While the strip off has begun by drilling the seat lock (see picture), there are some good and bad news already. Let's start with the good ones : the bike comes with a couple of welcome options such as the genuine 5.5" rear rim that can be mounted with a 180 rear tire or the straight pipes that replace the huge standard emission box. It not only removes weight, it also brings a tasty rattling noise. I had one like that on my 98 and the engine felt rather ... liberated.
Now for the bad ... As I was stripping the bike off of its seat unit panels, I found whole seat unit was strangely moving from up and downwards like something was losely tightened. Then I noticed the oddly wide distance between the front of the saddle and the tank fairing. That wasn't suppose to look like that. Looking underneath the rear unit gave an immediate answer to what is wrong ...The frame happens to be cracked. Damn ! Not really what I had expected as a start. I'm only owning the bike for 3 days and already having serious problems. Wandering the internet to see what others said about this, the frame's disease appears to be fairly common : the back of the frame has 4 tiny casted ears to support the subframe mounts. The problem mostly comes from the fact that the subframe is pretty long and has to support a lot of weight on its far end (the exhaust canisters hang there). Having said that, the casted ears look a bit weak.
So I guess I'm gonna be heading to the welder pretty soon to have those ears TIGged back on the frame.
5 engines, 2 electrics ... which one is taking more rounds ?
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