Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Stripping a fatty

The stripping process has begun last week. As always with this sort of operation, it may bring its own kind of nice surprises and disappointing finds. One rarely come without the other and there's no reason a 15 year-old green panzer would make an exception to the rule, as clean as it may look.

So off goes the fairing. The engine looks clean, so is the radiator. Unfortunately, the reason to this is that the latter has been repainted. So has the frame in order to cover what looks like a nasty solvent damage.


Right side, no real fuss. The cooler still looks too clean, but the rest is aged reasonably, down pipes included, and period related.


Up front, with air intake covers removed, the cowl shows a cracked light mount. It's worse than I imagined while still being fixable. It's not in the priority list anyway.




Finally, I found a way to shave some weight out of this old fatty. There's at least 1kg of rust packed in the tool set.



Front wheel shows signs of leaking fork seals.


Sunday, December 22, 2013

Jake Holden's ZRX1224R Pikes Peak racer for sale !

Check this ad if you're after a neat bike. Real Pikes Peak contender and not one of the slowest !


Saturday, December 14, 2013

Honda NR750

Came across these clean pics of the super rare 8-valved oval-pistoned Honda NR750. Enjoy !










Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Leaky front end

Among other thingies here and there when buying project Green Panzer, there was a leaking fork seal on the right leg. It wasn't that bad at the time of pushing the bike on the trailer in order to bring it home. But now that is sits on the bench, there's a big oily spot growing right under the brake caliper and I noticed the left inner tube was starting to feel greasy as well.


The front end needs a full rebuild anyway. And as later posts will show it's only just the beginning of other nastier finds. Hey, it's a 15 year-old fatty after all ...

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Think Motorworks

There was the photo below attached to the last Motorworks promotional email.


If you're into a BMW project, especially into a airhead one, their huge stock and precise knowledge might come handy at some point. They were to me several times already, even though the project is an oilhead. Motorwoks would also be a useful address if you own a hexheads as they offer a full range accessories for recent flats.

Monday, December 2, 2013

The 2 scales trick

Weight is a sensitive topic when working on a ZX7R. There are loads of forum threads around the web quoting dozens of ways to address the heaviness issue with solutions ranging from "buy another bike" to "put yourself on a diet". Now there are some really interesting posts about how to really shave a couple of pounds out of a ZX7R, but you have to know where you're actually starting from.

I knew too much about the bike's real weight before buying, but I'm seeing this as challenging and am pretty sure there's potential to make this green Panzer tank behave. So to size up progress, I bought these 2 mechanical scales last week.


Then the work began. I put the ZXR on the bench, then on paddock stands to have both wheels raised enough from the ground to be able to slide the scales underneath.



With the scales positioned, it was time to measure out which, being alone, turned out to be a tricky operation. I had to lower down the front, then the back while trying to keep the bike up straight but my own weight away. Next time, I'll opt for a simple solution.

Time for the real figures now. The scales measured the bike's weight distribution as being settled this way :
- 112kg rear
- 107kg front
And that's being without a battery and with a drained fuel tank. So with a additional 4kg battery the ZX7R sets a new record high of 223kg. There's room for improvement so let's start the diet plan.