What this bike seems to be really good at is going quickly with little effort. 70 feels like 30, engine just ticking over, little noise and good wind protection. No vibes anywhere. There's power from any revs. Would probably barely notice a pillion. I think this will be a quality tourer.
Working on this bike I have been really impressed with the attention to detail and build quality, far better than any previous bike I have had. I suppose it was a 'luxury' model when new.
Things like; a proper fuel gauge, grease nipples on all the suspension bearings (if you've ever overhauled a Thundercat's back end you'll know why I mention this). Well-made, properly adjustable, properly painted mirrors that actually show you what's behind you. Twin horn that actually makes some noise. Beautiful (and very expensive to copy) paintwork. All fastners rustproof. Built in indicators that don't look like and afterthought. Oh and a hydraulic clutch, lovely.
Bad bits: despite the huge rear end there's barely any space under the seat. Battery is hard to get to. The riding position will take some getting used to, while riding I felt like I was getting backache but as soon as I stopped it went away. Brakes will hopefully improve with the correct disks. Seems to generate a lot of heat. And it's not as scary or exciting to ride as I hoped -- at least not while behaving myself!
Theo
Part II to follow -- probably from a ditch somewhere in Austria